A GIFT FOR YOU: THANKSGIVING BUTTERFLIES!! (BUTTERFLY PHOTO BLOG)

Hi Everybody!!
Humans are not the only ones heading Home for the Holidays!  Butterflies also make an incredible journey every fall to their Homeland. This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving with the Butterflies! The Butterflies have had a very difficult year and we lost so many. For those of You who do not know about this great migration, I shared information below to get You started in this unique study! You can follow the migration from anywhere in the World!

Your photostudy tonight is a few of the butterflies I captured in the last week. Texas is their last stop before taking off to Mexico! I made You a holiday gift: a Butterfly Slide Show to the music of Celine Dion. Enjoy!

Do Butterflies Migrate? 
Where Do They Go?
http://www.thebutterflysite.com/butterfly-migration.shtml
Have you heard of the Monarch butterfly migration? Well, other butterflies migrate too! There are many other species of butterflies that also migrate.  For example, the Painted Lady, Common Buckeye, American Lady, Red Admiral, Cloudless Sulphur, Skipper, Sachem, Question Mark, Clouded Skipper, Fiery Skipper and Mourning Cloak are all butterflies that migrate as well. 

There are different reasons why butterflies will migrate toward other places. Did you know that all butterflies are cold-blooded creatures? They simply can not handle the colder weather so have to travel somewhere warmer. They also need to stay where their food source is – if it’s winter and there are no flowers, they can not stay there.  

If weather changing is not a problem, like for the butterflies in the tropics, butterflies will often migrate away in order to establish new colonies. The reason for this is that if they stay in one place for too long, the butterfly caterpillars will consume all of their food in that one area, and so the butterflies will starve to death. So migrating to new places will ensure their survival and their food source.  

Monarch butterflies are not able to survive the cold winters of most of the United States so they migrate south and west each autumn to escape the cold weather. The monarch migration usually starts in about October of each year, but can start earlier if the weather turns cold sooner than that. 

The monarch butterflies will spend their winter hibernation in Mexico and some parts of Southern California where it is warm all year long. If the monarch lives in the Eastern states, usually east of the Rocky Mountains, it will migrate to Mexico and hibernate in oyamel fir trees. If the monarch butterfly lives west of the Rocky Mountains, then it will hibernate in and around Pacific Grove, California in eucalyptus trees. Monarch butterflies use the very same trees each and every year when they migrate, which seems odd because they aren’t the same butterflies that were there last year. These are the new fourth generation of monarch butterflies, so how do they know which trees are the right ones to hibernate in? Monarch butterflies are the only insect that migrates to a warmer climate that is 2,500 miles away each year. 

Monarch Butterflies Migrate Each Fall and Like To Hibernate In
Certain Trees In Groups

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FEATURE PRESENTATION
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Amazing Journeys: 

Monarch Butterflies - 

Mexico

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG5PAzrpZ6k

Uploaded by DocumentalesMexico on Jul 18, 2009

Amazing Journeys - Mexico: Monarch Butterflies

Experience some of nature's most incredible spectacles as millions of creatures undertake extraordinary journeys of survival. Enter a golden blizzard as tens of millions of monarch butterflies fill the sky in the hidden highlands of Mexico.

...this is brendasue signing off from Rainbow Creek.  See You next time!
Happy Turkey Day!!!!

Of Course, one more great performance!  (by: ME!)

Butterflies for Thanksgiving 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViOW8CEQTJ8

Published on Nov 21, 2012 by Brendasue Watson

A Butterfly Slide Show to Remind us All how Thankful we are to experience Life.
Peace and love to everybody.
Music by Celine Dion: My Heart Will Go On

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.monarchwatch.org/grafx/tagmig/fall.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/fallmap.htm&h=394&w=500&sz=40&tbnid=1-tNkvj2vMrfRM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=128&zoom=1&usg=__3m46NT84DnKWy0i2JMX5jS8jUSI=&docid=OPTDPI58ZPEQRM&sa=X&ei=ULytUODwG8SmqgHVjYDwCg&ved=0CH8Q9QEwCg&dur=12374

http://www.google.com/imgres?start=198&hl=en&newwindow=1&client=gmail&sa=X&tbo=d&rls=gm&biw=1027&bih=660&tbm=isch&tbnid=ckSgqKy4lTXqYM:&imgrefurl=http://www.arkinspace.com/2011/07/monarch-migration-staggering-spectacle.html&docid=HvoDUI3Kn5AO8M&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNMyKXGJ2IlTwn_5tDx6ex5AKz5dW3ra1bnLcAJxrfbUWD5hgTIt7oTrk3CS7OR7hXAQXRIYVBKYUz8uGsf7ygaW44ArF00DTeQj5DSyvBVupOB7gOG3hr1IIYL9ElnfT35iRnCjVBrRl/s640/monarch%252Bbutterfly%252Bmigration%252B14.jpg&w=640&h=427&ei=ScGtUPbbKrC_2QXn84EI&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=584&vpy=160&dur=3408&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=156&ty=100&sig=105036134252299360093&page=10&tbnh=142&tbnw=213&ndsp=26&ved=1t:429,r:11,s:200,i:37

http://www.thebutterflysite.com/butterfly-migration.shtml
O+O