Monarch butterfly

Good morning.

I'm just calling to tell you, I'm having a very, very, very, very bad year with Monarchs this year.

Uh-oh,

uh-oh.

Looking forward to all of that.

Also, not sure if you've noticed too over the course of the summer, Monarch Butterflies.

Everywhere.

Everywhere, right? They're making a comeback, which is super interesting.

They are striking.

They're known for migrating thousands of kilometers, and they're an iconic part of a Canadian summer.

Well, now people across the country say they're seeing more endangered monarch butterflies than usual this year.

The population in North America has been decreasing for years.

Monarch Day on Saturday.

We can bring back Fireball for the Monarchs.

Think of how you flap your wings to this song.

Oh, I love it.

There are over 2,000 species of fireflies globally, making them undoubtedly the most culturally appreciated bioluminescent group.

Monarchs are the only butterfly known to make a two-way migration like birds do.

Each year, a special generation of monarchs, called the supergeneration, flies up to nearly 3,000 miles from the northern United States and southern Canada down to the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico.

The distance is almost incomprehensible when you consider that a monarch weighs less than a single gram.

Summer generations of monarchs live only two to six weeks as adults, but the migrating generation can live for up to nine months.

So monarchs that migrate north in spring breed and pass away long before their descendants are ready to migrate south again.

None of the Monarchs on the Fall migration path have ever been to their destination before.

Yet they know exactly where to go.

song.

I see the moon The moon sees me The moon sees the sun But he had like to see God made the moon But my mama made me So if I'm made of moon and mother I must be tough enough for lovin' Even though I know Loving means my loves will leave I don't want to think about Stepping back into your empty house Packing up all your colored glass How the floorboards sang goodbye I only want to focus on You coming back here as a song Teaching my daughter to find you Where the branches brush the sky I see the moon The moon sees me The moon sees the sun But he had like to see God made But my mama made me So if I made a moon and mother I must be tough enough for lovin' Even though I know lovin' means my love's worth Tomato flower, heavy fruit Thunder cloud and poplar shoot Monarchs in the milkweed And a child's feet down the hall I'll wear the name of Mama now And although it weighs a thousand pounds I think she scattered her seeds here Cause she knew I could grow them all I see the moon The moon sees me The moon sees that somebody I'd like to see God made the moon, but my mother made me.

So if I made a moon and mother, I must be tough enough for loving.

I must be, I must be.

Smith Family Plaza by the Pottstown Borough Hall.

Lois Vidark brings her unique and incredible butterfly display to the area from 9 to noon.

Lois will be releasing Tagged Monarchs at 11.30 a.m. And our good friend Ron Rye, the butterfly guy, will be there too.

He'll have some copies of his new book.

So that's today, 9 to noon, at the Smith Family Plaza by the Pottstown Borough Hall.

Oh, I'm all right.

I didn't get to listen to the last hour of your show last week, but I listened to it on Sunday.

And I want to thank Tina and Tom for the wonderful job that they're doing for the Monarchs.

Fish and Wildlife Service's Habitat Partner Program.

And I'm sure you're familiar with them, but for those that aren't, they basically use federal funds to help folks do habitat work on private land with the idea being behind it that it that what you do there is good for wildlife on a greater scale, right? So even though you're not doing it on public land, if I make habitat that's better for monarch butterflies, that'll increase monarch butterfly habitat just across them.

um, you know, across the country and hopefully we'll have more Monarchs, you know, across the country.

So anyways, uh, they came and looked at it and said, oh man, what you guys have done here would be perfect for an Oak Savannah restoration project.

And, um, I don't even know where I had even heard of Oak Savannah the first time, but when I heard that, I was like, oh yeah, that sounds great.

... where they, like, had caterpillars that, like, pupated, and they, you know, let them go and stuff.

So monarch butterflies, their scientific name is Danaus plexippus, and they are kind of a, like a medium to larger-sized butterfly.

Their wingspan is up to four inches.

You wouldn't miss one if it flew right by you.