Butterfly migration

In 2018 I joined a small group on inaturalist tracking the migration of butterflies, and I was pretty excited when in 2020 another group from inaturalist asked if they could add my butterfly photos to the inaturalist butterfly migration map. We have a large open meadow off of our backyard, and it attracts so many butterflies, so for 11 years I’ve sat back there and taken so many butterfly photos, and when I discovered inaturalist I started uploading and tracking them, it has made me sad to see that butterflies are in decline. This year there were far less then previous years, and I’ve definitely noticed fewer varieties visiting then when I first started taking photos and tracking.

I really feel like we value aesthetics far too much in society. When it comes to outdoor spaces plants are mowed and sprayed for aesthetics and it kills things that butterflies and bees need to survive, things like dandelion are often the first flowers to bloom and the first food for pollinators, sprays are toxic to so many creatures and spray also kills vital food sources. I understand wanting a yard to look nice, but we need to allow for a little more wild untouched growth for later into spring, before mowing let the dandions grow, wait to mow until other flowers start blooming. Also remember when you visit the garden centre in spring check to see if the plants you want to purchase are safe for the environment, many garden centres sell invasive species, some of the invasive species are aesthetically beautiful but they over take native plants and can devastate native environments, keep to plants that are safe, do your homework. . We often talk about animals becoming extinct and it is sad, but the reduction of insects like fireflies, bees and butterflies not only sad but potentially devastating, I can’t imagine a world where these things are rare or gone, their disappearance would devastate nature and food sources for humans.

Sometimes as humans we can get distracted and value all the wrong things, nature is a gift, it’s a gift that we are also a part of, we are part of nature and when nature suffers so do we.

We are all interconnected, people, animals, our environment. When nature suffers, we suffer. And when nature flourishes we all flourish.

- Jane Goodall -

Below is some important info on butterfly and insect decline

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/butterfly-loss-1.7476479