To the Expositor:
Readers of The Manitoulin Expositor will be pleased to learn that a monarch butterfly was observed by Eunice and Dick Bowerman, my wife Marilyn and myself, on Saturday June 7, while we were walking the South Baymouth trails near the lakeshore. It appeared that the butterfly had just flown across Lake Huron and was frantically searching for nectar-filled flowers.
As reported in this newspaper and others, it is feared that the North American population of monarchs is precariously low. The reason for the population crash is not known, but it is suspected that over use of herbicides in the Unites States is reducing the milkweed population, the only food of the caterpillars of monarchs. Milkweed on Manitoulin Island appears to be healthy this year and hopefully will serve as food for many more monarchs who join their siblings on the Island after a grueling flight northward.
Readers of The Manitoulin Expositor can learn more about monarch butterflies at
Joe Shorthouse Retired Laurentian University Professor Batman’s Campground
