Gotta go, gotta go!
Gotta go to Mexico!
Gotta go to Mexico!
One of my favorite children's books is Gotta Go, Gotta Go! written by Sam Swope. When I was the librarian in an elementary school in east Austin, TX I always read this book to the students during the migratory season for butterflies. This is the story of a butterfly that comes into existence in late August. Monarchs hatched at this time of year migrate to the south and return in the spring to breed and begin the life of the early summer butterfly. The early summer butterfly breeds and its offspring is the one to migrate to the destination of its grandparents.
(For more information please see the following: Monarch Watch and Monarchs in Mexico.)
The Monarch butterflies are migratingthrough central Texas.
Today they have stopped atMcKinney Roughs Nature Preserve
to replenish their energy supply.
These Monarchs have stopped to "nectar". 
They store fat in their abdomens from their stopsalong their southerly route.
They actually gain weight on their migration to Mexico.
The Monarchs migrating through Central Texasare on their way to Michoacan, Mexico
where they will spend the winter.
In Mexico they go a butterfly sanctuary in the small town of Angangueo.
They gather in the thousands to millionsand can be seen from morning until 1 PM
flying around the town and covering the sky.
A Monarch will make this migrationdown & back only once.
Their children and grandchildren
are the ones to return the following year.
Monarchs are the only butterfly to migrate more than 3,000 miles.I am blessed to live in central Texas
& see these lovely creatures
as they wing their way through our state.
I took these photographs at
McKinney Roughs just outside
Bastrop, Texas on the
afternoon of November 15, 2009.
