Flight of the Monarchs

There are those things you understand at a high-level.  You read something, stick it away in your memory.  A fact you can recite when you are called upon to answer a trivia question.

But to actually see and experience something you only read about - now that is different.

The wife and I were sitting on the dock last weekend.  Autumn has been very mild.  It is mid October and I am still wearing shorts and sandals.  The late morning sun feels so nice.  We see a monarch butterfly fly across the river.  Then we see another.  And then another.  In a short period of time we see at least a dozen monarchs flying across the river.  They are heading south.  I knew that monarchs migrate south - but to see them was so special.

We walk to the edge of the woods.  Monarchs are following the treeline south to the river and then cross.  We see a few get diverted flying around some pokeweed, but they then seem to remember their task and fly south across the river.

To know something is one thing.  To experience it is the real gift!