Glorious creatures enroute to Mexico.
Quote by Rabindranath Tagore
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
Bingham Butterfly Park
Last Friday, my son and I visited Goderich for breakfast out. West Street Willy's "Clubhouse Benny" is his current favourite. As we were getting ready to leave, our server asked if we had been to "Butterfly Park" to see the monarch butterflies. I replied that we hadn't and asked where it was. I was really curious since I'd been seeing lots of photos on Facebook, but I didn't know where to find the butterflies in person. He was nice enough to give us directions, and we headed over to the Bingham Butterfly Park.
The trees were loaded with hundreds of Monarchs. They looked a bit like leaves from a distance. Sadly, I only had my iPhone 6 Plus - woefully inadequate for shooting high into trees. There were some on lower branches, so I was able to get a few shots to at least prove that I had seen them!
Migrating monarch butterflies
These beautiful creatures travel 5,000 kilometres each fall to reach their winter home in the mountain forests of Mexico. Goderich happens to be on their migration route.
On Tuesday we returned to West Street Willy's for breakfast (my son is now obsessed!), and also to the Butterfly Park, but this time I was ready. Armed with my Panasonic Lumix DLSR and zoom lens, I hoped to get some really good shots. Once again, the trees were full of butterflies. Oh happy day!
I usually set my camera to multi-shot when I'm photographing birds, and tried that with the butterflies this time. I quickly filled up the rest of my 32GB camera card with some 800 photos! Well worth it, though.
There were several other photographers and observers in the park, and they told me that the butterflies generally only stay about a week, but this year had lingered for more than a week and a half. One lady said that prior to the devastating March 2016 windstorm in their wintering grounds in Mexico, Bingham Butterfly Park saw thousands of migrating Monarchs each fall. That would be such an amazing thing to see!
We happened to be in Goderich again on Thursday (vacation time makes it easy to run the roads!) and went back to the park to see if the butterflies were still there. There were still some, although far fewer than there had been earlier in the week.
The Butterfly Park is a beautiful spot on a quiet lakeside street in Goderich. There are benches to sit on and an incredible high cliff view of Lake Huron.
It was quite something to stand there in the park, in silence, and just watch these lovely creatures flitter and float around me. If there was a loud noise or other disturbance, that would set them all aflutter which made for some awesome photos. There was something truly peaceful and calming about watching them in all their orange and black glory.
This has been an amazing year for butterflies, at least in my part of the world. Last year I saw very few, but this year I have seen a lot of different kinds, particularly the magnificent Monarch. And I am grateful.
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