I tried to find a picture of a monarch riding on the back of a hummingbird, but I settled for this.
POSTED BY KIM — Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but a customer was in the nursery this morning and she told me about the most interesting website. It’s called Journey North, and through this site you can follow the migration of various animal species, including monarch butterflies and hummingbirds.
They say: Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles— and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best-practices model for education, Journey North is the nation’s premiere “citizen science” project for children. The general public is welcome to participate.
And the good news is: put your hummingbird feeders out because they’ve been spotted in St. Louis! Seems a little cold, but apparently they’re not hanging around the beaches of Florida until it warms up.
For anyone interested in butterfly gardening, here’s a free handout that describes how to select proper host and nectar plants. For the birdies, here’s a handout about gardening for hummingbirds.
