Roosting Monarchs
Open Studio, 2019
Photo Credits: Thomas Blanchard

In February 2017, I travelled to Michoacán, Mexico to see Monarch Butterflies in their winter habitat. As we drove closer and closer to El Rosario Biosphere, the landscape changed. Large boulders and fir trees began to line the road reminding me of home – particularly Haliburton and Algonquin Park. Nowhere else in Mexico reminded me of Ontario. On the way up, the mountainside, I saw only a handful of Monarchs. However, at the top, in a protected grove of Oyamel fir trees, I saw hundreds of thousands of Monarch Butterflies clinging to the branches of these towering trees. The butterflies looked like dead deciduous tree leaves. It was breathtaking.

Imagine. These tiny butterflies had flown over 3,500 miles. Some may have started from my backyard in Toronto.

As the sun rose and touched each branch, the Monarchs burst apart in a fluttering mass of colour. It was magical.

Roosting Monarchs celebrates the wonder, beauty and resilience of nature.