Monarch Release 3

The couple, Erin and Curtis, schedule one more butterfly event with more than 40 Monarchs to be released and, hopefully, begin their migration to Mexico.

The kids were back from their holiday week down east, so we volunteered to take take them to see the butterflies.

Fortunately, we got there early enough to get close to the box because it got very crowded shortly thereafter.

Unfortunately, once again, I didn't think to bring my polarizing filter, and so the shots through the glass were very so-so.

Also once again, Councilor Linda showed up in a new and special outfit to mark the occasion.

I pretty well knew that photography would be difficult because of crowding and how quickly the monarchs fly off, but I thought that I perhaps could catch something on a video where I didn't have to time shots.. I don't shoot videos often and am not very adept it doing it, but I decided that it was worth a try.

You will see below, especially at the beginning of the clip, how much of a crowd had gathered by release time. It was quite stunning, really.

Then the kids congregated around in front of the box, which was both good and not so good.

It was good in the sense that, first and foremost, you want the kids, especially, to experience the occasion. But there was a problem. Unless a child got to the front, he or she probably wasn't able to see much, particularly if they were shorter than the others. For that matter, the adults couldn't see much either. Our kids didn't get to the front, so I don't think they were able to appreciate the awesomeness of experience to the fullest.

Erin and Curtis, are doing a marvellous thing, but I think they were overwhelmed bu the huge turnout and didn't quite know how to handle the situation. If they do this again next year, and I really hope that they do, I think a solution would be to have the children sit on the grass just a little way back so that all of the children, and even also the adults, would have a fair chance at seeing the butterflies fly off.

Nevertheless, I held the camera high and managed to capture a few Monarchs making their departure.



It has been quite a wonderful series of events, and I am thankful for having been able to witness them, especially the emerging of the butterfly from chrysalis in the first release. That was extra special.

The release was covered by the community paper; you can read about it here.

One final thing: I decided to composite my various photos of the Emergence of a Monarch from Chrysalis into one image. The various stages are chronological but not to scale as I shot from somewhat different angles and zooms and didn't know that I was going to attempt to do this.