The September Flyway

Right now, thousands of monarchs are passing over Pennsylvania on their way to Mexico.

Each one weighs less than a paperclip. Each is flying thousands of miles to a mountaintop it has never seen, guided by nothing but shortening days and instinct. It would sound made up if it weren’t happening overhead.

This year’s migration is shaping up to be a strong one — observers from New York to Kansas are reporting good numbers. What the butterflies need most right now is fuel: nectar from late-blooming flowers. Goldenrod. Asters. The plants most people mow down.

We tend to think of conservation as something done in faraway places. Mostly it’s this: leaving the right flowers standing at the right time. A farm’s edge. A garden gone a little wild. That’s a gas station on the flyway.

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Clint Wirick