Question: What featherweight critter flutters through our area each fall on a 3,000 mile trip to Mexico?
Answer: Danaus plexippus, the monarch butterfly
When I first saw the flecks of orange blow by, I thought they were maple leaves, shoved by a push-broom breeze. But the only trees around the old State Park Conference Center were palms and distant longleafs.
It was Shrimp Festival weekend 35 years ago and my first exposure to one of the wonders of nature, the fall monarch migration.I was stunned. There were butterflies everywhere!
Lower Alabama is on the flight path of the annual monarch migration to their winter home. By nightfall the insects would be 25 miles away, leapfrogging towards Texas and their ultimate destination in the Transvolcanic Mountain Range, far south of its border. Click to view the New York Times video about the migration (please excuse the brief ad).
There are two ways you can help Monarch Watch study and preserve these amazing creatures. Sigh up now to be a volunteer scientist this fall. You can catch, tag and release these colorful visitors as they wing their way southwest. They are projected to fly through between October 4 and 16.
You can also create a monarch waystation next spring. Monarchs rely on milkweed to survive. It is the only plant their caterpillars can eat. Development, roadside management and herbicides have decimated many essential habitats. You can help stabilize that loss by planting milkweed and other nectar plants these insects need for survival.
Have you gotten involved in nature yet? Get out there in it!
I asked a friend if 18 months in Lower Alabama qualified me as a native. "If you ask, you're not one," he replied without a thought. In that instant, I stopped asking. I went native .
Until now, when people asked where I was from, I gave a long, useless explanation of the route I traveled to get here. Nobody cared. They were just asking, "Are you one of us?" Turns out I'm more 'one of us' than most of the people you know. My body's from Virginia. My heart was born here.
Researching stories for the MBM Celebrate Rivers issue (July 2010), I was drawn again and again to the same stream. I had discovered it a few years ago with a former waterborne letter carrier. Later I plied its waters in my kayak, the Loon.
On vacation, I took back routes to work just to let it flash me at the Highway 32 bridge. I had dinner beside it with a coworker's family, feasting on things killed and grown by the other guests. When I hit a writer's block, I undid the verbal logjam on the dock behind an uninhabited river house.
On July 30, Judy and I settled a stone's throw from the Fish River. Our nest is bounded by live oaks, magnolia, and saw palmetto. We are river people. Our souls are home. And when neighbors ask where we're from, we smile and answer "Spanish Fort." We're one of them.
DO THIS NOW: Help the Audubon Society's Gulf spill research fund by visiting the AmEx member's project site http://www.takepart.com/membersproject/voteand voting for Audubon Society.Each quarter, one of 50 organizations in five categories wins part of $1,000,000 donated by the financial giant.
Just sign up for the project and vote. You don't have to be an American Express customer. Revisit the site every Monday through August 22 and vote again. Tell your friends! This is free money for the winners and costs you nothing but five minutes of your time each week. (I signed up a month ago and haven't gotten any unsolicited email.)
Ready for a fun outdoors trip that doesn't empty your wallet? Escatawpa Hollow Campground off Moffet Road in Mobile offers a 15-mile canoe trip with the option to stay overnight. This adventure would be a getaway from the fast-paced life in the city with a large group or as a romantic trip with your significant other.
The canoe rental is $40 per canoe for the day trip and $70 per canoe for the overnight trip. Two people generally fit in one canoe. Although, if you decide to bring along a child, there is a seat in the middle that easily accommodates one other smaller person. My fiance and I decided to take the 15-mile overnight canoe trip. By choosing to do the trip in two days, enough time was available to fish the banks of Escatawpa River.
The two of us fit comfortably in one canoe along with all our supplies for the night. We brought a large ice chest full of water and drinks, lunchmeat, hot dogs and condiments. We also fit a small tent, two fishing poles, a tackle box, one sleeping bag, two pillows and a back pack filled with necessary supplies and clothing. (We wore our bathing suits for the majority of the time, so the clothes did not take up much room.)
Around 8:00 a.m., our journey began with a meeting at the campground. After unloading all of our bags, we filled out the necessary forms and information for the trip. Another group that included four children and two adults climbed aboard with us in the van that took us up river to the launch point.
Fortunately the other group was doing the trip in one day and had to be back at the campground before 6 p.m. They scurried down the river, which allowed us quiet and calm waters for great fishing.When casting our small-eyed spinning rods, we aimed for fallen tree stumps along the banks to catch largemouth bass. We used live crickets and worms, small corks and weights to fish for the beautiful sun bream.
Around each bend there were sand beaches that provided resting stops, swimming spots and our campsite for the night. We gathered twigs and fallen braches from the woods lining the beach when we decided to set up camp. Roasted marshmallows and hot dogs made a delicious dinner after a day's work of paddling and fishing.
As we woke up from the sun shining through the seams of our tent, we set out for our second, and last, day of adventure. We had to be back to the campground before 6 p.m., so we paced ourselves a little faster than the day before. Throughout the day, we took a break on sandy beaches here or there for lunch and a cool swim in the water.
The canoe trip was a great experience and helped my fiance and I grow even closer. If you're not up for camping out in the wild, the one-day trip might suit you better. Whether you're out to admire the nature's beauty, or want take part in bass and bream fishing, the Escatawpa River canoe trip is an experience you won't soon forget.
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