How to See California’s Spectacular Monarch Butterflies

It’s Monday. There’s still time to see California’s spectacular monarch butterflies. Plus, a man suspected of killing three homeless men in Los Angeles has been arrested.

The monarch butterflies that come each year to California are, in a word, spellbinding.

Up and down the state, thousands of butterflies shelter in eucalyptus trees in clumps resembling enormous twitching beehives. Their wings appear dull when folded, allowing them to mostly blend in with the leaves.

But now and then, as I was lucky enough to witness recently, a single butterfly will erupt in a spasm of orange and black as it flutters overhead, revealing its miniature stained-glass-window wings that make the species so beloved.

The monarchs are a spectacular sight, and their arrival is a longstanding California holiday tradition.

Beginning in October, populations of monarchs that live west of the Rocky Mountains start arriving in California to breed and wait out the winter, and then head back inland in the early spring. The journey each way takes many weeks — longer than the life span of an adult butterfly — so several generations will live and die along the way. (East of the Rockies, monarch populations make a similar migration southward to Mexico and Florida every autumn.)

There are roughly 400 sites in California where monarchs spend the winter, scattered from southern Mendocino County to the border with Mexico, but especially on the Central Coast. I found myself entranced by these mystical creatures last month at a eucalyptus grove in Pismo Beach, one of the state’s biggest butterfly sites. Currently, more than 10,000 monarchs are there.

That may seem like a lot, but monarchs are in serious decline and were classified as endangered last year. Western monarchs migrating to California, a population that once numbered in the millions, have dropped by 95 percent since the 1980s, according to Emma Pelton, senior conservation biologist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit group based in Portland, Ore.

A particularly precipitous decline began in the winter of 2018, when about 30,000 monarch butterflies wintered in California, she said. Two years later, only 2,000 were counted statewide, and some of the groves that usually attract the most monarchs were devoid of them.

“In 2020, the bottom fell out,” Pelton told me, adding that the moment prompted many “existential conversations in the monarch world” about whether the species would ever recover. But in what Pelton called a “somewhat miraculous” turnaround, their numbers bounced back to around 200,000 in 2021 and 2022.

There’s a lot we don’t understand about monarchs, so it’s difficult to pinpoint why their numbers have fluctuated so drastically in recent years, but environmental factors like changes in temperature and precipitation probably played a role. In general, experts believe that habitat loss (because of deforestation for development or other reasons), pesticide use, drought and climate change have all contributed to a long-term decline of the species.

So how will 2023 stack up? The annual monarch counts in California come from two surveys conducted each year at 250 sites, and this season’s first survey just concluded yesterday. The official numbers have yet to be released, but the preliminary estimates suggest that the number of monarchs in California this winter will be slightly lower than in the past two seasons, Pelton said. She speculated that the “atmospheric river” storms that pounded the state last winter may have held the population in check.

“This year, we’re seeing numbers that indicate it’s been a relatively good year,” Pelton told me.

If you want to help monarchs thrive, you can plant native flowering plants in your garden, including milkweed, the only plant that monarch caterpillars eat. Make sure that plants you purchase from nurseries are pesticide-free, and limit your own pesticide use if you can.

And, perhaps most important, visit the butterflies, Pelton said. Their numbers peak in November and December. Enjoy and appreciate them.

They’re magical.

There are hundreds of overwintering groves in California. Here are some of the spots that usually have the most butterflies:

Visiting the monarchs is one of my California holiday traditions. What are yours? Email me at [email protected]. Please include your full name and the city in which you live.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Jorge Moreno, a spokesman for the state parks department. He recommends Fremont Peak State Park in San Juan Bautista on the Central Coast:

“This park features expansive views of Monterey Bay, the San Benito Valley, Salinas Valley and the Santa Lucia Mountains east of Big Sur from its hiking trails in the grasslands of the higher peaks of the Gabilan Range. There are camping and picnic facilities in the park, as well as an astronomical observatory with a 30-inch telescope, which is open for public programs on selected evenings.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Tell us

What songs belong on a California holiday playlist? We’re hoping to release one before the New Year.

Email me at [email protected] with your suggestions. Please include your name and the city in which you live.

And before you go, some good news

What began as a cover story has grown, through wild popularity, into Alta Journal’s new definitive guide to bookstores across California and the West Coast. It hit bookshelves last month.

The new book, “Best Bookstores in California and the West,” is a cross between a meticulous travel guide and a love letter to the independent book shops who help keep the region’s communities thriving. The guide is organized by geographic area — from the Los Angeles Metropolitan region all the way up the coast to Oregon and Washington — and includes a list of the best stores in each area, as well as essays from contributors about stores whose community impact stands out, whether they’re well known or off the beaten path.

The idea for the guidebook blossomed after the success of a special 2022 issue of Alta Journal in which contributors recommended 85 indie bookstores. After that issue went to press, the publication solicited reader nominations for stores it might have missed and received an avalanche of responses, which were later folded into an online version that at one point featured 132 bookstores.

With the new stand-alone guide, book lovers can take a literary road trip through the Golden State and beyond, discovering gems like a sci-fi bookstore in the Mojave Desert or a one-room memorial library on the Central Coast.

If you’re interested, you can learn more about the guide on Alta’s website.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Maia Coleman, Briana Scalia and Halina Bennet contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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