Migrate With Monarchs at the Scugog Memorial Public Library

COURTNEY McCLURE, The Standard

SCUGOG: Join monarch butterfly expert, Don Davis, as he shares his travels with the monarchs, at the Scugog Library, on May 23rd. The presentation starts at 7 p.m.

Mr. Davis' presentation will describe monarch life history and how communities can protect the monarchs' habitat.

According to the president of North Durham Nature, James Kamstra, they have been organizing presentations at the library for many years. They host some of their meetings at the Scugog Library, as well.

Mr. Davis believes the group which will benefit the most from attending this presentation is young people. He would like to see more young people taking an interest in general wildlife, both local and non-local and learning everything they can about protecting various species.

One of the ways people can help rebuild the monarchs' habitat is by planting native and non-native plants the monarch likes. Some of these plants include milkweed and goldenrod.

According to Mr. Davis, recreating the monarchs' habitat will benefit other wildlife species as well.

Mr. Davis said, he became interested in following the monarch butterflies' migration after meeting the late zoologist, Frederick Urquhart. This was the first time Mr. Davis had seen someone using an adhesive tag to track butterflies, which piqued his interest.

"I thought, 'That would be a unique project to become involved in,' so I did," he explained. So, he joined Mr. Urquhart in his project, working on it for about 6 or 7 years.

Then Mr. Davis took a brief hiatus before he continued tagging the butterflies and tracking them once again.

Mr. Davis' journey with the monarchs, started in 1967, when he tagged his first monarch butterfly. Ever since, Mr. Davis has been fascinated with butterflies, especially monarchs and their migration between Canada, The United States and Mexico.

Mr. Davis is a self-proclaimed "citizen scientist", meaning he conducts scientific research as a general member of the public.

During his travels, Mr. Davis has met some remarkable people, including his late friends Frederick and Norah Urquhart.

Mr. Davis is the chair of an American non-profit organization, called the Monarch Butterfly Fund. Mr. Davis has also served on the Monarch Recovery National Technical Committee.

He has also been a member of "The Friends of Pres'quile Park" charity and has visited Pres'quile Provincial Park near Brighton, Ont. many, many times.

For more information about Mr. Davis' presentation, please visit northdurhamnature.com.