Local Monarch butterflies hanging around longer thanks to warm weather

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. -- By the end of September, the butterfly house at Sarrett Nature Center would typically be closed for the season. Thanks to Michiana's warmer than normal temperatures hanging on through this month, there's still time to see many kinds of butterflies.

Specifically, the monarch butterflies in town are in no hurry to start their migration.

Justin Chandler and his family stopped by Sarett to hike the nature trails but switched their plans to some bonus butterfly study.

"Normally we were under the impression that it closes down earlier in the year," Chandler explained, "so when we just parked, we saw the butterflies and said, 'Wow, that's crazy. We should stop in.'"

"I saw a queen, a Julia, and a couple different swallowtails, and my son wanted to find the zebra. We found that one too," Chandler added.

Nate Fuller is full of knowledge of all things butterflies, and the Executive Director of Sarett Nature Center.

"Warmer temperatures move their metabolism faster," Fuller said. "The monarchs are weather persons themselves."

Fuller credited our warm temperatures and a southerly wind for keeping these "meteorologist" monarch butterflies in Michiana longer than normal. 

"They've got plenty of food. They would have to fight the weather to move south," Fuller explained. "When things shift here in the next couple of weeks, we get a northern push, a cold front, or something pushes out of the north, those monarchs are going to move fast." 

Those butterflies will take the breeze almost 2,000 miles south to Mexico. Before they take flight, you might be able to catch masses of monarchs near Lake Michigan, if the wind lines up just right. 

"There's no safe place to land over open water," Fuller described. "So, the butterflies will actively fly against the winds to avoid going over the water. If you've got an easterly wind, the butterflies actually stack up against the lake like leaves against a fence.  You can get thousands of butterflies piling up along the Lake Michigan shoreline."