mollies (now butterflies)

May 13, 2008 @ 1:19 am · Filed under Philippines Internet Koi Society

Beverly,
15,000,000 criminals roaming our streets is pretty doggone serious too. Ask any of the families of the thousands of murder victims, gang violence, drugs, crime, etc. I’m all for legal, regulated and documented permanent and temporary immigration but we have to put a stop to criminals breaking into our country with impunity.
If the butterflies can’t fly 10′ or 20′ high to get over the wall, then they should change their names to butter-can’t-fly.
I know that right now we have millions of caterpillars thriving in our oak trees around New Orleans… which are much higher than 20′ off the ground so somehow the butterflies got up that high… so I’m sure they can fly over the Great Wall Of North America… maybe it will be the new 7th Wonder of the Modern World one day!
Just think if the environmentalism-extremists were around in ancient China… there wouldn’t be a Great Wall Of China.. oh wait, yeah it would.. Ming would have simply beheaded all of them.. or run them over with tanks in the town square.
Further, according to WikiPedia.. I know.. not always the most reliable source but generally it’s OK… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly#Migration
“Many butterflies migrate over long distances. Particularly famous migrations being those of the Monarch butterfly from Mexico to North America, a distance of about 4,000 to 4,800 kilometres (2500-3000 miles).”
If they can fly 3,000 miles, I’m sure they are flying over things more than 10′ to 20′ high during their migration. I’ll continue to look for more definitive resources showing the maximum and average height of their migratory flight.
OK.. this looks like a reliable source…
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/HeightFallFlight.html
How High do Monarch Butterflies Fly During Fall Migration? Contributed by Dr. Bill Calvert
Q. What’s the highest you’ve ever known monarchs to fly?
A. Glider pilots have reported monarchs flying as high as eleven thousand feet.
Q. Why do they fly at such high altitudes?
A. At increasingly higher altitudes wind speed increases rapidly. So if the winds are going in the right direction, it pays monarchs to thermal upward.
Whew.. all that worrying about a 10′ to 20′ high wall is seeming kind of petty now. And it seems that the butterflies know all about thermal updrafts and such so they’ll be able to ride the updraft over the wall even if they happen to be at ground level when the get to the Great Wall Of North America!
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com