Reconnect With Nature Blog

Reconnecting At The Ocean

One of the ways to reconnect with nature is to sit and look at the ocean. As I sit on the beach in Cambria, California, I watch the waves coming in to shore. A scattering of birds darts around, moving with the incoming waves. Sandpipers scuttle away from a wave, then move to follow it as it recedes, probing with their bills into the wet sand in the hopes of turning up something to eat. Seagulls stand on the sand and watch the passing scene, lazily moving when the water comes too close. 

A feeling of peace comes over me. The day is windy and cold, so there is no one else on the beach. Normally, there would be dogs scampering on the sand, running out into the water to catch sticks thrown to them by their barefoot owners. Today, there are only the birds and the water.  The wind, remnants of the Santa Anas that are so common at this time of the year, whips past me and blows against the incoming waves, peeling off spumes of water that trail behind, like ephemeral feathers spreading out to greet the next incoming wave.  The waves crash into the shore with a deep bell-like sound that dissolves into the hissing of a thousand snakes as the water laps up along the sand, approaching me and then turning around the join the next surge of nature's power and energy.

As I look at the rhythmic movement of the waves, I realize that nature is always in motion. Nothing stands still. The waves move. The wind moves. The birds move. I have the illusion that I am sitting still, but in reality I am moving too. Everything within my body vibrates and moves. Cells divide. Blood flows. Nerve impulses travel. It is only an illusion that I am sitting quietly and still, watching passively the world around me.

So why do I feel so peaceful and still? I think it is because I am in harmony with the flow around me. The endless chatter in my mind, worrying about what I will do tomorrow and what I should have done yesterday, has died down, leaving nothing but the present moment. My body takes in the sounds and smells and feel of the ocean, without stopping to analyze or plan or think. I feel as though the rhythm of my body has synchronized with the rhythms of everything else around me. At this moment, I am a part of nature. At this moment, I am completely at peace.

Cooperation Among Monarch Butterflies

I am in Cambria, California, looking at monarch butterflies. For those who are not familiar with these orange and black large butterflies, monarchs belong to the butterfly family Danaidae, and their coloration represents warning colors that advertise to predators that the butterflies are toxic. The caterpillars feed on milkweeds, and pick up through their diet toxins in the milkweeds. These toxins are stored in the caterpillar and are transfered to the adult during metamorphosis. Birds and other predators that eat a butterfly immediately start to regurgitate, leading to an unpleasant experience and subsequent avoidance of the monarchs in future encounters.

There are two major populations of monarchs in North America. The Eastern population is found east of the Rocky Mountains, and the Western population is found west of the Rockies. During fall, the monarchs migrate. Eastern population monarchs fly to Mexico, just north of Mexico City, where they congregate in huge numbers. Western populations fly to California, where they congregate in a number of places along the Pacific Coast. One of the best-known of these places is the area around Monterey and Pacific Grove.Other monarchs congregate in places such as Cambria and Pismo Beach, and various other sites extending south to San Diego. The monarch generation that migrates lives for about 7-8 months, first migrating either to Mexico (from the Eastern population) or to the Pacific Coast (from the Western population), then spending the entire winter at these sites, and finally starting to fly back to where the butterflies started the previous fall. The migrating generation does not make it all the way back, but dies part way after laying eggs along the way. Subsequent generations make it back to where the migrating individuals started out on their migratory flight.

Monarchs are very succeptible to cold temperatures, and cannot tolerate freezing. If they did not migrate, they would die in winter. So they migrate to places where it usually does not freeze. By congregating in clusters, they can stay warm through the cold nights by shivering their wings and keeping the clusters warm. On warm days the clusters dissolve and the monarchs fly around, warming themselves in the sun. On cold days, they stay in their clusters and stay warm. By cooperating in the formation of the clusters, the monarchs are able to survive the cold winters. Where each individual would die from the cold, together they survive. This is another example of cooperation in nature.