The monarchs are flying!  By the tens of thousands, these carefree, luminous little creatures have been floating around our town for several weeks now, riding the updrafts and sailing by my office window,  probing flower beds with their busy probosces, and congregating soundlessly in pine trees along the golf courses, doubtless . . . → Read More: Monarch Butterflies are Migrating Again!]]>

Adult Monarch

The monarchs are flying!  By the tens of thousands, these carefree, luminous little creatures have been floating around our town for several weeks now, riding the updrafts and sailing by my office window,  probing flower beds with their busy probosces, and congregating soundlessly in pine trees along the golf courses, doubtless discussing plans for the next stage of their journey.  For aimless as they may seem, they abide with us for only a little while, a lunch stop along the path of a carefully conceived, almost unimaginable migration.  Aha!  —-but therein lies a tale.

Monarch Larva

Butterflies have held a treasured place in human history for thousands of years, and their images can be found in petroglyphs, revealing the ancient view that they were sent by gods as messengers.  Chaucer knew them as boterflyes, the Dutch as botervliege—and the source of the term is obscure.  From James A. Scott’s handsome text we learn of the extensive studies of butterfly biology, perhaps the most remarkable feature of which is metamorphosis.  The process begins with the fertilized egg, about the size of a pinhead, placed with surgical precision on the underside of a milkweed leaf by the adult female.  In 3-12 days a gaily striped caterpillar emerges and instantly begins feeding on the milkweed plant.  Within two more weeks the larva multiplies its original weight 2,700 fold, an elephantine growth which, if applied to a six-pound human baby, would mean an adult weight of 8 tons.  After shedding its skin five times, the larva attaches to a perch, weaves a dense mat of silk, and sheds again to become a blue-green pupa  (a chrysalis larva, from the Greek khrusos, gold).  This becomes transparent in about two weeks and cracks;  the adult gingerly appears and begins pumping fluid into its fleshy wings.  The adult Danaus plexippus then flies off to seek its fortune.  Thus the caterpillar leads a ponderous, gluttonous existence and moves only a few feet;  the adult enjoys a far-ranging existence but eats little.

A few functions of the adult are worth scrutiny.  Unlike birds, the flight machinery of butterflies involves very tiny muscles, only 2-3 mm in length, attached to long tendons;  and these do not connect the skeleton to the wings, but instead connect segments of the thorax.  The function of these parts can be represented by the two halves of the thorax, which is a rather rigid, chitinous structure, and the lower half resembles a rowboat.  The wings resemble the oars of the rowboat.  The upper half of the thorax is hinged in the middle, and when the longitudinally aligned flight muscles contract, the upper half bends upward, forcing the wings down;  the opposite happens when the muscles relax.

Spring mating in monarchs is carried on with enviable gusto, lasting 2-3 hours for each mating.  Monarchs lack pheromones, the attractant chemicals by which most animals find and identify each other, and rely instead on visual and tactile signals to determine readiness for mating.  The male twists his abdomen sideways, his valvae grasp her abdomen, and he turns to face away from her and injects a spermatophore into her mating tube.  Heliconiini, the passion-vine butterfly, by contrast, not only produces pheromones for mate attraction, but also for mate repulsion at the end of mating, employing a structure with the indelicate name of a “stink club”.

One of the most enduring mysteries of the monarchs had been the location of their hibernation grounds.  Thanks to the patient toil of Fred Urquhart, PhD, a Canadian zoologist, this mystery was solved and beautifully described in National Geographic, August 1976.  He located a 20-acre site high in the Sierra Madre of central Mexico, far from the smog and turmoil of city life.  At 9,000 feet elevation, winter temperatures hover from just below freezing to just above—a perfect arrangement for these cold-blooded insects to live in semi-hibernation, burning little of their fat until they begin their flight north in spring.  Following reports of observers in Mexico, and confirming the observations with tagging experiments, Urquhart came upon the site and found it populated by oyamel trees.  Myriads of monarchs were roosting in the trees and carpeting the ground, bending the tree limbs with their weight.  The life cycle therefore begins typically with birth in the upper Midwest and New England.  These gallant little aviators begin their migration to Mexico in the summer and fall, and spend the winter in Mexico.  They then migrate all the way back to Canada and New England the following spring, a round trip of 6-8,000 miles, with no instructions from outside sources.  Death occurs at 8-12 months age after reproduction.

I pondered these points the last time I drove north, and saw a monarch at least every 200 yards, almost all of them flying lazily across the road at a perilous altitude of 5-15 feet—and almost all were heading due west, re-enacting once again an annual migration that must surely have begun long before man came to North America.  The purpose of a this, if any, is quite beyond me;  I can’t take it all in.  Yet it seems grander than the squabble of nations over oil fields, or the weekly displays on our football fields and baseball diamonds.  It is a pageant for the ages.

From: Northfield East Side Neighborhood Association (NESNA)

Re: Current East Side Issues

Date: August 28, 2010

As summer draws to a close, we wanted to advise you of recent NESNA activities.

First, we bring you the very good news that the City recently approved improvements for Memorial Park – including . . . → Read More: Current Issues for NESNA]]> To: East Side Neighbors

From: Northfield East Side Neighborhood Association (NESNA)

Re: Current East Side Issues

Date: August 28, 2010

As summer draws to a close, we wanted to advise you of recent NESNA activities.

First, we bring you the very good news that the City recently approved improvements for Memorial Park – including the creation of a system of paths similar to the one outlined in the 2004 master plan. For those of you who attended the session on Memorial Park at the NESNA annual meeting, you know that paths and accessibility were the top choices for park amenities. NESNA representatives have worked to represent this view with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) and the City Council, and we will continue to lobby for improvements in this important park space. In the meantime, don’t be shy about expressing your gratitude to members of PRAB and the Council!

Next, we want to bring your attention to work being done by the City Planning Commission, which has been charged with drafting a new Land Development Code (LDC) for the City of Northfield. The LDC is a kind of guiding document for building, planning, zoning, and use of property within the city. While the LDC is an extremely complicated document (nearly 300 pages in the current draft, available on the City website), NESNA has tried to follow issues that may be of special interest to its membership.

One such issue has to do with proposed changes to the CD-S zoning category – the category used for Carleton College. The changes have to do with what the College may and may not do when it constructs new buildings – especially when these buildings are close to the perimeter of the College’s zoning area (what is called the “Perimeter Transition Area” in the LDC). Why should NESNA members care about this? While the new code is unlikely to have a dramatic impact on what happens inside the current campus, it becomes more important if the College were to request expansion of the CD-S zone to the south. While the College does not have immediate plans to do so, such expansions have occurred over the past years, and it is reasonable to think that further requests for zoning changes will occur.

We think the definition of the “Perimeter Transition Area” may be an essential tool for maintaining the historic and neighborly qualities of the north side neighborhood. To this end, we are organizing an information and discussion session for concerned neighbors, which will be held on Sunday, September 26 (time and place to be announced). If you would like to learn more about the LDC, the PTA, the CD-S and other abbreviations that may affect you, please join us!

We thank Scott Carpenter and Lisa Ash for this information.     Ed

Below is the path . . . → Read More: City Zoning Map]]> As City Staff, the Planning Commission, and the City Council continue to discuss imporant issues around the Land Developement Code, NESNA hopes to continue educating our membership concerning these important discussions.  Therefore, we are attaching links to the current zoning map and current Land Development Code draft for your information.

Below is the path to the LDC.
http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/assets/z/Zoning-map—March-2009.pdf http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/assets/v/version-28—-LDC-7-01-10.pdf We appreciate your interest.        Ed

Thursday . . . → Read More: Village Band Festival]]> POST:Coming soon to the East Side Neighborhood: THE BRASS! The 2nd Annual Northfield Vintage Band Festival, upcoming on August 5-8, 2010will bring dozens of the world’s best brass ensembles to Northfield from around the world,and will feature 50 (!) concerts throughout Northfield including the following events in our East Side neighborhood – so mark your calendars:

Thursday August 5 2:00-WindWorks Quintet- Northfield Public Library

Friday, August 6

12:30- Kentucky Baroque Trumpets – First United Church of Christ

1:30- Independent Silver Band – Central Park

Saturday, August 7

1:30- Dodworth Saxhorn Band- Central Park

1:30- Kentucky Baroque Trumpets- Northfield Public Library

1:30- Gargoyle Brass and organ concert- First United Church of Christ

Sunday, August 8

Music featured during local Church services:

St. Peter’s Lutheran Church – Kentucky Baroque trumpets

Methodist Church – Independent Silver Band

First United Church of Christ Northfield – Dodworth Saxhorn Band

and

8:00- Evening of Vaudeville featuring the North Star Cinema Orchestra- Grand Event Center

The full Festival schedule and information about featured artists and sponsorship opportuntities are all available on the Vintage Band Festival website www.vintagebandfestival.org
Please join in supporting this memorable musical festival in Northfield!

Residents interested in volunteering for the VBF Festival are encouraged to contactJohn Hiscox <jhiscox@walbon.com or the VBF email. vbf2010@gmail.com.
Thank you!Sujzie Nakasian