CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Leaves aren't the only thing turning trees orange this fall.
Now is the time to take a trip to Chicago's Museum Campus, as dozens of Eastern Monarch butterflies are roosting en masse at the Shedd Aquarium as they prepare for their annual 2,000 mile migration to Mexico.
"We noticed that there was a big group of monarchs that were roosting. It was a windy day like today, they were roosting out of the wind, all together. So there was a very big cluster of them, and we counted up to 150, but there was easily way more than that, because they were up in the trees, too, which where it was hard to see. It was pretty great," said Shedd Aquarium Horticulturist Charlotte Blome.
Shedd Aquarium Horticulturist Charlotte BlomeWBBM Newsradio/Lisa Fielding
Blome said monarchs are still a very threatened species.
"It's been a big push over the last couple decades actually, to increase monarch habitat and to protect existing monarch habitat," she said.
Monarch Butterflies at Shedd AquariumShedd Aquarium
The Shedd Aquarium is part of a national SAFE program, focused on supporting the monarch butterfly, which is considered a nearly threatened species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. According to the Shedd, their Horticulture team actively works to help monarchs, planting helpful vegetation across the aquarium grounds including milkweed and lots of pesticide-free, nectar-rich native perennials such as echinacea, hyssop, salvia, boneset and ironweed. The Shedd hopes to help bolster the recovery of the species, which has dropped between 80 and 90 percent from historic highs.
According to the Shedd, this is peak monarch migration season. But Blome said this is quite an unusual event, because they don't usually see so many of the monarchs in one place.
Monarch Butterflies at Shedd AquariumShedd Aquarium
"Part of the reason why we are blessed with so many monarchs, every year, we don't always get to see a big group of them like this year, but it is a common sight here, because we have what monarchs want," Blome said, which is milkweed.
The Shedd Aquarium has 83,000 square feet of cultivated gardens with hundreds of species of plants surrounding the facility.
