Outwitting the cold. Butterfly species have three strategies for surviving northeastern winters. Some, such as the black swallowtail, survive in a chrysalis phase, in suspended animation between being a caterpillar and becoming a butterfly.

The beautiful mourning cloak repairs to sheltered crevices, where it hibernates as an adult butterfly until spring temperatures draw it back into woodlands and yards.

Painted ladies, often reared in elementary school classes, migrate south to start new generations that will migrate back here in spring. And even as I write, local monarchs are beginning 2200-mile journeys to central Mexico—their flight paths oriented toward the sun, whether crossing roads or cruising through town.

Home schools. We invite local home-school families who’d enjoy hatching and tagging a monarch butterfly to contact us at the Butterfly Barn. We will supply a chrysalis and show the kids how to tag the butterfly that hatches. Please call 570/729-7053.

Join the Meadow Party. Saturday, September 17, the Delaware Highlands Conservancy will host its 9th annual Meadow Party from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in fields that surround the Butterfly Barn in Milanville. The public is invited. For information, please call 570/226-3164 or 729-7053.