Pod Squad Ambassadors Diane Baulch (left) and Shelley Dittburner stand by the butterfly mural at Rotary Perkins Park, Southampton as they work on one of the berms.

Hub Staff

Monarch butterflies are back and volunteers with the Butterfly Gardens of Saugeen Shores (BGOSS), also known as Pod Squad Ambassadors, have been busy getting their pods ready for the monarch season.

One of the first monarch sightings of the year was at MacGregor Point Provincial Park in late May and eggs have already been laid with newly emerged and hungry caterpillars starting to appear.

Each of the 15 pods throughout Saugeen Shores has its own troop of ambassadors, caretakers who maintain the butterfly gardens and educate members of the public about the gardens, monarchs and other pollinating insects.

Ambassador Diane Baulch who maintains the pod at Rotary Perkins Park in Southampton along with Shelley Dittburner, Steven Baulch and Leo Butler, said that they began preparing the beds for the season before April. “We've replaced a couple of plants that didn't make it over the winter, pruning the others,” she said, adding that they had also put fresh mulch down. “We're just sprucing everything up for the monarchs to welcome them back.”

Dittburner said that each pod has beds called berms and have been assigned a waystation number. Monarch waystations are registered and certified monarch friendly gardens that create habitat for monarchs. “So Perkins Park has the S11 pod which has seven berms,” she explained.

“We specifically planted these plants because they're butterfly friendly, things to feed on, things to lay eggs on, a lot of butterfly flowers, butterfly weed, milkweeds, but a lot of other plants that they like too,” said Dittburner. The plants came from Grange Hollow Gardens and Nursery in Desboro.

“This is all native, easy to manage plants for pollinators,” said Baulch. “People can grow them in their gardens if they so wish, like Liatris, Gayfeather, that's a nice plant because it gets a tall purply or white spike and butterflies love that, so you can put that in your own home,” she said.

Dittburner said that both she and Baulch were newly retired and wanted to help out in the community. ”It's a great way to be involved and get outside and do something good for the community.” She added that the butterfly pods will soon be full of colour. “There'll be pinks and yellows and oranges and purples and all kinds of colour. They'll look really good and I'm sure the monarchs and bees and so on are going to think so too.”

Each of the butterfly pods around Saugeen Shores has been assigned a waystation number and information on the Butterfly Gardens of Saugeen Shores.

A Monarch butterfly feeding in Southampton.