Every year, a colorful migration takes wing as millions of Monarch butterflies fly from Canada and other northern breeding sites to winter in Mexico, many of which make stopovers in Northwest Ohio.

In this 1999 Blade archive photo, Colbe Wells, 9, lets a male monarch butterfly rest on top of his hand during an event at the Trautman Nature Center at Maumee Bay State Park. The center was dedicating its new gazebo for monarch breeding by releasing the park’s last brood of butterflies.

The butterfly had been tagged with a locator sticker, part of a program which helps scientists research the intricacies of their long migration south.

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