Keeping up with Mrs. Thornton's first grade class

The last time I was in Mrs. Thornton's class, we had a very good  converstation about Butterflies,and I was asked some questions about butterfly migration. Here's the best site I know about butterfly migration(among many migrations of many animals).The site, Journey North, also has links to the migration news of gray whales,robins, and hummingbirds.
This conversation also gives me the opportunity to remind everyone what a great teaching aid the internet i, given the speed of innovation and research these days. Here's an article, Migrating Thousands of Miles with Nary a Stop(New York Times, registration required) about how advances in transmitters allowed  researchers to finally determine the migration routes of birds who travel long distances. It turns out the truth was stranger than anything the researchers had imagined. One bird, the bar-tailed godwit, traveled 7,100 miles in nine days without stopping. Ruby throated hummingbirds leave the Yucatan Peninsula in the evening and arrive in the southern United States the next afternoon.
A great article to share with your children!