Maine Stay Inn ~ An Insider's Guide to Kennebunkport

A truly wonderful place to visit, Janice and I have known the lure of Kennebunkport for many, many years. In fact, when we first attended a seminar designed for aspiring innkeepers, the instructor asked the question, "if you ultimately decide to become innkeepers, where would you prefer to locate?" Most answers were similar to, "the east coast" or "in North Carolina." When the question was posed to Janice her answer was concise, "in the Historic District of Kennebunkport, Maine."

Clearly travelers have also known the appeal of Kennebunkport dating back to the mid-1800's.

Well, there is another visiter who stops in Kennebunkport each year. On our drive along Ocean Avenue today we almost collided with these travelers. Who am I talking about? The beautiful Monarch butterfly.

As we drove, we saw what seemed like thousands of Monarchs stopping briefly for a quick meal before continuing their migration that will take them up to 3,000 miles, to the mountains of Mexico.

This Photo taken today along Parsons Way, Kennebunkport.

Monarchs are the only butterfly to make such a long, two-way migration. They fly in masses to the same winter location, often to the same trees. While this sounds very much like what you would expect from birds or even whales, the monarchs make this round-trip only once. It is their children's grandchildren that return south the following fall. Nobody knows how their homing system works, however there are many involved in unraveling this, and so many other mysteries of the Monarch.

Monarchs are also poisonous to their predators. Their diet of milkweed allows them to store poisons from that plant that are effective against most of their predators. It is not uncommon to see a Monarch with a beak sized bite out of one of its wings. The large wings of the Monarch allow it to escape after the predator realizes that they aren't as tasty as they look.

One last thing, this year's migration is unusual in that they are in Kennebunkport very late. This fascinating site typically occurs in Kennebunkport between early to mid September.

Labels: Things to do in Kennebunkport