Is there anything more beautiful than the tallgrass prairie in autumn?  Is there anything more moving than the Monarch migration?  Put those two together, and it's a Marvelous Moment.  I was able to experience such a moment this fall, as the Monarchs picked our home, Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge, to stop and feed for a few days on their way to Mexico.   They were everywhere in the bottomground, and in the oak trees along McDowell Creek, but also in the upland grasslands--the native prairie that has flourished in the Flint Hills for the past ten thousand years.   Did Monarchs migrate through here ten thousand years ago?  If so, I wonder what companions they found in the prairie back then!

This year the Monarchs went right for the Stiff Goldenrod (Solidago rigida), a native perennial that is a pollinator magnet.  In this video, you can see the Monarchs feeding on Stiff Goldenrod while ignoring a second Goldenrod species that is standing nearby.  

Monarchs Feeding on Stiff Goldenrod in the Tallgrass Prairie, Sept. 25, 2024

I have asked multiple botanists what might make S. rigida so relatively nourishing, and no one knows for sure.  It is still one of the mysteries of the tallgrass prairie, where great learning is to be had but mysteries abound.