Scientists Asking for Help Spotting Monarch Butterflies

[Jim Koepke]

Monarch Butterflies are becoming an endangered species. Scientists are looking for help to find overwintering sites so the areas and similar habitat can be protected. They are looking for folks in the east from North Caroline south along the Atlantic coast and along the Gulf to Texas.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/spot-monarch-butterflies-overwintering_n_5fdbacfbc5b6aa861e5cd7c4

jtk

[Larry Frank]

It would be so neat to see one of these over wintering sites.

In the past few years, I have grown some large patches of milkweed for the Monarchs. When we find the caterpillars we bring them inside to raise and then release them.

[roger wiegand]

We've planted multiple milkweed species in the meadow, as well as many other butterfly-friendly plants. We've seen a big uptick in the overall numbers of butterflies, but so far, not the monarchs. The most I ever saw at one time this summer was two (hoping for the appropriate genders!) but most of the time days would go by without seeing even one. I have not seen a monarch caterpillar for many years. When I was a kid they were among our most common butterflies, some days during the migration you could see many hundreds at a time.

[Bill Dufour]

When I was a kid my mother and I captured them from eucalyptus over wintering trees in Richmond California at the UC field station. The trees would be covered almost completely. We tagged them and mailed them to Texas to be released and tracked. They had a small reward if the finder mailed in the tag to the university of Toronto. This is how they discovered they go to Mexico in winter time.
Bill D.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Urquhart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Urquhart)

I checked this book out from the library and got interested in butterflies.


https://www.amazon.com/Travels-Monarch-X-Ross-Hutchins/dp/9997506316

[Bill Dufour]

PS: if you can hold one it is dead easy to tell male from female.
Bill D.

[Jim Koepke]

PS: if you can hold one it is dead easy to tell male from female.
Bill D.

Here is a site with information on telling the difference > https://journeynorth.org/tm/monarch/id_male_female.html

Viva la difference!

jtk

[Rod Sheridan]

We grow a smal patch of milkweed every year (about 8 plants).

It's nice to see the monarchs....I wish I could see a wintering site, that must be incredible......Rod.

[Jim Koepke]

We grow a smal patch of milkweed every year (about 8 plants).

It's nice to see the monarchs....I wish I could see a wintering site, that must be incredible......Rod.

So far this year in California the numbers look to be down > https://www.montereyherald.com/2020/11/22/butterfly-town-trying-to-find-the-missing-monarchs/?clearUserState=true

Not sure if it is related to wild fires or some other cause.

jtk

[Mike Null]

When i was a kid we had thousands (well maybe not that many) where we lived. We were just outside the small town adjacent to farms and undeveloped land and milkweed was everywhere. I am in a fairly well developed subdivision now and I can't remember the last time I saw a Monarch. In fact butterflies are pretty scarce here regardless of species.

[Kev Williams]

So where's the caterpillars? Can't the monarch's without 'em-?

[Jim Koepke]

When i was a kid we had thousands (well maybe not that many) where we lived. We were just outside the small town adjacent to farms and undeveloped land and milkweed was everywhere. I am in a fairly well developed subdivision now and I can't remember the last time I saw a Monarch. In fact butterflies are pretty scarce here regardless of species.

To butterflies, a subdivision is like a desert. They prefer overgrown fields.

jtk

[roger wiegand]

To butterflies, a subdivision is like a desert. They prefer overgrown fields.

jtk

It's mostly the absence of native plants, the milkweeds but also others that are important for different life cycle stages. It's astonishing what fraction of landscape/lawn plants are not native (like 90%). The critters have very particular requirements for feeding, egg laying, wintering over, etc and take tens or hundreds of thousands of years to evolve to use different sources. We've terraformed a large swath of the country (including "the woods" which are now filled with escaped non-natives) leaving the insects, and hence the birds and amphibians that depend on them, in the lurch. As far as the bugs are concerned it really is a desert.

Doug Tallamy has written some great books (https://www.amazon.com/Bringing-Nature-Home-Wildlife-Expanded/dp/0881929921) on the subject and done research to show that very small changes can have a huge impact-- just adding 10% natives to your existing landscape can create a successful refuge. We've been working on our small meadow for six years now and the results are striking-- many more species of insects, much greater numbers, and now many more successful bird nests as well as a profusion of small mammals that have attracted nesting barred owls, red tail and Cooper's hawks. Even casual visitors notice how much more alive our meadow is than what they are used to seeing.