- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Question: What's better than seeing a monarch butterfly?
Answer: Seeing two monarch butterflies sharing the same blossom on a butterfly bush!
Scenario: Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) from the Pacific Northwest are fluttering through Vacaville, Calif. and stopping in our pollinator garden for some flight fuel before heading off to their overwintering sites along coastal California.
Background: I am watching for tagged butterflies from the migratory monarch project of Washington State University entomologist David James. (After all, one tagged by his citizen scientist Steven Johnson of Ashland, Ore., on Aug. 28, 2016, fluttered into our yard seven days later. James said it flew 285 miles in 7 days or about 40.7 miles per day.)
Menu: In our pollinator garden, the flight fuel includes nectar from the Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifola), tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii), and Zinnias, a genus of plants of the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae.
Action: On Sept. 27, a male monarch touches down on our butterfly bush and begins sipping nectar. Soon, another joins him.
The two monarchs engage in what appears to be a territorial battle. It's a kaleidoscope of orange and black wings, tumbling, wobbling, recovering.
And then, wings up! The monarchs take flight.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They are a beautiful sight.
Hopefully, tagged migratory monarchs from the research project of entomologist David James of Washington State University, will pass through--as they do every year from the Pacific Northwest--on their way to their coastal California overwintering sites. They are tagged on a discal cell.
Meanwhile, scientists in the Northeast are tagging monarchs (heading for Mexico) in a different way. They're attaching "small, lightweight tracking devices to nearly 50 strong and healthy butterflies," according to the New Hampshire Public Radio, in a piece published Sept. 12. "Towers can then ping their location when the small creatures are nearby."
The article related that "Scientists across the country are studying their migration patterns through a project funded by the federal government. This is the second full year that the New Hampshire Audubon Center is participating in a monarch tracking program."
The article by Olivia Richardson quotes Diane De Luca who works at the center: “The thought behind tagging monarchs here in the Northeast is to get a better sense of what they actually do when they're first starting their migration."
The tracking devices are lightweight, but the scientists seek out "strong, younger butterflies" without tattered wings. (See more on the website)
One tracked butterfly flew 60 miles in one day.
"De Luca said last year a butterfly they tagged traveled to Massachusetts and stopped at Lynnfield Marsh, one of the state's largest freshwater marshes," Richardson wrote. "De Luca said purple loosestrife, a type of flower considered an invasive species, is abundant at the marsh and it's attractive to monarch butterflies, who feed off of it."
Aren't monarchs fascinating?
Ping! There goes another butterfly!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you live in California, tagged monarchs from the migratory research project of entomologist David James of Washington State University may be heading your way.
One tagged monarch, a male, fluttered into our Vacaville pollinator garden on Sept. 5, 2016. Citizen scientist Steven Johnson of Ashland, Ore., tagged and released it on Aug. 28. It nectared on Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifola) and a butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) before heading to an overwintering site in coastal California.
The tag read “Monarch@wsu.edu A6093.”
James later told us: "So, assuming it didn't travel much on the day you saw it, it flew 285 miles in 7 days or about 40.7 miles per day. Pretty amazing."
If you see a tagged monarch ("quite a few are being tagged in southern Oregon," James says), try to take an image. Then detail the information (where spotted and when) and send it to the WSU entomologist at monarch@wsu.edu. Read more on his Facebook page, Monarch Butterfies in the Pacific Northwest.
Meanwhile, we've been seeing monarchs daily in our garden since late August. We spotted one monarch laying eggs on our tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, on Aug. 10. (That was her choice of milkweed: she ignored the narrow-leafed milkweed, A. fascicularis; the showy milkweed, A. speciosa; and the butterfly weed, A. tuberosa.)
On Sept. 5, two monarchs, a male and a female, eclosed, while a male monarch patrolled overhead. The newcomers dried their wings and fluttered off. Both managed to escape several predators: Western scrub jays, praying mantises, and assorted crab spiders.
Welcome to the world!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The seventh annual International Monarch Monitoring Blitz will take place Friday, July 28 through Sunday, Aug. 6.
That's when community scientists from across North America--United States, Canada and Mexico--will "come together with the shared goal of helping to protect and conserve the beloved and emblematic monarch butterfly," the organizers said. "Data collected by volunteers each year support trinational efforts to better understand the monarch butterfly's breeding productivity, range, and timing in North America."
So, during this 10-day period, we will look for monarchs, as well as eggs, caterpillars and chrysalids, and load the data via the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network, "a central repository that, in combining data from various sources, assists researchers in performing large-scale temporal and spatial analyses. The data collected by volunteers help researchers answer key questions about monarch butterfly and milkweed distribution, timing of reproduction, and the use of natural resources. In turn, this information helps conservationists identify and prioritize actions to conserve the species."
Ready to participate? All you have to do is share your data with one of the community science programs below:
- Journey North (journeynorth.org)
- Mission Monarch (mission-monarch.org)
- Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (mlmp.org)
- Naturalista (naturalista.mx)
- Correo Real Program/PROFAUNA A.C. (https://www.correoreal.mx/)
- Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper (monarchmilkweedmapper.org)
The Blitz is organized by the Trinational Monarch Conservation Science Partnership, a collaboration of organizations, including the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, Insectarium/Montréal Space for Life, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the Monarch Joint Venture, Journey North, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, PROFAUNA AC/Correo Real Program, and Mexico's Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (Conanp).
Last year's effort resulted in 5988 observations, 2698 participants from 75 states and provinces, 19,222 monarchs observed, and 68,847 milkweeds examined.
Also, you can sign up for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation's newsletter here.
We remember that in 2016, our Vacaville pollinator garden thrived with 300 monarch eggs and caterpillars. The most exciting event? On Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 a citizen-tagged monarch fluttered into our yard from Ashland, Ore. This was part of a migratory monarch project headed by entomologist David James of Washington State University, my alma mater. Community scientist Steven Johnson of Ashland tagged it on Aug. 28, numbering it A6093.
"So, assuming it didn't travel much on the day you saw it, it flew 285 miles in 7 days or about 40.7 miles per day," James told us. "Pretty amazing. So, I doubt he broke his journey for much more than the five hours you watched him--he could be 100 miles further south by now." (See Bug Squad blog)
Now, to keep our eyes open for Danaus plexippus--the adults, eggs, caterpillars and chrysalids--during the July 28-Aug. 6 blitz.
Zero sightings in our yard so far this year!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It looked newly emerged but it wasn't moving.
In fact, it looked quite dead.
A gloved hand quickly rescued the monarch, a male, from passing traffic.
A monarch in January? Here in Vacaville after heavy rain and flooding and more on the way? "A third atmospheric river storm," National Public Radio (NPR) announced Jan. 2, "is set to add to misery in California's flooded areas. Forecasters in Northern California have a sobering new-year message for people who are reeling from floods and mudslides: the situation could get worse before it gets better."
"Much like the end of 2022 storm, this will be a strong wind event along with moderate to heavy rainfall," according to the National Weather Service.
Rain, floods, and recent freezing temperatures....
So how incredible to find a monarch here in January, while its "clan" is clustering in overwintering spots along the California coast. (They won't be heading inward until around February.)
"How long has it been seen you saw Monarchs flying in your area?" asked Mona Miller, who administers the popular Facebook page, Creating Habitat For Butterflies, Moths, & Pollinators. "Another option is that if it found a microclimate, which protected its cycle it has been slowly finishing its cycle. With climate change and fluctuating temperatures, I have been seeing late Monarchs surviving several frosts. Once they make it to adults, fall to winter Monarchs become more cold tolerant. This cold tolerance is rapid and protects them from fluctuating temperatures caused by climate change."
The last monarch I saw flying in Vacaville was on Oct. 26, 2022. It was a male that stopped to nectar on our Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifola). The blooms are long gone. We're in the dead of winter.
But there's hope.
"The ongoing wild windy wet weather in California is the wild card that interferes with predictions about the summer population in 2023," James commented. "Wild late winter storms are likely what caused the substantial reduction (from ~ 200,000 to 30,000) in western monarch numbers back in 2018/19. These lower numbers then led to the ultra-low number in 2020 of 1899 overwintering butterflies. Then of course we rebounded to more than 247,000 in 2021 and likely more than 300,000 for Nov 2022."
"The question now," James said, "is will the current storms and any others that occur during January-February, savagely dent the population as the 2018 storms did? If the overwintering population can survive the storms without major losses, then I think we will see a good-sized summer population in California and the Pacific Northwest in 2023." He administers the Facebook page, Monarch Butterflies in the Pacific Northwest.
It's sponsored by the Western Monarch Advocates (WMA) and is open to all interested persons--from scientists to citizen scientists to monarch aficionados. It will include networking, field trips, and meals.
James, a WMA board member, will be among the keynote speakers from four countries. The event is billed as "an exchange of ideas from across the Western States, Tribal Lands, Mexico, Canada and Australia-all with an interest in our western monarch population! Expand your knowledge and make connections with other Monarch enthusiasts, researchers, and conservation organizations."
As they point out, "our migrating Western Monarch butterflies do not stop at state or international borders; nor should our efforts to restore them."
And, apparently, the Vacaville monarch lying cold and still on a residential street on Jan. 3 didn't let the rain, the storm and the floods--or passing cars--stop him from surviving. He also avoided the hungry birds seeking a fast-food meal (birds learn quickly that monarchs "don't taste good").
He's alive.
Monarchs continue to inspire and surprise us.