Suddenly we have a lot of Monarchs and cats. This one completely ignored me.
Monarchs are arriving
Gorgeous! I have had only a handful in the garden this year, and a couple cats. Hopefully more will come next year.
Kim
Thanks, Kim!
Most years we have some all year, but only a few this year.
trois
I usually have lots of Monarchs too. Last year I had lots of eggs all over my butterfly weed (they didn't leave one leaf on my plants!) but this year I didn't have any. Wonder what happened this year. Hope they make a come-back next year--I really missed them.
Hi everyone! Someone else posted on the forum that they got to participate in tagging Monarchs this year. I also got to do it at one of the nature preserve's education centers in my area. If you go to www.monarchwatch.org they are spearheading the effort to track Monarch migration. Then, instead of wondering why there were more or less than usual, we can use science to help us explain it. It's a really cool program; you put little stickers on the wings. Then, they pay folks down in Mexico $5 for each butterfly they find or recover. I think it's cool to help science and boost the economy of a local community at the same time. Apparently, the area where the Monarchs end up is something like 6 square acres - which is not very big. Of course there are threats from logging so if we can help make the butterflies profitable for the community, they will also have a strong desire to protect them. Just my two cents!
Melanie
Interesting reports about your monarch visitors...I wonder if the 'return' migration was sparse this year because of the big drought in the mid west and east this summer?
Also interesting abut the monarch tagging...I didn't know the Mexico spot was only 6 acres...very tiny place...certainly they can do their logging someplace else!
You would hope so. There was a picture of the Monarchs hanging on one of the trees and they are massive trees. I guess because the trees are so old and huge they make for good pieces of wood. But the butterflies keep going there because they are the big trees they can all hang on. I'd love to vacation there someday. That's another good way to help the economy and keep those butterflies safe!
Do they have a nice lodge there? LOL
Up until last winter, when it was much colder than normal, most of the Monarchs are here year round. I am hoping they will resume that practice.
trois
I did a little research and found that the largest staging area is a little more than 6 acres, but they then spread out over about 60 square miles. That makes me feel a bit better.
That's not much though when you think about the whole wide world. I think they're afraid if a major winter site were to disappear it would have a huge impact on the species.
I hope they can make it in my yard.
The more the better!
Check out the Monarch Watch website. They have a whole program about how to make your house a Monarch "Way Station". You can even register and get a little sign to put up. It's too cute!
I will check it out.
Oh, I love the Monarch Watch website--it is so full of info and always something new... I especially like the page on all the different milkweeds...there must be at least one kind for every kind of garden...I guess that's why monarchs can be found almost everywhere during the warm seasons in the US...
Our monarchs are long gone now and I miss them! Have purchased lots of different milkweed seeds from Hardy Plants/Specialty Perennials this year...always planning for next summer!
trois if you see any of ours down there in your yard, tell them we said Hi!
Will do.
I have a ton of Monarch's in my yard, too. Seems like the past month and a half they have been really laying eggs. I've brought in over 100 eggs.
Mellie, I just got my Waystation certification about 3 weeks ago. And got my sign! I now have 3 signs to put up in my yard: Monarch Waystation, NWF Backyard Habitat, and a Butterfly Sanctuary sign.
I have 5 pupas that are very close to eclosing this morning, too.
Terrie
Very cool trois!!
That new Pentax is going to get a good workout, lol!
debnes
Well, the weather today is not promising. Normal for Nov. though.
Good warm up expected by weekend. I was in Austin for Thanksgiving and saw a number of butterflies riding the strong wind going South. The only one close enough to ID was a Sulphur. They were really moving.
trois
I hear that trois!
We went to the Big Thicket last week and I took my last 4 Monarch chrysalids with me hoping they would eclose. They didn't, so I left them stuck in an oak tree on our land. We got back to plummeting temperatures up here on Wednesday. So when they do eclose they will have a good head start...
Looks like butterfly season is officially over for this year, except for the occasional furry brushfooted ones..
All (6 or so) of my Giant STs are in hibernation phase, and one Black ST.. due to eclose sometime in April.
debnes
Congrats on being a Way Station - I need to get certified, too!
Here's some good news for Monarchs from the Associated Press...
Mexico funds will protect butterflies By JESSICA BERNSTEIN-WAX, Associated Press Writer
29 minutes ago
President Felipe Calderon unveiled a sweeping plan Sunday to curb logging and protect millions of monarch butterflies that migrate to the mountains of central Mexico each winter, covering trees and bushes and attracting visitors from around the world.
The plan will put $4.6 million toward additional equipment and advertising for the existing Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, covering a 124,000-acre swathe of trees and mountains that for thousands of years has served as the winter nesting ground to millions of orange- and black-winged monarch butterflies.
Calderon said it would help boost tourism and support the economy in an impoverished area where illegal logging runs rampant.
"It is possible to take care of the environment and at the same time promote development," the president said.
The new initiative is part of ongoing efforts to protect the butterflies, which are a huge tourist attraction and the pride of Mexico. In some areas, officials can even be found standing guard along highways and slowing cars that might accidentally hit a butterfly flying across the road.
The plan also meshes nicely with one of Calderon's main policy planks: protecting the environment and combatting global warming. He has drawn up a national anti-global warming plan and committed to plant some 250 million trees in 2007.
While the monarch butterfly does not appear on any endangered species lists, experts say illegal logging in Mexico threatens its existence in North America because it removes the foliage that protects the delicate insects from the cold and rain.
"By even taking a single tree out near the butterfly colony you allow heat to escape from the forest and that then jeopardizes the butterflies," said Lincoln Brower, professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Florida and at Sweet Briar College in Sweet Briar, Va.
Brower, who has studied the insects for 52 years, described the Mexican nesting grounds as "the Mecca of the whole insect world."
The reserve already receives some $36.4 million in government funding, and its staff includes a team of park rangers who patrol the area equipped with assault rifles and body armor searching for armed gangs of lumber thieves.
The World Wildlife Fund and the Mexican Fund for Nature Conservation say the efforts are paying off. They say this year saw a 48 percent drop in illegal logging, compared to a year ago.
"We're gaining ground in the fight against illegal logging," Calderon said.
Each September, the butterflies begin their 3,400-mile journey from the forests of eastern Canada and parts of the United States to the central Mexican mountains. The voyage is considered an aesthetic and scientific wonder.
The butterflies return to the U.S. and Canada in late March, where they breed and cycle through up to five generations before heading back south. Scientists say they are genetically programmed to return to Mexico, where they settle into the same mountains their ancestors inhabited the year before.
According to Brower, sometimes they even return to the exact same trees — probably because previous monarchs have marked the area through a mechanism scientists don't yet understand.
The monarchs that spend the winter in Mexico do not reproduce until they return to the U.S. and have a much longer life span than those born in the spring and summer.
Omar Vidal, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Mexico program, applauded Calderon's plan.
"This is the longest migration of all insects, a unique phenomenon and a natural wonder and Mexico has the biggest responsibility to protect them because they come here to hibernate," he said.
Brower said the monarch isn't at risk of extinction because it can be found in Mexico, Canada, the U.S., most of South America and even parts of Australia and New Zealand. But disappearing habitat could threaten a delicate migratory route that has existed for an estimated 10,000 years.
"The whole migratory phenomenon which involves two continents and over a million square miles could just go down the drain," he said.
You should, Mel, it's so easy to get.
Terrie