Dr. Chip Taylor, Director of Monarch Watch, will participate in a webcast on May 12 from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. ET and discuss tagging monarchs, the current status of the population, Monarch Waystations and more.

Dr. Taylor is participating in the webcast as part of PollinatorLIVE: A Distance Learning Adventure. For more information and to register, go to pollinatorlive.pwnet.org. PollinatorLIVE is continuing last year’s distance learning adventure that focused on monarch butterflies. This year’s FREE distance learning adventure will feature pollinators, citizen science projects, and gardening.

Update: If you missed the live webcast you can now check it out online at

pollinatorlive.pwnet.org/webcasts/webstream.php

Monarch Watch Spring Open House & Plant Fundraiser
Saturday, May 8th 2010 8am-3pm
KU’s West Campus, Lawrence, KS

This free public event usually attracts 500-1000 visitors and we expect the same this time around.

Nearly 4,000 butterfly plants (both annuals and perennials), including seedlings of several milkweed species, will be available (modest contributions are suggested). A list of available plants is posted at the bottom of the Open House page.

We will also provide refreshments, lots of show & tell, videos and games for children, tours of our garden and lab space, iChat videoconferencing demonstrations, and, of course, monarch butterflies!

You may have heard about our “Monarchs In Space” project but you can learn more about this program on Saturday and see the actual monarchs that traveled from Monarch Watch to the International Space Station and back to Monarch Watch, a mere 40 million miles – that’s quite a migration!

We’d love to see you here so mark your calendars! If you can’t make it in person, be sure to check us out online – we plan to post photos and broadcast some LIVE video throughout the day.

Complete details, including a map and directions, are available online at

monarchwatch.org/openhouse

If you have any questions please feel free to drop us a line anytime!

Whew, we were busy! Our annual plant fundraiser last month was a huge success – a big THANK YOU goes out to everyone that came out to see us and buy plants for their gardens as well as all those that helped prepare for the event and assisted us throughout the day.

We welcomed nearly 1,000 visitors (our best guess) and a good time was had by all. As a part of our Spring Open House we had lots of things to see and do for kids of all ages – videos and games for children, tours of our garden and lab space, a ton of critters (all monarch life stages, silkworms, tarantulas, hissing cockroaches, cecropias, honeybees, mantids, etc.) and a whole bunch more.

We also had a number of webcams going that were broadcasting the event live over the internet to any Monarch Watchers around the globe that wanted to check in to see what we were doing.

Here’s a short slideshow (33 photos) of the day’s events:

Now we need to start getting ready for our fall events (butterfly festival, open house, tagging, and others) – see you there!

Monarch Watch Spring Open House & Plant Fundraiser
Saturday, May 9th 2009 8am-3pm
KU’s West Campus, Lawrence, KS

This free public event usually attracts 500-1000 visitors and we expect the same this time around.

Nearly 4,000 butterfly plants (both annuals and perennials), including seedlings of several milkweed species, will be available (modest contributions are suggested). A list of available plants is posted at the bottom of the Open House page.

We will also provide refreshments, lots of show & tell, videos and games for children, tours of our garden and lab space, iChat videoconferencing demonstrations, and, of course, monarch butterflies!

We’d love to see you here so mark your calendars! If you can’t make it in person, be sure to check us out online – we plan to post photos and broadcast some LIVE video throughout the day.

Complete details, including a map and directions, are available online at

monarchwatch.org/openhouse

If you have any questions please feel free to drop us a line anytime!

Our 10′ x 30′ booth contained a cage full of monarchs, milkweeds loaded with caterpillars and pupae, a plant a seedling activity, video & slideshow of the overwintering sites in Mexico, lots of Monarch Waystation info, and a mini “Monarch Watch Shop” where a few promotional and educational items were sold in support of our program.

Attendees got a first look at the new t-shirts that will be available via the Monarch Watch Shop soon:

Chip took the stage to give a couple of talks about creating habitats for butterflies and other pollinators:

I don’t know if every single one of the expected 30,000 visitors stopped by to see us but we definitely talked to a LOT of people about Monarch Watch and about creating habitats for monarchs and other wildlife. The donations collected and the few sales we made helped defray our costs of participating in the three-day event – more importantly though, we hope that we encouraged a large number of people to get involved in habitat conservation through our Monarch Waystation program (and that they get them certified!). Given the show’s proximity to Monarch Watch HQ in Lawrence, we also expect to see lots of first-time visitors to our Spring Open House and Plant Fundraiser coming up in May.

All in all I’d say this event was a success – we need to get the word out about Monarch Watch and habitat conservation; starting close to home makes sense

Right next to us you’ll find the show’s “Butterfly Encounter” – an exhibit with live butterflies from around the world, one of the largest temporary displays ever built in the Midwest.

If you’re in the area we’d love for you to stop by the American Royal Center and see us sometime Friday through Sunday (Feb 6-8):

Friday 10a to 9p
Saturday 10a to 9p
Sunday 10a to 6p

For directions, ticket information, and other details please visit the Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show website. See you there!

Saturday, 20 September 2008 7:30-11:30am CDT
Lawrence, KS, USA

Once again, Jayhawk Audubon Society and Monarch Watch are sponsoring Monarch butterfly tagging for the public at the Baker University Wetlands. The wetlands are located along 31st Street between Haskell and Louisiana. The event will be held from 7:30 AM until 11:30 AM on Saturday, 20 September 2008. There is no charge to participants and no experience is necessary – so bring yourself, your kids (all ages), your friends, and your neighbors! If you have a net, bring that too, though JAS and Monarch Watch will provide the tags, nets, and instructions in how to net and tag monarchs. In 2001, 325 participants tagged nearly 3,000 of the estimated 20,000 Monarchs present, and at least 85 of those tagged were recovered at the winter roost sites in Mexico! You can view all of the recoveries tagged at these events by searching for Lawrence-tagged monarchs in our searchable recovery database.

Every year, tens to hundreds of thousands of Monarchs stop on their way south to refuel on the nectar from the ocean of yellow Bidens flowers at the wetlands, a fantastic site in its own right. We will have check-in and information tables just inside the boardwalk entrance to the wetlands so you can arrive and leave whenever you please. The monarchs are usually roosting or clustering (sometimes in spectacular concentrations!) until around 8:30AM. As it warms up, they begin foraging on the Bidens flowers around the boardwalk.

Complete details are available online at 2008 Monarch Watch Tagging Event – there we plan to feature a live audio/video broadcast and post photos during the event so that everyone that can’t make it can at least see (and hear!) what’s going on. You will also be able to participate in a live chat session with fellow Monarch Watchers.

A photo slideshow (50 images) is available online and other details are available at MonarchWatch.org/openhouse

At least one of our visitors blogged about the event – you can read her article and see her photos here: Monarch Watch 2008 Open House

My thanks to all and especially to the Monarch Watch crew, particularly Jim Lovett and Ann Ryan, who made this event possible.

Monarch Watch Open House
Saturday, 6 September 2008 8am-3pm

Join us at our Fall Open House at Foley Hall (KU West Campus) on Saturday, September 6th to celebrate the arrival of migrating monarchs coming from the north. This free event is designed to please children and adults alike.

At the Open House you can learn about creating Monarch Waystations and see the magnificent butterfly and pollinator garden created and maintained by Margarete Johnson and the Douglas County Master Gardeners. Weather permitting, you will see an abundance of butterflies and numerous other small but important pollinators. On a good day over 20 species of butterflies visit the garden. The Biohouse, adjacent to the garden, will be filled with monarchs and other species. The Biohouse and garden contain numerous butterfly flowers. Bring your cameras. It is well worth a visit.

As usual, we will provide refreshments, lots of show & tell (including a honey bee observation hive and some “Oh, my!” insects you may have never seen before), tours of our gardens and lab space, hands-on activities, games, videos, monarch tagging demonstrations, iChat videoconferencing, and, of course, lots of monarch caterpillars, pupae, and butterflies!

We will also have a limited number of Monarch pupae (to emerge as a butterfly at home or at school) that will be given to each child in attendance, while supply lasts.

If you can’t be there, be sure to visit us online at the address below to see what we’re doing – we plan on having at least a couple of webcams broadcasting the day’s events.

Again, the Monarch Watch Fall Open House will be at Foley Hall on KU’s West Campus, Lawrence, KS on Saturday, 6 September 2008 8am-3pm. For more information, a map, and directions, visit

For images of some of the butterflies and caterpillars seen at last year’s event see the photo gallery at: www2.ljworld.com/photos/galleries/2007/sep/07/butterflies/

This year’s event will feature activities for children, with the special assistance of Brenda Mott from the Children’s Museum of Kansas City from 11AM-1PM. We will also have live exotic and local insects, videos of monarchs and bees, a honey bee observation hive, and 4,000 continuously blooming butterfly and hummingbird plants you can select from for your garden – and/or as a gift to mom for Mother’s Day. Naturally, we will have lots of milkweed available :-)

We will also provide refreshments, lots of show & tell, videos and games for children, tours of our garden and lab space, and, of course, monarch butterflies!

We’d love to see you here so mark your calendars! If you’re unable to make it in person, be sure to watch the Blog for photos and updates throughout the day.

Complete information including photos from a past event, directions, and a map is available online at monarchwatch.org/openhouse/