What can we expect here in New Mexico?

[MercuryButterfly]

My daughter and I would like to do some tagging of monarchs here in the Albuquerque, NM area. Will any strays heading to Mexico head here? I am under the assumption that we have the western Monarch here and they will head to CA. Is it worth tagging? Is anyone monitoring this migration?

Thanks in advance.

Ron
Albuquerque, NM

[Paul Cherubini]

Yes fall migrant monarchs occur in Albuquerque, but you'd need to find an abundant nectar source like roadside sunflowers or rabbitbrush to have a reasonable chances of seeing and catching any. In the cropland south of Albuquerque along the Rio Grande River you might see adults nectaring in fields of blooming alfalfa Within the city you're best chance of seeing adults would probably be a residential yard with blooming butterfly bushes. Best time to see migrants would be about Sept. 20 - Oct. 20 and especially Sept. 25- Oct. 10

In late Sept. 1999 a commercial monarch breeding company air mailed 1,200 tagged monarchs from California to Albuquerque for release
http://swallowtailfarms.com/pages/educa ... s_mms.html
Two of these were found at overwintering sites along the south-central California coast and one at an overwintering site in Michoacan, Mexico.

[MercuryButterfly]

We have plenty of places in mind, but I was thinking it would be later here since we are a little warmer. We also have about 20 Monarch cats in our little backyard atrium. Hopefully we will find a few in the wild.

Thanks for the help. You seem to know the NM area....are you orginally from here?