Previous Sightings - 2004 to 2007

[Jim]

Monarch sightings for the Pacific region of the United States (AK, CA, HI, OR, WA) - 2004 to 2007.

[pupapenny]

I have collected eggs early this year and have been raising the few that hatched. Collected 21 eggs - 8 hatched. Male monarch patroled for several days after egg laying but he has moved on.

Penny

[pupapenny]

My males found a female and I collected 50 eggs a couple of days ago. Several have hatched. This is 2nd group this year.

Pupa

[desertheat]

This is the first time I"ve seen a monarch and got close enough to make sure it wasnt the viceroy! Today is Sept. 4th and it was on my yellow butterfly bush. Beautiful sight for sure!

[ehglenesk]

Pismo monarch grove now has between 2000 and 3000 monarchs (October 25) We expect a low year - meaning 30,000 +/- Docents start manning the grove October 30

[Paul Cherubini]

Pismo monarch grove now has between 2000 and 3000 monarchs (October 25) We expect a low year - meaning 30,000 +/- Docents start manning the grove October 30

A little north of Pismo Beach, in the town of Cayucos, Calif. I observed about 10,000 monarchs yesturday, Oct. 27, in a tall, but very small clump of Australian eucalyptus trees:

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/cayucos1.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/cayucos2.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/cayucos3.jpg
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/cayucos4.jpg

The camera captured only fairly small portion of the total number of clusters there.

[ehglenesk]

As of November 15, 2004, Pismo Beach Monarch grove has 40,000 Docents on duty every day Nov 1 to March 1. Questions to Ernie Glenesk (ehglenesk@earthlink.net)

[ehglenesk]

My message earlier today omitted a period which resulted in it making no sense. We do NOT have 40,000 docents !!
The count at Pismo Beach State Park is 40,000 monarchs as of November 15. Docents are on duty every day 10 to 4 until March 1
I find this web site VERY complex and difficult to navigate and even to post a message

[Paul Cherubini]

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/pg1.jpg

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/pg2.jpg

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/pg3.jpg

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/pg4.jpg

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/pg5.jpg

http://www.saber.net/~monarch/pg6.jpg

[Connie]

Great pictures. I had visited the Pacific Grove Sanctuary 4-5 years ago, your pictures are a super reminder of my visit. It is very sad about one of us enthusiasts being struck by the tree splitting.

[LA Diane]

I'm new to this web-site and think it's great. I live in the San Fernando Valley, California and yesterday I saw hundreds of monarch butterflies all moving north. My kids are in 4th grade also saw tons of them yesterdat, The kids at their school were really enjoying watching them flying past them too. What a spectacle! Amazing little creatures who all seem to know exactly what direction to fly.

[Wingman60]

my family has seen hundreds of butterflys today traveling through our backyard and headed north. it is exciting to see them on their trip up north to find a mate and complete their life cycle.

[montanadj]

We saw thousands of butterflies today flying past our house and in the parks of Laguna Hills...I've never seen something so beautiful...they just kept coming

Does anyone know if these are California monarchs? Where did they come from and where are they going??

[Alastor]

We saw thousands of butterflies today flying past our house and in the parks of Laguna Hills...I've never seen something so beautiful...they just kept coming

Does anyone know if these are California monarchs? Where did they come from and where are they going??

Yesterday, the 26th, they came through San Bernardino/Riverside County as well. Yes, they are the Monarchs. Beautiful creatures. Sorry for the quality of some of the photos, but the little beggars were just trying to mow me down it seemed LOL. Anyway, I just put these up (along with some Easter ones): http://homepage.mac.com/alastorspirit/PhotoAlbum54.html

They are going to Mexico to hang out in great profusion down there. Check out the migration paths and information on them here: http://www.thebutterflysite.com/biology.shtml

[cceci]

The monarchs are absolutely NOT heading TOWARD Mexico! Every single one of the monarch-like butterflies are headed in a direct NORTHWEST pattern - on a definite NW beeline toward their Pacific Grove/Pismo Beach area. These butterflies are literally everywhere you look throughout Southern California - including on Catalina Island yesterday. They seem to be smaller than I have seen before but definitely have the right pattern and coloring.

Interesting to note - when they fly over freeway areas with wide underpasses, they will head toward the shadowed underpass, barely get into the shadow, then almost do backflips to get back into the sunlight and go back and OVER the top of the freeway, sticking exactly to the NW pattern. I was stuck in a road construction project and watched hundreds of them do exactly the same thing - weird.

They are amazing little creatures and deserve every bit of help we can give them along the way - especially in urban areaas.
How about everyone planting at least ONE butterfly-friendly plant/bush/tree in our spring plantings this year??

[Alastor]

I shouldn't mutitask and try to think LOL. They are headed north. It's the trek southward in Autumn that I was thinking of. Good catch! And you're right that they do seem smaller this time.

[skylark_pilot]

Monarchs are streaming through Redlands, CA right now as I type this. It's an awesome site. Those suckers can really move. Riding my scooter home at lunch was a fun exercise in butterfly avoidance.

March 29, 2pm

[Alastor]

Yes, they were streaming through Redlands, Colton and San Bernardino today. Really beautiful, but they do seem to have a death wish for flying at cars and people. I had thought that the large group of them would be done by now, but they certainly were just as heavy today as they were Saturday

[scott]

they're flooding by in coastal san diego. hundreds of them. its wonderful ! are they heading to san juan capistrano ? or just everywhere ? fabulous start to the day !

scott

[cceci]

Since an earlier post, I got a much closer look at one of the butterflies floating through SoCal. They are not the Monarchs but rather Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui) - smaller version with slightly different coloring. Apparently the heavy rains have given thise little guys a LOT more food avilability! Enjoy while they're here!! This size migration doesn't happen very often-

[mikerosenberg]

wow, i have never seen so many butterflies in one place. my backyard just started swarming with them. like someone said, they are smaller than monarchs and slightly differnent in color. beautiful none the less. i am in westchester just 3 miles north of LAX airport. watch out for the planes ladies!

[Megathymus ursus]

Monarch flying over a residential street in Pico Rivera, CA yesterday (Oct 10 2005). Could not be clearly seen or sexed.

[Paul Cherubini]

Monarch flying over a residential street in Pico Rivera, CA yesterday (Oct 10 2005). Could not be clearly seen or sexed.

In the past I've found early-mid Oct. is a good time to observe fall migrant monarchs in the inland southern California areas headed for the coast. As a rule I would see fall migrants in the Ontario, Fontana region moving due West towards the coast, but down in San Diego they would be moving WNW towards the coast. Also, out in the southern California deserts like around Needles, CA I would see monarchs moving WNW in early-mid October. It was a real mind blower to see fall migrant monarchs flying in a northwesterly direction in the Autumn! Some of the monarch orientation researchers like Dr. Barrie Frost who work with tethered monarchs and get them to fly SW while being tethered still have no idea that in the wild fall migrant monarchs in some areas of the USA commonly fly in northwesterly directions in the Autumn and fly southeasterly in the Spring (e.g. Ventura, California to southern Arizona). So they have no idea that while the sun might be one cue that fall migrant monarchs use for direction finding, it is not hardly the only orientation cue the butterflies can perceive and respond to.

[psi_chemie]

Yeah, what other cues are there? I kinda remember seeing an article recently, something about monarchs having unique eye parts for polarised UV, and this gives them the ability to orient relative to the plane of the earth. The way they fly is weird. They flap a couple times, then coast, and flap, and swing around in I guess little eddies in the air. They seem much more intelligent fliers than other bugs, bird-like almost. So they have to be getting lots more sensory data than just what a regular bug eye would give.

But as far as selecting migration sites goes, do they have some inherited memory? I guess that concept is not scientifically accepted. But then, they must have a set of instincts that allow them to respond to various environmental data that results in a tendancy to cluster in the same spot. So I wonder if where they go in California shifts around, and if the spots in Mexico have been where they go for millenia, or if the whole race of monarchs can select another overwintering site if needed, over just one or two seasons?

[Paul Cherubini]

There is no inherited memory involved because when, for example, Kansas fall migrants are shipped to central California for tagging and release in mid-September they fly to central California overwintering sties and stay there for the rest of the fall and winter. Conversely, if monarchs are collected from a central California fall aggregation site in mid-September and shipped to the Midwest USA for tagging and release the butterflies end up being found at the overwintering sites in Michoacan, Mexico.

I agree with you that "they must have a set of instincts that allow them to respond to various environmental data that results in a tendancy to cluster in the same spot." In fact this is true worldwide in the temperate latitudes.
Example: When milkweed and monarchs were inadvertently transported to Spain, Australia and New Zealand by man in the mid-1800's, the seasonal migration phenomenon including overwintering in clusters quickly became established. That's probably because decreasing daylength in late summer in temperate latitudes triggers reproductive diapause and the "instinct" to fly equatorward and stop when they somehow sense they have found a suitable diapause site (overwintering site). As in North America, fall migrant monarchs in Spain, Australia and New Zealand manage to find overwintering locations that are consisently cool, but rarely lethally freezing. Thus far the scientific community has not investigated how the monarchs somehow sense a suitable overwintering location. Example: There must be some environmental characteristic about the central coast of California that the butterflies sense and is capable of overriding the southward migratory drive of even Kansas monarchs that are released in central California in mid-September. But so far no one knows what specific environmental information the September fall migrants perceive in central California that is overrriding the southward migratory drive.

[Megathymus ursus]

Monarch flying over a residential street in Pico Rivera, CA yesterday (Oct 10 2005). Could not be clearly seen or sexed.

In the past I've found early-mid Oct. is a good time to observe fall migrant monarchs in the inland southern California areas headed for the coast. As a rule I would see fall migrants in the Ontario, Fontana region moving due West towards the coast, but down in San Diego they would be moving WNW towards the coast. Also, out in the southern California deserts like around Needles, CA I would see monarchs moving WNW in early-mid October. It was a real mind blower to see fall migrant monarchs flying in a northwesterly direction in the Autumn! Some of the monarch orientation researchers like Dr. Barrie Frost who work with tethered monarchs and get them to fly SW while being tethered still have no idea that in the wild fall migrant monarchs in some areas of the USA commonly fly in northwesterly directions in the Autumn and fly southeasterly in the Spring (e.g. Ventura, California to southern Arizona). So they have no idea that while the sun might be one cue that fall migrant monarchs use for direction finding, it is not hardly the only orientation cue the butterflies can perceive and respond to.

This is true, but do not forget that Los Angeles-area monarchs really have no need to find a dedicated overwintering clustering spot. They can pretty much stay wherever they want. That said, the cities of Rowland Heights, La Mirada, and possibly Downey, CA seem to be local hotspots of overwintering and winter activity. In any event, we generally get a monarch (and larval) population boom every Oct. around here.

[Paul Cherubini]

This is true, but do not forget that Los Angeles-area monarchs really have no need to find a dedicated overwintering clustering spot. They can pretty much stay wherever they want. That said, the cities of Rowland Heights, La Mirada, and possibly Downey, CA seem to be local hotspots of overwintering and winter activity. In any event, we generally get a monarch (and larval) population boom every Oct. around here.

I think it depends on the reproductive physiology of the fall migrants that arrive in the Los Angeles area and elsewhere along the California coast.
The deep diapausers have a physiological "need" and behavioral "drive" to find a cold grove of trees right on the coast like those in Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Long Beach, Palos Verdes Estates and Santa Monica.
The more shallow diapausers seem to be more inclined to be "satisfied" with groves of trees located more inland (like those in Rowland Heights) or coastal groves with more open canopies which also contributes to more warmth. Some of these shallow diapausers break diapause at various times during the fall and lay eggs not only in Los Angeles but all the way north to the San Francisco Bay Area. The deeper diapausers don't break diapause until late winter. Monarchs do appear to breed year round in Los Angeles where ever there is tropical milkweed growing like in El Dorado Park in Long Beach http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y189/m ... ch/eld.jpg

[Megathymus ursus]

Paul, what distinguishes the "true" hibernators from the casual wintering monarchs? Is there some kind of genetic distinction between the native lowland CA monarchs and those that come from the more temperate West?

As for the ovipositions, I have seen monarch eggs as late as early Dec. and as early as late Jan. This is in Rowland Heights, or some 600' above seal level. I doubt that the Dec. eggs survive though, as the A. fascicularis shoots they are laid on die back pretty badly even in our winters.

Update: A female monarch crossed through the north end of the side of my yard and crossed the street Thurs., Oct. 13, heading northwesterly pretty much dead straight-on.

[Paul Cherubini]

Paul, what distinguishes the "true" hibernators from the casual wintering monarchs? Is there some kind of genetic distinction between the native lowland CA monarchs and those that come from the more temperate West?

No genetic distinction, but there are physiological differences among coastal California monarchs in the fall and winter. Example: In the late 1970's Dr. William S. Herman of the University of Minnesota found the monarchs at a small, slightly inland overwintering site in the San Francisco Bay Area had larger, heavier reproductive tracts on average compared to those at a large overwintering site right on the coast at Santa Cruz, CA. So while most of the butterlies at both overwintering sites were considered to be in reproductive diapause, the butterflies at the small, more inland site were considered to be in a more shallow state of diapause, hence more likely to break diapause earlier and not live as long into the late winter and spring or migrate as far. Available tagging data at small vs. large overwintering colonies tends to support this interpretation. The environmental factors that cause fall migrants to become shallow vs. deep diapausers are not well known.

[Paul Cherubini]

Yesturday, Oct. 29, I visited some overwintering sites in the Monterey Bay Area and found numbers were well below "Normal" . Examples (my visual estimates):

Andrew Molera State Park: 1500 monarchs
Monarch Grove Sancturary, Pacific Grove: 12,000 monarchs
Moran Lake, Capitola: 4,000 monarchs
Escalona Gulch, Capitola: 200 monarchs
Rispin Mansion, Capitola: 100 monarchs
Lighthouse Field State Park, Santa Cruz: 10,000 monarchs
Natural Bridges State Park, Santa Cruz: 8,000 monarchs

"Normal" is not really definable anymore since California overwintering populations have been in decline since about 1992 and especially since 1998. In the 1960's 1970's and 1980's the "Normal" size of some of the overwintering sites listed above was approx. as follows:

Pacific Grove : 40,000 monarchs
Moran Lake, Capitola: 35,000 monarchs
Escalona Gulch, Capitola: 20000 monarchs
Santa Cruz: 70,000 monarchs

[Paul Cherubini]

On July 24 I saw three full grown (5th instar) monarch
caterpillars feeding on roadside Asclepias speciosa milkweed
growing along Highway 99W approximately 6 miles north
of Eugene, Oregon:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/eugb.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/euga.jpg

A day earlier, I saw a female monarch nectaring on thistle
in the Shasta Valley of extreme northern California

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/shas.jpg

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

[durploin]

On Aug 14, 2006, my children and I hiked up to 10,500 ft. on Mt Hood, the Cascades volcano in Oregon. For 2 hours beginning at around 8000 ft elevation, we were swarmed with monarchs, more butterflies than I have ever seen combiuned in my life. My estimate is that we were seeing something on the order of about 100 per minute and they were riding an air current up over a glacier up the face of a cliff at literally tens of thousands per hour. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have witnessed. Very new to this, but if you're tracking them, 20-30,000 just went up over Mt. Hood last week.

[Paul Cherubini]

On Aug 14, 2006, my children and I hiked up to 10,500 ft. on Mt Hood, the Cascades volcano in Oregon. For 2 hours beginning at around 8000 ft elevation, we were swarmed with monarchs, more butterflies than I have ever seen combined in my life. My estimate is that we were seeing something on the order of about 100 per minute and they were riding an air current up over a glacier up the face of a cliff at literally tens of thousands per hour.

Did you take any photos? They might have been California Tortoishells like these:

[psi_chemie]

Nice pics, Paul. Especially the one with Mt. Shasta. Also, I used to live in Oregon and never knew monarchs got up to Eugene.

[mmmatthew]

Climbed Mt McLoughlin on August 21st and saw thousands of
the same butterfly in the above picture

I cared for monarch caterpillars over 10 yrs ago.
Haven't found any this year except one egg that already hatched.
The monarchs are flying around in the yard (I think I'm too late this year)

[mmmatthew]

On July 24 I saw three full grown (5th instar) monarch
caterpillars feeding on roadside Asclepias speciosa milkweed
growing along Highway 99W approximately 6 miles north
of Eugene, Oregon:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/eugb.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/euga.jpg

A day earlier, I saw a female monarch nectaring on thistle
in the Shasta Valley of extreme northern California

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/shas.jpg

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

THANKS!
I stopped by Eugene on the 16th of September and picked some seed pods from this spot thanks to your pictures.(hopefully this was legal)

[Diamond Butterfly]

Hi!

I brand new to this forum. I am compelled to post because my long anticipated hopes of hosting Monarchs in my backyard may be coming true. I live in Diamond Bar, which is in Los Angeles county. For the past 2-3 weeks I have seen 2-3 Monarchs in our backyard. I'm wondering if they are just passing through or, if it is the same Monarch(s) over this time period, if they are hanging around instead of moving on.

After looking up sexing information on this website, I identified at least one of them as a female, and she has been hanging around the milkweed in our native garden in particular. At this time of year, we have several plants in flower, so there are other food sources for her (them).

Anyone have any comments?

[Paul Cherubini]

A Western Monarch Discussion Group has been created by:

Karen Ritchie Shihadeh
Senior Wildlife Biologist
Conservation Ecology and Habitat Restoration
Ventana Wildlife Society
19045 Portola Dr., Ste. F-1
Salinas, CA 93908

Group name: western_monarchs
Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/western_monarchs
Group email: western_monarchs@yahoogroups.com

Subscribe: western_monarchs-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Post message: western_monarchs@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: western_monarchs-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
List owner: western_monarchs-owner@yahoogroups.com

[Paul Cherubini]

On July 20-22 I visited several monarch breeding habitats
on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains in
California.

Here is a relief map showing the habitats visited:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4 ... fornia.jpg

Here are photos of the habitats:

Hot Springs Road habitat west of Markleeville, Calif.
where 4 male and 1 female monarchs were seen:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/markc.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/markb.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/marka.jpg

Highway 89 habitat south of Markleeville, Calif. where
5 male and 2 female monarchs were seen:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/markd.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/marke.jpg

Coleville, Calif. habitats where 3 male and 1 female
monarchs were seen:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4 ... villea.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4 ... villeb.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4 ... villec.jpg

A habitat slightly north of Conway Summit where 1
male monarch was seen:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/conwaya.jpg

A habitat slightly north of Lee Vining, Calif. above the
west shore of Mono Lake where 3 male and 1
female monarchs were seen:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/monoc.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/monob.jpg

Habitats in Bishop, Calif. photographed on an
earlier trip on June 23 where three male monarchs
were seen (even more were present on the July 20-22
trip).

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/bishopc.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/bishopd.jpg

A habitat in Big Pine, Calif where 2 male monarchs were seen
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/bigpinea.jpg

A habitat near Independence, Calif. photographed on an
earlier trip on June 23 where 2 male monarchs were seen:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/bishope.jpg

A habitat along Inyo Street in Lone Pine, Calif. where
4 female and 1 male monarchs were seen
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/lonepinea.jpg

Habitats in Olancha, Calif where 4 male and 1 female
monarchs were seen:

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/olanchaa.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/olanchab.jpg

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.

[skippersc]

I have lived 15 miles out of Ione, Oregon for 25 years and have never seen a Monarch. October 23, 2007 about noon, I had a visit from a lone female Monarch. I still have Bachelor Buttons blooming in my yard. She visited each bloom. She hung around for about an hour and then was off. So cool, and curious that I have never seen them before.