Late Spring 2010 Central California Report

[Paul Cherubini]

The past three days I checked major milkweed growing areas in Yosemite National Park, in the northern San Joaquin Valley near the town of Tracy, at a spot just north Sacramento and in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento. Not a single monarch was seen anywhere!

In Yosemite Valley, on June 9 the speciosa milkweed was about 1-2 feet high in along roadsides and in warm, dry meadows like this:
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... yosemf.jpg
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... yoseme.jpg
but the plants were much shorter in wet meadows and some hadn't even come up yet.

The waterfalls and rivers in Yosemite were raging torrents due to the much above normal snowpack:
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... yosema.jpg
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... yosemb.jpg

The cordifolia milkweed that was growing between 1,300 - 3,000 feet elevation in the Yosemite Park region was in full bloom:
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78/18R-C/corda.jpg
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... yosemc.jpg

Well west of Yosemite Park along Highway 140, I spotted several patches of Asclepias californica milkweed:
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... yosemg.jpg

At Tracy, California along roadsides and the margins of crops the fascicularis milkweed was beginning to bloom and should have drawn in some monarchs as it always has in prior years in June. But no
monarchs were seen during my visit on June 10:
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... tracya.jpg
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... tracyb.jpg

Just north of Sacramento, the eriocarpa milkweed was also beginning to bloom, but again, there was no trace of monarchs or caterpillars during my visit June 11:
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78/18R-C/riego.jpg

Since the population of monarchs in central and northern California is obviously extremely low right now, it means very few spring migrant monarchs will be moving into the Pacific Northwest and Great
Basin States this month, hence very few will be seen in those regions this coming summer. Prospects for a decent sized fall migration arriving along the northern and central California coast later this year are also very poor at present.

Paul Cherubini
El Dorado, Calif.