Monarchs in Nebraska

[bvogt]

Last one came out today outside, a female. We had about 20 inside this summer, and the last ones left late last week. Just in time--37 and frost tonight.

We didn't see monarchs until mid July, and then not that many. A few days 3-5 would come in, but usually just 1-2 each day. And not many eggs or cats. Last year I had 30+ larvae on one milkweed at one time, this year the record was 6. Of course, several succumbed to tachnid flies or ambush bugs.

Certainly concerned about the off summer here, a dry Texas, and a smaller refuge in Mexico. I keep planting more milkweed, and religiously toss seed out my car window on my semi rural roads as I drive to work. (Not many in my new neighborhood plant trees, let alone shrubs or flowers--sod right up to the house walls!)

[Paul Cherubini]

Did you see the many reports on Journey North of hundreds or thousands of clustering monarchs in Nebraska?
http://www.learner.org/cgi-bin/jnorth/j ... 1251512337
http://www.learner.org/cgi-bin/jnorth/j ... 1252804736
http://www.learner.org/cgi-bin/jnorth/j ... 1253044598
http://www.learner.org/cgi-bin/jnorth/j ... 1253027203
http://www.learner.org/cgi-bin/jnorth/j ... 1253148483

This could mean the overwintering sites in Mexico this coming winter will be normal or near normal in size.

[Mona Miller]

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarc ... Graph.html
Graph of historical population size

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarc ... ctare.html
as many as 50 million per hectare

I'd love to see the population increase, but the present graph shows a decline from 1994 to present.

[Paul Cherubini]

This is the World Wildlife Fund-Mexico graph (I had to manually add the 2008 data to it): http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/4ALC/wwf.jpg

It has slightly different figures than the Journey North graph and a decline is less evident. A good count this winter (6 hectares or more) could cast doubt on whether or not there really has been a decline, especially considering the Cape May, New Jersey data shows no decline since counts began in 1992.

Meanwhile, the California overwintering population is down a clear cut whopping 75% from the pre-1992 years because in the 1980's and 90's conservationists focused all their efforts on overwintering site protection and ignored milkweed protection.

There's big money to be made in California overwintering site protection (e.g. 5 figure grove management consulting jobs for Monarch biologists) but no money to be made in western milkweed patch protection so that may partially explain the past and ongoing lack of interest in western milkweed patch protection. The net result is a paradox; i.e. on the one hand the USA demands Mexico do this and that to protect their forests to preserve the eastern monarch migration while we let our own western migration go to pot.

[Mona Miller]

I know for a fact that numbers at "The Chincoteague Monarch Monitoring Project" have shown fluctuations. Access the data below to see marked fluctuations from year-to-year. It looks like it is taking the Monarchs longer to build up numbers after a bad year, which showed declines.

http://mysite.verizon.net/robgibbs301/monarch.htm/
Chincoteague

http://rkwalton.com/mmp02.html
Cape May
2009 was not as good as 2006

Is there a program in California and/or on the west coast, like the Monarch Watch Waystation program? Are people working to change laws to protect the milkweeds? Complaining does no good unless action is taken when information is given. Has the governor of California been contacted about the plight of the Monarch butterfly in California? Have state agencies that protect animals been contacted?

[bvogt]

Well, those folks are lucky! I wonder if they do, in fact, roost in the same spots year after year in migration, or if they vary. We live near several large groves of trees, so I'd assume if they were roosting a decent number would've come to sugar up in my 2,000 foot garden.

[Mona Miller]

Along the coast of Assateague, Virginia, they do use the same roost. The problem for several years is that some of the trees/shrubs that they used to roost in have been destroyed by hurricanes. Inland, many locations have been destroyed by development.

This year the Monarchs in the mid-west took a more westerly migration pattern. The thoughts are that either they were pushed west by the weather or droughts caused them to seek greener areas. They need to stop to nectar along the way to maintain their body fats and add fats for winter survival.