Too early to tag in South Carolina?

[Tia]

From the MW page below, I see that peak migration is Oct. 7 here. Is it too early to start tagging? I'm in Pawleys Island, SC right now (latitude 33). I did see some tag recoveries of SC monarchs who were released in October. Thoughts, anyone?

http://www.monarchwatch.org/tagmig/peak.html

Tia

[Mona Miller]

Check Journey North to see where the roosts have been found.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/DataReported.html

Looks like NY is the closes so far that a roost has been seen. Peak times on the east coast at Assateague, VA is the last week of September.

If you tag before it is peak migration, you might just be tagging a Monarch that is not in diapause.

[Tia]

Thanks, Mona! So early tags might just be wasted ones. We'll wait!

Tia

[Mona Miller]

Never wasted, but may not be those Monarchs traveling to Mexico. Gravid females and non-diapause males are also pushed with the migrating crew.