Effects of Hurricane Ike on Migration

[dannus plex]

Anyone like to comment on the possible or probable effects of Hurricane Ike upon this years migration?

[Mona Miller]

Chip Taylor said the majority of the migration had not made it to Kansas, so hopefully, all is not lost. But, a butterfly is no match for a hurricane. After Hanna passed thru and she wasn't much. I found a female Monarch in my yard with her one of her upper wings torn completely off. The same thing happens to birds or matter of fact anything in the way of winds and water out of control.

[Pixie]

The remnants of Hurricane Ike passed through St. Louis, MO overnight & throughout this morning. I had put a sleeve over a chrysalis 2 days ago - it is ok. However I had 2 cats that looked about ready to pupate yesterday. After the rains subsided (and the rains were so strong they were blowing sideways!) I went out & found one cat on the ground & it had turned black. I am unable to find the second one. So I am left with one cat outside under the sleeve & one that I had brought inside last week. As another observation, I have not seen any monarchs here in St. Louis for over 2 weeks.....why? as I am in the latitude whereby the monarchs should be coming through this month......
Mona - I have been reading your posts for months & until now was having difficulty posting. Thanks to Jim, I am finally on!! That being said, I have learned a great deal about butterfly gardening & caring for the cats ( I have been doing it for several years now) from your posts & observations.
I also want to thank the Monarch Watch site for a wealth of knowledge about gardening for the monarchs. This is my first year tagging but I have only tagged 5 until 2 weeks ago when they seemed to have disappeared...............
I must tell you all that I am now rearing my 3rd batch of black swallowtail cats on parsley & fennel - the only problem with them is they travel out to the woods to pupate & I can never find the chrysalis'. I think I might go out & buy a small aquarium, bring a few inside & see what happens. I have enough parsley & fennel to feed them.
I have found a fuzzy brownish/red cat on my butterfly bush - I am thinking it must be a moth cat - I have seen several moths, including a clearwing, so I will be waching to see what develops with this cat.
I know this is a long post, but I am so excited to finally be able to post on the forum.

Dottie/Pixie
Waystation #252

[Mona Miller]

Glad to have you aboard. With Hanna, we had 8-10 inches of rain and gust up to 60 mph, I found one caterpillar that had failed to pupate. I didn't see it hanging or I would have taken it in. Very few Monarchs here. I saw one in my garden this morning and another at the park. We usually have more. Perhaps they have been blow around so much that they will have to reorient and get back on track, that is those that didn't get bashed by the wind and rain.

My naturalist friend in Maryland has loads. I'm thankful because I usually bring Monarchs for her Fiesta Day, which is on Sept. 27 this year. I have my permit for Maryland so I can take them across state lines.

If anyone is in the area it is on 9/27 from 9:30 until 3 at Black Hill Regional Park:
http://www.mc-mncppc.org/Parks/nature_c ... fiesta_day
Monarch Fiesta Day

[Paul Cherubini]

Hurricane Ike didn't create strong winds where the greatest concentration of fall migrants is right now: Iowa, Illinois and northern Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas.

Ike and other recent storms have dumped copius amount of rain in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and this abundant moisture should create tons of sunflowers, goldenrod, blazing star and other nectar sources for the fall migrants in those areas to tank up on.

In spite of the fact that the fall migration appears weak from the Mississippi Valley eastward, the numbers of monarchs reaching Mexico could be similar or better than the numbers seen last winter because the migration in the upper Midwest (west of roughly the Mississippi River) seems pretty strong so far judging by all the favorable reports posted to the Journey North website.

[Mona Miller]

In spite of the fact that the fall migration appears weak from the Mississippi Valley eastward, the numbers of monarchs reaching Mexico could be similar or better than the numbers seen last winter because the migration in the upper Midwest (west of roughly the Mississippi River) seems pretty strong so far judging by all the favorable reports posted to the Journey North website.

The past two reports on Journey South talk of the probability of a small population this year.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/f ... 91108.html
Fall 2008 Fall 2007 Fall 2006
33 roosts 104 roosts 58 roosts

[Paul Cherubini]

The number of roosts reported is actually up for the state of Iowa compared to last year. If this trend continues for the states of Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas in the coming weeks, then it's possible the size of the overwintering population in Mexico will be similar or larger than last year.

[Mona Miller]

The key word is "IF", so far the reports from the US and Canada all season has been low numbers. I'll try to be optomistic, but this year is the first year I haven't had larger numbers of larvae in my garden. This is not a trend that I have seen for 15 years.

[Pixie]

Today it was only 60 degrees here in St. Louis, so I went out to clean up the garden beds affected by the remnants of Ike. As I was pulling out the damaged zinnias, I found a monarch cat attached to a zinnia leaf - as I observed it throughout the afternoon it formed the J - I sure do hope it survives. I also found another cat on the curissavica, so all was not lost during the rains as I thought. The 10 swallowail cats survived also & some of them are ready to leave the parsley & go out to the woods to form their chrysalis. They are so cute - my grand-daughter loves to pet them & have them release their stinky odor.............I have been photographing the progress of all my cats & chrysalis' as I will be giving a presentation to my neighbor's son's kindergarten class in the near future. I gave a presentation to my grand-daughter's class last April & the kiddoes just loved it - I did the life cycle of the monarch & the black swallowtail..........I am just updating my photos for my next presentation..........Monarchs & photography are my passions!!

[Mona Miller]

I have many friends that are photographers, but I'm not that good at it. I guess I'll just have to settle for raising all these lovely creatures and letting them go. Glad to hear that most of your caterpillars weathered the storm.

[sbannister]

I evacuated for Gustav and returned to find all the butterflies I usually see (Monarchs, assorted swallowtails and skippers, Gulf Frittilaries) still visiting my garden. I even had hummingbirds, which I don't usually see. I think they are migrating through here (SE Louisiana). But since Ike passed, I haven['t seen any but the really small skippers. I do have some tiny cats from eggs that I brought inside and have also seen two 5th instar Monarch cats.

[Pixie]

Today I found a male monarch on a zinnia. I was able to catch him & tag him. I then put him back out on the zinnia & took several photos. Can someone tell me how I can post a photo of the monarch showing the tag? Is there a process I need to know about posting a photo? I now have 2 chrysalis' inside, one out on the milkweed covered with a sleeve and one more cat due to pupate any day now.
This is the most successful year I have had for "raising" the monarchs................

[Mona Miller]

faq.php#f33
Up to the right in the "FAQ" section there is loads of info on using this forum. I've posted the section on images. I belong to flickr for my photos. They show you how to create html with your photos. You can use that to post pictures.

www.flickr.com
This is free, just look in the help section to see how to create html with your pictures.