Monarch Watch Update May 2022

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Greetings, Monarch Watchers!

Included in this issue:
1. Monarch Watch Open House & Spring Plant Fundraiser
2. Follow Monarch Watch on LinkedIn
3. Monarch Population Status
4. Monarch Tag Recoveries from Mexico
5. When monarchs are like corn
6. New Project: Monarch Directional Flight
7. About This Monarch Watch List

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1. Monarch Watch Open House & Spring Plant Fundraiser
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Monarch Watch hosted its first in-person Open House and Plant Fundraiser since 2019 on May 7th. An enthusiastic turnout for the presale (online orders and local pickup) and in-person event made it our biggest plant fundraiser ever! In addition, hundreds of visitors enjoyed outdoor family activities and displays, including seed ball making, a kids’ activity guide, butterfly card craft, emergence of monarch butterflies, and lots of caterpillars to see. The Douglas County Extension Master Gardeners were on hand for garden tours and to help visitors choose the right butterfly plants for their gardens and the KU Natural History Museum also participated by hosting a booth.

Thank you to everyone who made this year’s event a success – see you next spring!

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2. Follow Monarch Watch on LinkedIn
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Monarch Watch has established a presence on LinkedIn so if you’d like make a connection and follow us on that platform, head on over to our new page at https://linkedin.com/company/monarchwatch and hit that Follow button!

See you there 🙂

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3. Monarch Population Status
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We are eagerly awaiting the official report from WWF-Mexico with the 2021 overwintering season monarch population numbers and we anticipate we will have that for you in the near future. As soon as the news breaks, it will be reported via our blog and Facebook page so stay tuned!

Monarch Watch Blog: https://monarchwatch.org/blog

Monarch Watch Facebook: https://facebook.com/monarchwatch

In the meantime, be sure to check out the recent “Development of the 2022 monarch population so far” blog post at https://monarchwatch.org/blog/2022/05/18/development-of-the-2022-monarch-population-so-far/

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4. Monarch Tag Recoveries from Mexico
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More than 900 Monarch Watch tags were recovered from monarch overwintering sites in central Mexico during the 2021 tagging season. All of the tags have been examined and the “Tag recoveries from central Mexico” list has been updated. By default, this list is sorted by the report season then by tag code and now includes nearly 21,000 records.

Get out your tag codes and check out the updated list 🙂

Monarch Watch tag recoveries: https://monarchwatch.org/tagrecoveries

As a reminder, it is never too late for data so if you have not yet submitted your records, please do so at your earliest convenience via https://monarchwatch.org/tagging

Thank you to everyone who tagged monarchs in 2021 and also those who assisted with the recovery efforts!

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5. When monarchs are like corn —by Chip Taylor
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I’m going to tell you why and when monarchs are like corn. It’s been on my list to do so for some time. A recent headline gave me the motivation to start this discussion. Let’s start with the obvious, corn doesn’t fly, lay eggs, visit flowers or migrate, but it does grow and every farmer knows that yields are dependent on numerous factors and that two of the most important are timing of planting and temperatures. There’s the similarity – timing and temperature.

The existence of data on both monarchs and corn that can be related to temperatures and weather extremes allows for many comparisons. Similar relationships surely exist for a large number of co-occurring plants and animals.

Explore the complete “When monarchs are like corn” article at https://monarchwatch.org/blog/2022/05/17/when-monarchs-are-like-corn/

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6. New Project: Monarch Directional Flight
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During the spring and mid-summer migrations, there are powered directional flights with no gliding and soaring. Most flight is rapid at speeds of 10-12 mph at 4-10 meters above the ground. Nectaring occurs mostly in the morning and late afternoon. There is some mating and egg laying as these migrations progress. These migrations appear to advance at rates of 30-55 miles per day. In the spring, there are two generations of migrants, the monarchs returning from Mexico have headings that are primarily to the N and NE. This migration generally ends with the death of most of the overwintered monarchs by the end of April. The offspring of the overwintered migrants begin to reach maturity at the end of April and they too tend to move to the N and NE. It is these first-generation monarchs that recolonize the northern breeding area. Curiously, this migration appears to stop at different latitudes as the season progresses northward. This observation gives rise to several questions: do they stop and, if so, when do they stop and why?

Monarch Watch is seeking the immediate assistance of monarch enthusiasts (community scientists) in collecting directional flight observations of monarchs in their area during the spring migration in May and June. Register today to participate!

Complete details are available on the project’s page at https://monarchwatch.org/directional-flight/

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7. About This Monarch Watch List
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Monarch Watch ( https://monarchwatch.org ) is a nonprofit education, conservation, and research program affiliated with the Kansas Biological Survey & Center for Ecological Research at the University of Kansas. The program strives to provide the public with information about the biology of monarch butterflies, their spectacular migration, and how to use monarchs to further science education in primary and secondary schools. Monarch Watch engages in research on monarch migration biology and monarch population dynamics to better understand how to conserve the monarch migration and also promotes the protection of monarch habitats throughout North America.

We rely on private contributions to support the program and we need your help! Please consider making a tax-deductible donation. Complete details are available at https://monarchwatch.org/donate or you can simply call 785-832-7374 (KU Endowment Association) for more information about giving to Monarch Watch.

If you have any questions about this email or any of our programs, please feel free to contact us anytime.

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Jim Lovett
Monarch Watch
https://monarchwatch.org

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