Monarch Watch Update - October 9, 2001
http://www.MonarchWatch.org
monarch@ku.edu
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Contents:
1) Welcome!
2) Our Newest Program Assistant
3) Gulliver's Gift Shop update
6) Local Tagging Event a success!
8) Some excellent reading for butterfly fans
10) 2000 Season Summary - off to press!
11) How to Unsubscribe from this Update
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1) Welcome to Monarch Watch's Update List!
You are receiving this email because you have provided Monarch Watch with your email address at some point and expressed interest in receiving updates from us. If you do not wish to receive these periodic (probably monthly) email updates or feel that you were subscribed in error, please see the unsubscribe information at the end of this message.
Have you somehow missed (or misplaced ;-) an update? Now you can find all of the updates archived online at
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/update
If you know someone that you think might be interested in receiving these email updates from Monarch Watch with monarch news, special announcements, tips on raising monarchs in your classroom, monarch tagging information and a whole lot more, please send them on over to
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to join our new Monarch-Watch-Update email list - it's easy!
Monarch Watch (http://www.MonarchWatch.org) is a not-for-profit educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas. We run a Monarch tagging program and offer Monarch Rearing Kits, Monarch Tagging Kits, and other educational/promotional materials that allow you to actively experience the monarch life cycle and its spectacular fall migration.If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us anytime!
Your friends at Monarch Watch
http://www.MonarchWatch.org
monarch@ku.edu
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2) Our Newest Program Assistant
We would like to welcome our newest assistant, Sarah Heimovics, to Monarch Watch. Sarah earned a bachelors in biology from the University of Kansas. At KU, she worked with Chip Taylor on mating success of male monarchs. After graduation, she attended a one-year graduate program in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the Teton Science School where she took courses in natural science as well served as a field instructor. Because of her experience, we think Sarah is a great addition to our program. Welcome Sarah!
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3) Gulliver's Gift Shop Update
We are very pleased to say that in the first month that our Gulliver's Gift Shop was open we have had 27 sales, and earned Monarch Watch $150! Thanks very much to all of you who help us by using the Gift Shop to pick up your Monarch Watch gear. The new shop dramatically reduces the time that we need to spend processing your requests for our t-shirts, books, and memberships. The time and money we save here can be better used elsewhere in the Monarch Watch program.
When it comes time to renew your Membership or purchase of your 2002 Tagging Membership please consider using Gulliver's Gift Shop. Speaking of the 2002 Tagging Membership, we are offering a 10% discount if you purchase it through the store by 12/31/01! Just enter coupon number MW-00100 at checkout to save 10%. This offer is valid only until 12/31/01 and only at Gulliver's Gift Shop.
A link to Gulliver's Gift Shop appears on out homepage at
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It's time for us to plan our annual Adopt-a-Classroom trip to Mexico. We would like to thank the those who have contributed to this cause. We have received many crayons, pencils, and paper and glue. We are still in need of Spanish work books and even text books - if you have any information about the availability of these materials, please let us know!
For more information about our Adopt-a-Classroom program, visit
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/conserve/adopt.htm
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5) The Great Recovery of 2001 - by Chip Taylor
Last year was a disaster for monarchs. The spring, summer, and fall droughts in different portions of the country limited reproduction in the spring and summer and survival of the migrating population in the fall. The result was the lowest overwintering population in Mexico recorded to date - only 28.3 million monarchs. Late in the winter (early March) severe storms added significantly to the usual mortality of the overwintering butterflies. Worried about the coming year I ran a few calculations and estimated that as few as 4.9 million females survived to lay eggs in the southern states in March and April. I had a hard time envisioning how the population could recover; however, they did and the overwintering population this year could be 80-100 million butterflies.
How did they recover? The explanation appears to be weather extremes and fire ants. Severe droughts not only affect monarchs but all other insects that feed on soft bodied insects - such as predatory and parasitic wasps, and fire ants. In most instances, populations of predators and parasites decline even further than those of their prey - and recover more slowly. The droughts in Texas were followed by heavy fall rains, rain throughout the winter, and even good spring rains. The result was a lush spring in Texas and one with relatively few predators and parasites. Monarchs and numerous other butterflies that migrate out of Texas in the spring produced enormous numbers of offspring which migrated into the midwest in May and June. The numbers of monarchs were sufficient to recolonize nearly all of the breeding area even up to 50 degrees N (Winnipeg) and reproduction was normal to above normal in most of the breeding areas throughout the summer.
My speculation about the role of fire ants received a boost recently with the arrival of a newsletter from the fire ant research group at Texas A & M University. For months they had been fielding "Where are the fire ants"? questions from people all over Texas and Oklahoma. It appears that fire ants are down over large areas of Texas and seem to have disappeared from much of the Red River Valley in Oklahoma. They attributed the decline to the drought of 2000 and flooding that followed in the fall and winter.
Let's hope the fire ants stay down for awhile!
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6) Local Tagging Event a success!
Monarch Watch and the Jayhawk Audubon Society (JAS) sponsored a morning of tagging at the Baker Wetlands (Lawrence, KS) on Saturday, September 16th. In 5 hours more than 300 people helped tag over 3000 butterflies. Cool temperatures kept the butterflies relatively inactive and easy to catch. One group of students from Olathe East High School tagged 400 butterflies within 30 minutes. Considering that at last year's event only 300 Monarchs were tagged, everyone at Monarch Watch and JAS would say that this year's effort was an overwhelming success.
If you sponsor or participate in a local tagging event, we'd love to hear about it so please feel free to drop us a line anytime!
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We don't want to sound like a broken record, broken record, broken record ;-)
but with all of the new subscribers to this Update List (still about a dozen or so a day) we really need to keep publishing this message. We know there are sources of funding out there and hope that someone receiving this update will "know someone who knows someone" that will be able to match us up with the funding that we need to continue our mission of education, conservation and research.
As many of you now know, Monarch Watch continues to be financially challenged. We are just scraping by and are still searching for corporate or foundation support. Due to a shortfall in income we are attempting to enlarge our base of support through collaborative arrangements with other organizations. Any leads for potential sources of funding you can provide will be greatly appreciated!
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8) Some excellent reading for butterfly fans
We are always on the lookout for books for the butterfly fans. Here are a couple that you might like to add to your library. Pick them up at Gulliver's Gift Shop and your purchase will help support Monarch Watch.
Butterflies Through Binoculars: A Field Guide to Butterflies in the Boston New York Washington Region, Jeffrey Glassberg - Designed and modeled after the field guides that birders have used for years, this book is a wonderful tool for anyone who goes looking for butterflies in the northeast. 160 Species are included.
Garden Butterflies of North America; A Gallery of Garden Butterflies & How to Attract Them, Rick Mikula - The successful Garden Butterflies of North America is now available in a softcover edition. Vivid color images of 40 of North America's most treasured and colorful garden butterfly varieties. Each of the individual butterflies is accompanied by natural history vignettes of the species and information on how to attract them. Illustrated instructions on how to design and manage gardens and backyards to attract butterflies comprises the remainder of the text. A great gift for any Monarch Watcher.
Audubon Incredible Pop-Out Butterfly Activity Kit & Calendar 2002: Kids and butterflies - an irresistible combination. And returning for another joyful year in a new format, the immensely popular INCREDIBLE POP-OUT BUTTERFLY ACTIVITY KIT AND CALENDAR guarantees that the year will flutter educationally by.
Monarch Magic Book, Monarch Watch. More than 100 stunning full-color photos with easy to follow text let you experience the Monarch's complete life cycle and spectacular migration.
Through November 15th get 15% off these titles (and everything else) at Gulliver's Gift Shop. Enter coupon MW-00101 to get the 15% savings.
A link to Gulliver's Gift Shop appears on out homepage at
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The migration is right on schedule. At this writing (9 October) there appear to be monarchs in good numbers in a broad band from southern Oklahoma to the Mexican border. High concentrations of monarchs have been seen in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas - poised to enter Mexico. The peak of the border crossing should occur from 15-18 October if the weather is normal. Smaller numbers of monarchs should continue to cross into Mexico along the Eagle Pass / Del Rio corridor until the 29th of the month at about the time that the first of the fall migrants arrive at the overwintering sites.
The migration along the east coast seems to be about the 4th largest in the last 10 years. This portion of the population is moving more slowly, peaking last week in Cape May, New Jersey. The portion of these butterflies that move inland and head to Mexico rather than to Florida should result in a modestly large migration along the Gulf coast from Alabama to Texas in the next two weeks.
Keep watching those monarchs!
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10) 2000 Season Summary - off to press!
Finally! The 2000 Season Summary is out of our hands and in the very capable hands of Allen Press, Inc. Sixty-eight pages choc full of great monarch information should be mailed out by the end of this month to all of those who preordered the 2000 Season Summary or purchased a Membership or Tagging Kit for the 2000 season. Additional copies will also be available for purchase at that time. Thank you for your patience!
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Monarch Watch
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monarch@ku.edu
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monarch@ku.edu