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Contents:
1) Welcome!
6) Where Are They Now/Late Monarchs
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
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/signup
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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This year you can take care of your holiday shopping online and help support Monarch Watch at the same time! How, you ask? It's simple. Head on over to our "Amazon.com Portal" at
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/amazon
use the link provided to surf over to Amazon.com, and start filling your shopping cart with books, music, toys, tools, videos, electronics, and a whole lot more.
Similarly, if you're shopping for the nature buff in the family, head on over to Gulliver's Gift Shop (there's a link provided on our homepage at http://www.MonarchWatch.org) to get Monarch Watch gear, books, videos, posters, calendars, and lots of other nature-related items.
Monarch Watch will receive a percentage of each sale to further our efforts of education, conservation, and research - so spread the word!
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As part of our Adopt-a-Classroom program, Monarch Watch delivers school supplies and textbooks annually to students in rural schools near the monarch reserves. We will leave for Mexico in early January with a van-load of supplies and will spend a week delivering the much-needed supplies to at least thirty schools in the area. Thank you to everyone who contributed financially or by mailing in school supplies!
We have textbooks!
At the end of each school year, certain textbooks are no longer part of the curriculum. Some of these books have never been used. These out-of-adoption textbooks are then returned to the publisher or the state textbook depository where they are either recycled or destroyed!
Thanks to the help of a few school districts in southern Texas, we have collected hundreds of new Spanish edition math consumables for grades K-2. We also have Spanish editions of science and health textbooks. We met with several textbook coordinators at these schools to learn about the textbook adoption process. Everyone we met was eager to help the students in Mexico; we all agreed that it is better to put these materials to good use rather than recycle them!
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/conserve/adopt.htm
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As you know, we have been trying hard to improve and expand the offerings that we present in Gulliver's Gift Shop in an effort to bring you quality items that butterfly fans would like. We are very pleased to have some wonderful new items that will make great gifts for this holiday season. Here are a few ideas:
• Butterfly Field Guide T-Shirt - We've looked long and hard for a unique t-shirt to add to our offering and this shirt is exactly what we were hoping to find. There are 24 butterflies beautifully silk screened on the front of a heavy weight, 100% cotton shirt. The shirt comes in sizes from small to XX-large. You can find it in our Clothing & Apparel aisle.
• Note Cards and Stationary - Made by Acorn Designs, these beautiful cards and stationary sets are printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper or Kenaf paper with ton-toxic vegetable oil based inks. The designs evoke the wonder of the subject and will be a welcomed gift for any letter writer on your list. Look in the Cards & Stationary aisle.
• Binoculars - For a truly special gift, a pair of binoculars can have a life long impact in the recipient's life. We have 2 styles that are great for butterfly watchers. The EO Explorer 8x22 are compact, lightweight, and close focus to 6'6". For a pair that has a bit more oomph try the EO 6x32 Platinum Class Binocular. These glasses have good eye relief for the glasses wearer, low weight, and unbelievable close focus (3.0'). Either pair will make the butterfly watcher happy and can be found in our Optics aisle.
We hope that you can find some nice gifts for this holiday in our Shop. When you shop at Gulliver's Gift Shop you give a gift of support to Monarch Watch. Thank you for your support - Happy Holidays!
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My Monarch Investigation Journal by illustrator, author, and naturalist Ba Rea is a wonderful journal that introduces you to two things: the basic investigative steps of science and the life history and annual cycle of the monarch butterfly. Beautiful drawings and photographs illustrate important concepts captivatingly and clearly; children will love becoming scientists as they observe and study their monarchs.
This book is currently available from Monarch Watch at
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/order
and it will be added to Gulliver's Gift Shop very soon!
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6) Where Are They Now/Late Monarchs
We have been told over the years that the last of the monarchs that overwinter in Mexico arrive at the colony sites during the first week of December. This may in fact be the case. However, as I sat down to write this we received a call from Kentucky with a report of a sighting today. Last week there were a least 5 reports of late monarchs and there was one report from the Dallas area of large numbers of monarch larvae being found on milkweeds in butterfly gardens. The exceptional number of late sightings appears to be due to the northern position of the jet stream which has resulted in an unusually warm fall for most of the central and eastern United States. The first two weeks in November were the warmest ever recorded for eastern Kansas. We are not certain whether any of these late monarchs are still migratory or have any chance of reaching the overwintering sites in Mexico. These observations seem to indicate that there may be a number of late monarchs each year which are usually killed as the jet stream dips southward east of the Rockies in October.
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Earlier I projected that there could be as many as 80-100 million monarchs at the overwintering sites this winter, up from the all-time low of 28.3 million of last winter. We won't know how this estimate compares with the actual number of overwintering butterflies until mid-winter after Eligio Garcia completes his survey of the sizes of the overwintering colonies. For more information see "Mexicans predict banner year for monarchs" at
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=421479.
Here is another positive story: In a recent speech, Mexican President Vincente Fox devoted his attentions to the broad-based efforts to support preservation of the monarch overwintering sites. The text indicates a strong awareness of the issues and a concerted plan by the Mexican government to address monarch conservation. For a full text of this in Spanish please see
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011128/wl/mexico_butterflies_1.html
We will try to obtain an English translation of this text which we will post to Dplex-L and add to our website.
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We need your data sheets! Please send them to us as soon as you complete them. We use the data from the tagging to estimate the size and mortality of the fall monarch population as well as to determine the migration history of every monarch recovered in Mexico or recovered along the migration path. We are missing the tagging records for 60 of the 141 butterflies already recovered this year. Without data sheets, it is impossible to determine complete life histories of recovered monarchs. Please make copies of your data (just in case!) and send them to us as soon as possible.
Thank you for your help!
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If you ordered a tagging kit or membership for the 2000 season, you should have received the 2000 Season Summary (68 pages this year) that was mailed a little over a month ago. Please contact us if you think you should have received one, but did not. Additional copies (as well as Season Summaries from previous years) are available for only $5 at
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/order
and a PDF version will be available for download early next year at
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/read/seasum.htm
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We published a word search puzzle on page 65 of the 2000 Season Summary and have already received a number of entries. If you'd like to try your hand at the puzzle and enter to win a Monarch Watch poster, surf on over to
http://www.MonarchWatch.org/puzzle
to download and print out the puzzle. Once you have found as many words/phrases as you can, visit that same page to submit your entry.
Entries will be accepted until December 31st 2001 and the winner will be chosen based on the number of valid words/phrases submitted. In the event of a tie, a random drawing will be made to determine the winning entry. The winner will be notified via email and will receive the Monarch Watch poster of their choice.
Good Luck!
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11) How to Unsubscribe from this Update
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If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact us anytime.
Thanks!
Monarch Watch
http://www.MonarchWatch.org
monarch@ku.edu
All material on this site © Monarch Watch unless otherwise noted. Terms of use.
Monarch Watch (888) TAGGING - or - (785) 864-4441
monarch@ku.edu