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Journey South News will be posted on Wednesdays: Sep. 8, 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6, 13, 20, 27, Nov. 3, 10...and until the monarchs arrive in Mexico! Highlights Along the Migration Trail (Click on face of map to enlarge.) About the Symbolic Monarch Migration Background About This Study Challenge Questions Related Resources Journey South News Monarch Migration Update: October 27, 1999 The first monarchs have reached the sanctuaries! Mexican student Luis Fernando Romero sends the news from his family's store in nearby Angangueo. Meanwhile, millions upon millions of butterflies are traveling that way, heading for an area only 1.1 degrees wide, in longitude. How many miles wide is the finish line of the monarchs' marathon migration? Volunteers Needed Now for Study: Milkweed and Spring Monarch Migration Monarch biologist Dr. Lincoln Brower asks your help with a new study to document the timing of the northward monarch migration and the emergence of milkweed. "Monarchs may be leaving their overwintering sites in Mexico earlier than normal. Logging may have thinned their forests, resulting in drier, warmer air--and activating the spring migration prematurely." Volunteers are needed NOW, because milkweed plots must be identified this fall. Please help with this simple but important study. Monarch Migration Update: October 20, 1999 Students in the Mexican sanctuary region are carefully watching the skies, and are ready to report the arrival of the first monarchs. They know the butterflies are now traveling through northern Mexican and will soon appear. They also know that thousands of students in the U.S. and Canada are waiting to hear from them! How close to the sanctuaries are the monarchs now? Monarch Migration Update: October 13, 1999 Las mariposas monarcas llegan en Mexico! The monarchs have now crossed the border into Mexico! So if you can't read Spanish, it's time to find a friend who can. People in Texas are accustomed to everything BIG, and the migration reports during the last week were just that. Tens, dozens, hundreds--even thousands--of monarchs were seen in the skies, trees and fields across the state last week. What theory about migration pathways does Biologist Calvert hope to test this year? Monarch Migration Update: October 6, 1999 The Monarchs have arrived in Texas: "I stood and watched from our 39th floor window as tens of butterflies floated upon the wind currents flowing around our building...." According to our Texas observers, the leading edge of the migration has now reached latitude 30N. How many more miles do the monarchs have to travel, and when do you predict they'll reach the sanctuaries? How might the drought in Texas affect migrating monarchs? Monarch Migration Update: September 29, 1999 Observers in Texas should be on the lookout for the millions of monarchs now heading their way! In addition to high monarch activity in the south-central states, the migration along the East Coast continued to be strong last week, after the passage of Hurricane Floyd. Did Floyd blow the monarchs that were sighted in England last week over 2000 miles of open ocean? Monarch Migration Update: September 22, 1999 Last week we watched with concern as people along the East Coast waited out Hurricane Floyd. After the storm passed, observers all along the Coast--from Maine to Florida--commented about the abundance of migrating monarchs there. Meanwhile, Midwest monarchs are flooding into Missouri. How high do monarchs fly during migration? Dr. Bill Calvert shares his views from the ground. Monarch Migration Update: September 15, 1999 The cold front that moved into the East last weekend seems to have caused the first surge of migration there. Why does Biologist Brower think eastern monarchs will be smaller this year? Monarchs continued to pour out of the North Central U.S. States all last week, and the forward edge of the migration in the Midwest should now be moving into Nebraska. Make your own digital migration maps with this free software and migration data. Monarch Migration Update: September 8, 1999 Weekly migration updates will be posted here, according to the schedule above. Please help track the monarch migration to Mexico by reporting your observations. Take this data sheet with you into the field, and tell us what you see! Related Resources Volunteers Needed Now for Study: Milkweed and Spring Monarch Migration Purchase a Tracking Map or Make Your Own Fall Migration Field Observations (Worksheet) Fall Migration Data Summary (Worksheet) WWW Links Monarch Lab Monarch Watch Monarch Migration Project, Cape May, NJ Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary Foundation Student Butterfly Gardens for Monarch Conservation Blake School Monarch Program NPR/National Geographic Radio Expedition Field Studies on Monarch Flight and Navigation Copyright 1999 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form