Monarch Butterfly Migration Update: September 20, 2001 Today's Report Includes: The First Monarchs Have Reached the Mexican Sanctuaries! Discussion of CQ#1: Florida Student Called It! Challenge Question #5 Highlights Along the Migration Trail Clear Skies in Kansas Usher in the Migration Migration Now Strong Up and Down East Coast States Great Wind Maps to Watch The Extraordinary Travels of a Tagged Monarch Challenge Questions #6 and #7 Note to Teachers: Grade Level and Challenge Questions What's Going On Inside the Chrysalis? Discussion of Challenge Question #4: Coming Next Week The First Monarchs Have Reached the Mexican Sanctuaries! Students of Escuela Cerro Prieto Just as predicted, very early migration sightings across the central U.S. this August have led to an unusually early arrival at the overwintering sites in Mexico. Although only scattered sightings have been reported to date, students in 15 schools surrounding the sanctuaries have all spotted monarchs. They will continue to monitor the arrival and send weekly updates as millions of monarchs descend from the skies and gather in their mountain forests. Link to Maps and Images of the Sanctuary Area Students of Escuela La Salud Senora Estella Romero, who coordinates communication from the mountain town of Angangueo reports, "As to my personal observations, I have seen no butterflies around the town of Angangueo yet. The sun has been shining during the past week, after having had the most rainy season we can remember. We're all watching carefully and will let you know when the great numbers arrive!" And from Esceula La Salud, "We send our best greetings to our Journey North friends." Discussion of Challenge Question #1 Florida Student Called It! Congratulations to Ryan, a 3rd grade student in Miss Bailey's class at Citrus Elementary School in Vero Beach for sending the closest prediction: "I think 9-12-01 because the lady in Texas saw them 8-28-01," he reasoned. The first monarchs were reported by students at these five different schools in Michoacan, Mexico on Monday, September 10th: Escuela Justo Sierra, Escuela Vicente Guerrero, Escuela 18 de mayo, Escuela Benito Juarez and Escuela Cerro Prieto. Honorable mention goes to the 5th grade students at Mariposa Elementary School in California who predicted September 28th. By the way... Challenge Question #5: "Why is the name of this school so fitting for a place where students are tracking monarch butterfly migration?" (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Highlights From Along the Migration Trail Link to This Week's Migration Data (for classroom mapping). Clear Skies in Kansas Usher in the Migration After several days of clouds and rain, the skies cleared in Kansas yesterday and monarchs appeared everywhere! Students at Amanda Arnold Elementary in Manhatten, KS, spotted between 15 and 20 monarchs soaring over the playground that morning. To their south in Emporia, KS, Village Elementary students wrote, "Since noon, we have counted over 100 monarchs passing over our playground." Later that afternoon, monarchs came down for a visit at Corinth Elementary in Shawnee Mission, KS: "We had noticed quite a few monarchs at 12:00 recess, so we went outside for about 15 minutes at about 2:20. We saw hundreds of monarchs floating in the air up high. Then all of a sudden they descended on our playground, as if to say hi to the 2nd graders. There were lots of birds and dragonflies flying with them. It had rained for the last 2 days and was finally sunny. This was the most we have seen at Corinth Elementary in 4 years!" September 10, 2001 Woodbridge Elementary in Zeeland, MI "One boy brought in 9 monarchs that he and his grandpa (carefully) caught and we were able to observe them up close." Migration Now Strong Up and Down East Coast States Reports arrived last week from as far north as Vermont and south as Virginia: From Charlotte, VT: "I just want to report that hundreds of monarchs were present atop Mt. Philo just three days ago (9/16/01), according to the State Park Ranger. He confirmed what I imagined to be true, that there were more this year than in the past two years." Nearby in Burlington, VT, Mrs. Dee from J.J. Flynn Elementary was surprised to discover a large group of monarchs while looking for caterpillars on the 12th: "We have never witnessed this before!" Students at S.B. Butler School in Mystic, CT, thought they'd missed the peak, because so many monarchs were sighted this year in August. "But we didn't," they reported on Monday. "This weekend (Sept 15 & 16) we noticed a large number of monarchs, and then Monday it peaked with 10-13 monarchs coming and going all day long to our butterfly bushes in our school's courtyard. The students are so very excited about this phenomena." "We have been seeing several monarchs every day at recess," reports Union Avenue School from Margate, NJ. "Our 2 second grade classes have counted 100 today flying along the coast," they wrote last Wednesday, September 13th. "We are in the midst of one of the big pushes," wrote Dr. Lincoln Brower yesterday from his home near Nellysford, VA. One hundred and fifty butterflies were visiting Dr. Brower's garden yesterday at one time! "They are very skittish, and one patch of goldenrod had at least 50 on the flowers. All flew up when a cloud passed over. Except for a few old laggards, all monarchs are very fresh and in mint condition, which indicates we now have shifted (from the breeding) into the migratory phase." Great Wind Maps to Watch Monarchs ride the wind during migration, rather than spend the precious energy flapping flight requires. The wind may be invisible, but you can actually see its strength and direction on these excellent maps produced by Penn State University Meteorology Department for different regions of the U.S. If you live in this area, check your own region's maps regularly and see if you can correlate monarch movement with the wind: North Central North East South Central South East The Extraordinary Travels of a Tagged Monarch As monarchs pass over your head on their way to Mexico you probably wonder--where will those butterflies be in a few hours, days, or weeks? How fast do monarchs migrate? Mark Garland, Senior Naturalist of the Audubon Naturalist Society, made some fascinating observations while tagging monarchs on Fisherman Island, VA. (Find Fisherman Island just off the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula, guarding the north end of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.) Of the 1,500 monarchs he captured and tagged during two fall seasons, 5 butterflies had already been tagged to his north in Cape May, New Jersey. The straight line distance from Cape May to Fisherman Island is about 140 miles. Three were caught 8 days after they'd been tagged, one had made the trip in less than 48 hours, and one had had an even more remarkable journey: "That monarch was tagged at 1 p.m. October 6, 1999, in Cape May, New Jersey. I netted it the next day, at 4:56 p.m. October 7, 1999, on Fishermans Island, VA," said Mark. Let's reason this through, and estimate how fast that butterfly may have traveled. Here are some helpful facts: Monarchs don't fly in the dark Sunset was 6:35 pm in New Jersey on October 6th Sunrise was 7:01 am in Virginia on October 7th Monarchs don't fly until they're warm enough. The monarch's flight threshold is about 13 degrees C (55 F). (Flight threshold means that this temperature, 13C, is the lowest temperature at which monarchs can fly.) In order to fly WELL, with lots of control, monarchs need to attain thoracic temperatures in the upper 20s or even 30s--pretty close to the temperatures that warm-blooded mammals run. We don't have temperature data from that October day, so you'll have to estimate during which hours the butterfly flew. Keep in mind the behavioral observations people have made at roost sites: Monarchs generally settle in an hour or two before sunset. In the morning, they don't leave until the sun hits the trees and/or begins to warm the air around them--a good hour or two after sunrise. So how fast do you think the tagged monarch traveled? Challenge Question #6: "In how FEW hours might the monarch have traveled the 140 miles? (In your answer, explain why you counted the hours the way you did.)" Challenge Question #7: "Using the number of hours you calculated for Challenge Question #6, how many miles per hour might the monarch have traveled, on average?" (To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.) Note to Teachers: Grade Level and Challenge Questions Always feel free to modify our Challenge Questions to fit your own grade level, AND please don't hesitate to send us your students' answers, even if you have simplified a question. We'd love to hear from you! What's Going On Inside the Chrysalis? "What is happening inside the chrysalid actually begins inside the caterpillar when it's full grown," begins Dr. Brower. "There are hormonal changes taking place inside the 5th instar caterpillar. It loses all interest in feeding, starts wandering around and then spins a little silk pad. The silk pad is spun on the underside of a leaf, or the underside of a plant, and then the caterpillar turns around and grabs that silk pad with its hind legs which have little hooks on them. Once those hooks are in that little silk pad the caterpillar drops down and it's beginning to change its form now. In fact, that's exactly what the word 'metamorphosis' means: 'changing' its 'form.'" "What is happening is a biological miracle. Inside that caterpillar, enzymes are being released that digest all the caterpillar tissue, so that the caterpillar is being converted into a rich culture medium...." Listen to Dr. Brower describe the transformation, and read the full text at the links below: Link to Dr. Brower's Full Description Discussion of Challenge Question #4: Coming Next Week The monarchs' unexpected arrival in Mexico has made this report longer than anticipated. Thus, we'll hold the Discussion of Challenge Question #4 until next week. There's still time to send your answers! Challenge Question #4: "Define the term 'niche.' Then describe how a field mouse is like a monarch caterpillar, and how a hummingbird is like an adult monarch." How to Respond to Today's Monarch Challenge Questions: IMPORTANT: Please answer ONLY ONE question in each e-mail message! 1. Address an e-mail message to: jn-challenge-monarch@learner.org 2. In the Subject Line of each message write: Challenge Question #4 (#5, #6 or #7) 3. In the body of the message, answer ONE of the questions above. The Next Monarch Migration Update Will Be Posted on September 27, 2001. Copyright 2001 Journey North. All Rights Reserved. Please send all questions, comments, and suggestions to our feedback form