Monarch Butterfly Migration Update: October 3, 2003

Today’s Update Includes:

• Highlights From the Migration Trail
• First Clear Wave Moves Down the mid-Atlantic Coast
• How Fast Do Monarchs Migrate?
• Hurricanes and Flowers: Did You Predict the Connection?
• Challenge Question #9: Why is Nectar So Important in the Fall?
• Noticias del avance de la migración en México
• Speak Spanish? Discussion of Challenge Question #7
• Watching and Waiting at the Mexican Sanctuaries
• October Conservation Perspectives: A View from Mexico
• Symbolic Migration Deadline Oct. 14: Please Send Your Support
• Discussion of Challenge Question #8: Energy Costs of Flapping Flight

Click Map to Read Highlights Along the Migration Trail

Here are some of this week's observations:

• In Tarkio, Missouri, a student reported seeing 45 Monarch butterflies from her Grandpa's hospital window, flying overhead in a southerly direction during a fifteen minute observation time.
• Just prior to sunset in Pilot Point, Texas, "approximately 400 Monarchs passed through our yard over a 1 hour period."
• September 30 was a hot, sunny, nice day to play, said Sarah in Tyler, Texas. "I was playing with my little brother and he thought he saw a leaf but there were no trees around. I said, 'That is a Monarch.'"

When Denise Gibbs, who's monitoring the migration about 150 miles down the coast on Assateague Island in Virginia, heard the news she said, "They’ll be here within 24 hours."

How can she predict with such precision? There are 3 long-term monarch migration monitoring sites on the Atlantic coast: Cape May, NJ, Assateague Island, VA, and Fisherman’s Island, VA. Monarchs don’t want to fly over the ocean, so the geography of the coastline funnels them through these places, making them great spots to monitor the migration. Based on past observations and tagging records there, monarchs have traveled from the Cape May monitoring site to Fisherman’s Island in just over 24 hours with good winds.

• The Extraordinary Travels of a Tagged Monarch

Notice the dead, brown needles on the east side of the pines while those on the west side remain green.

When considering how Hurricane Isabel might affect monarch migration, did you think about salt damage? I didn't, and so I was amazed to see what had happened to the flowers and other vegetation when I visited Denise Gibbs on the Virginia Coast over the weekend.

When the hurricane came ashore the winds were loaded with salt from the ocean. Salt spray coated the plants so heavily that flowers and leaves died back within 24 hours. The effect won't be permanent, but monarchs migrating down the coast won't find the nectar sources that typically await them. The landscape looked as it would after a heavy frost. The hurricane arrived from the east, so plants exposed on the east were burned by the salt. Miles and miles of coastline were thus affected. The leaves and flowers of seaside goldenrod, a favored plant during migration, were completely brown.

"When the monarchs get to Assateague Island they're here to fuel up. I’ve tagged them and watched them stay on the same plants for 5 days, just nectaring. This year there are still some flowers in scattered places that were protected from the hurricane. But on the most part, this is what it looks like," said Denise pointing at the dead vegetation up the shoreline. "This is all the nectar they're going to have."

Challenge Question #9:
"Adult monarch butterflies eat nectar, but it’s especially important to them in the fall. Explain why."

(To respond to this question, please follow the instructions below.)

Salt Damage from Hurricane Isabel
Denise Gibbs shows Dr. Lincoln Brower how coastal plants were damaged by the hurricane.

• ?Estas mariposas son parte de las mariposas que hibernan en California USA?
• ?Algunas mariposas del oeste hibernan en Michoacán y viajan por la costa del Pacífico?

Thanks to the 8th grade Spanish 2 class at Anchorage School, in Louisville, Kentucky for coming forward with:

The translation: "The first Monarchs are beginning to arrive in Mexico. After three days of rain and clouds, the sun came out and I saw 4 Monarchs in 2 hours."

And the math: "Since he saw 4 Monarchs in 2 hours, an easy math conclusion to find the average could be that he saw 2 butterflies in each hour."

Can you find the monarch sanctuary nearest to each school?

• Watching and Waiting at the Mexican Sanctuaries
• Thoughts About Early Reports of Monarchs in Mexico

Jordi Honey-Rosés

Ecotourism: The Monarch Expo, an educational exhibit and fair planned for November. The Expo includes a clever plan to encourage ecotourism a bike ride through a rarely visited sanctuary region where communities, while part of the Protected Area since 1986, have never benefited from tourism.

Sanctuary Management: Fire-prevention training takes place this week at the monarch reserve.

Political Changes: President Fox abruptly fired Environmental Ministers in September, and Jordi speculates why.

• October Conservation Perspectives: A View from Mexico

The forest sanctuaries in Mexico are not adequately protected. Logging and other development threaten the habitat monarchs need to survive the winter. Please send support for the real butterflies with your symbolic monarchs:

• Symbolic Migration Deadline Oct 14: Please Support Monarch Conservation

Mrs. Swentzel’s third grade class in Stanhope, NJ, figured a monarch would flap from 300 to 720 times a minute.

"We then tried flapping our own arms for a minute and found that we could only flap from 48-115 times in one minute. My students were amazed and could not believe that these tiny creatures were able to do what they must do in order to make it down to Mexico. Now they understand why it is so important that the monarchs catch those thermals and north winds to help speed them on their way."

Links to Video Clip and Still Images

The Next Monarch Migration Update Will Be Posted on October 10, 2003.

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