• This Week's Migration Map and Data
• News from the Migration Trail
• New Animation! Comparing Spring Migrations 2006 and 2005
• What Have We Learned So Far? Making Sense of Journey North Maps
• Migration Analysis: Watch Your Language!
• Challenge Question #13: Can You Catch Us?
• Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration Map: Online Lost and Found
• Wanted: Your Monarch and Milkweed Sightings

Use today's data to make your own map, or print and analyze our map:

• Migration Map
• Migration Data for Classroom Mapping
• Slideshow (Week-by-week animation)

Everybody's talking about early monarchs! The migration jumped to the Great Lakes's shores this past week, and one butterfly put the migration's leading edge past 42N.

"I am reporting my early Monarch sighting, April 23, in Sandusky, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie," said Sheryl Young. (As a seasonal naturalist at a state park, she knows a monarch when she sees one.)

A monarch was seen so early in Michigan that it broke the state record, said Mr. Owen A. Perkins. The very next day another Michigan monarch was seen--and there's even proof:

"A voucher photograph of a female Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) on an approximately 2-inch tall Milkweed plant," said Mr. Perkins.

Second grade student Shawn W. wrote from Quakertown, PA:

"On Tuesday afternoon when I got home from school, I was in my front yard helping my sister fly a kite when I noticed an orange and black butterfly. I am sure it was a monarch because I have been studying them in school and I know they were in Allentown which is very close to me."

An early monarch in
in Michigan, laying eggs.

Photo by Roger Kuhlman, the man who discovered it.

We keep saying that this year's migration is unusual. Let's take a close look. Where were the monarchs last year at this time? Here are week-by-week migration maps, side-by-side, so you can compare them:

• New Animation! Comparing Spring Migrations of 2006 and 2005

Do you think the migration is ahead this spring, according to our maps? How are the migrations similar each year, and how are they different? Try to find possible reasons for the patterns you see. Form a hypothesis, record it your science journal, then come back and see what happens.

• Making Sense of Journey North Maps: Core Questions

When we describe a migration map, we are very careful about the words we choose. After all, we only know as much as you, our readers, tell us!

• Do we do a good job describing migration based on the limitations of our data?
• Can you catch us saying more than we should?

Here are some sample statements. Look closely at the language we use:

• Migration Analysis: Watch Your Language!

Then do some research so you can answer Challenge Question #13...

Challenge Question #13:
"Can you find a sentence we have written that says more about the migration than we could possibly know? Explain how the statement went beyond the evidence."

Share news about the butterflies you received and find out where your own butterflies landed! Over 1,000 Symbolic Monarchs are already on the map.

• Look at all of the people across North America who are united by monarch butterflies!

The Symbolic Butterflies are Landing!

We can't track migration without your help!

• Please Report Your Sightings