Dr. Lincoln Brower's Annual Census
"Su Borkin, Julie Hein and I are just back from our 8 June 2013 annual census for monarchs at Newport State Park, in northern Door County, Wisconsin. Milkweeds are barely up and are few and far between compared to normal years (going back to 1984). We saw one male monarch when usually there would be at least 30, and found no immatures on about 40 individual milkweeds (Asclepias syriaca). We think the cold spring is the culprit, but the paucity may also reflect the low numbers of overwintering monarchs that made it back from Mexico into the United States this past spring. In either case it is not auspicious because it will likely mean there is one less summer generation produced in the north country."