Monarch Butterfly Migration | Journey North Citizen Science Project: Tracking Spring and Fall Monarch Butterfly Migration

Monarch Butterflies

Monarch Migration News: March 12, 2015
By Elizabeth Howard

Please Report
Your Sightings!

Mating is reaching its peak as the monarchs get ready to head north to the breeding grounds. Mass departure from Mexico is imminent.

Monarch Butterflies
Estela Romero March 2014

News: Waiting...

Waiting for Departure
There's no news of mass exodus yet, says Estela. Full departure occurs sometime during the last half of March. It can be sudden and dramatic or almost imperceptible.

Meanwhile, mating increases in earnest.

"Massive mating takes place everywhere you turn your eyes," says Estela. "Pairs are either on the ground, flying up with partners clinging together, others are landing during the full mating moment, on the ground, at the flowers, or in the branches of trees."

Most of the butterflies' wings show wear and tear. It has been a long winter!

Waiting for First Arrivals
We expect the first migration reports from northern Mexico and Texas any day.

"The leading edge of the migration typically crosses the Rio Grande around March 15th," says Texas monarch expert, Mike Quinn.

Monarch Butterflies Mating in Mexico Before Departure

Mating Increases

Nuptial Flight

Tag Recovery: Sydney's Monarch


Tagged in Minnesota Sydney is a 7-year old girl from Nowthen, MN. Her father found a monarch caterpillar in the horse pasture and Sydney raised it to an adult butterfly. Her family tagged and released the monarch on September 7, 2014.	Flew 2,000 Miles Sidney lives 2,000 miles from Mexico. "Even though we all know monarchs fly to Mexico it is still amazing to me that one little butterfly can fly so far with such accuracy," said Sydney's father.	Recovered in Mexico About 30,000 monarchs were tagged in fall 2014, according to Diane Pruden of Monarch Watch. Only a few hundred tags are typically found at the sanctuaries. On February 23, 2015 Sydney's tag #THY 272 was recovered!

Conservation News

Monarch Conservation Webinar Series
Upcoming webinar topics and dates have been announced:

Citizen Science (April 23)
Habitat Augmentation (April 30)
Monarch Research (May 21)
Previous programs can also be viewed any time.

Monarch Citizen Science and Data Accuracy
Dr. Karen Oberhauser's shares her thoughts based on the experiences of the three largest-scale monarch citizen science projects.

Maps: Report Your Sightings


What to Report	First Adult report \| map \| list	Milkweed report \| map \| list

First Egg report \| map \| list	First Larvae report \| map \| list	Other Observations report \| map \| list

Journal and Activities
Slideshow: Spring Migration: A Race Against Time Journal: Clue Words

Next Update March 19, 2015