Our Internet Field Team is hard at work! There are many, many monarchs to map this week! By the way, if your wall map doesn't show some of the smaller towns listed, a road atlas would be helpful. Towns are usually listed alphabetically in an index in the back of the atlas. Once you've located a small town on a state map you can locate it more easily on a larger map.
We hope you're ready to report the first monarch you see this spring to Journey North.
Send your sightings by e-mail to: jn-report@learner.org or press the blue button "Report Field Observations" below.
You're the Scientist
Now that migration sightings have been collected for a month, you can begin to analyze the data and look for patterns. Accompanying today's report you'll find a summary of the March migration data collected this year. We've also provided data that was collected last spring, for comparison. What does it tell you---and what doesn't it tell you---about monarch migration? Remember, you're the scientist! You must analyze your data carefully. Suggestions are provided to help you do this.
Monarch Sightings Reported April 1-8, 1996:
Date Location
March 13 Gulf of Mexico (Oil platform)
March 14 Gulf of Mexico (Oil platform)
March 15 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
March 19 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
March 20 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
March 22 Pennsacola, Florida (Innerarity Island )
March 27 Gainsville, Florida
March 28 Wallis, Texas
March 29 Auburn, Alabama
March 31 New Orleans, Louisiana
April 1 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
April 1* Linden, Texas (near Longview)
April 1* Kyle, Texas
April 1* Sabine, Texas
April 1* Summerville, Texas (East of Austin)
April 2 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
April 2 Ada, Oklahoma
April 3 Gainsville, Florida
April 8 Baton Rouge, Louisiana
* Sighted during the week of April 1st.
What about that monarch reported last week from Chico, California? How did you interpret that finding? As you'll read below, students who responded to challenge Question # 62 had different ideas about this:
From NEW JERSEY:
"We are in first grade. We live in Tenafly, NJ, U.S.A. We don't think it
would fly so far from Mexico. We think it stayed in southern California for
the winter. We saw it in a book called "Monarch Butterfly." We think it
flew up to northern California. These are our names--Laura, Nicholas,
Tamara, Tobias--The Monarch Committee."
This is from Bonnie Hayes' class, Field Team #A1148, Smith School, Tenafly,
New Jersey.
Smithread@aol.com
From OREGON:
No, we don't. We think they came from southern California.
Mrs. Kennedy's First Grade Class, St. John the Baptist School
Milwaukie, Oregon 97222
Global Address: Latitude 45.45 Longitude 122.62
Ellen Kennedy (ekennedy@teleport.com)
From Mr.Nucci's Third Grade Class:
Yes, because Mexico is under California and they could easily fly from
Mexico to California. Talk To you soon,
Glen Head School (nsghs@li.net)
From ALABAMA:
We think not because the monarchs from Mexico migrate east of the Rocky
Mountains, not west.
Steve Cobb, Blake Quick, 5th grade
J.F. Drake Middle School, Auburn,Alabama
Carol D Rogow (rogowcd@mail.auburn.edu)
From ALASKA:
I think the Monarch Butterfly sighted in Chico, California flew from Mexico
because it was to cold in Mexico so it migrated to California.
Kathy Clark (kclark@kpbsd.k12.ak.us)
As Ms. Hayes' Monarch Committee in Tenafly, New Jersey reports, there are monarch wintering sanctuaries in California in addition to those in Mexico. Later this spring, David Marriott of the Monarch Program in San Diego, California will provide a news summary about the monarchs that winter there. In the meantime, consider this information about the West Coast monarch population and see if you can answer today's Challenge Question.
There are 2 major populations of monarchs in North America: One population winters in central Mexico and the other winters along the Pacific Coast. (A "population" is a geographically distinct group of animals or plants of the same species that are separated by a physical boundary.) There are over 150 wintering colonies along the Pacific Coast. They are found along a 600 mile stretch, extending from Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico to Sea Ranch, California (just north of San Francisco in Sonoma County). See if you can find these locations on a map.
The monarch colonies in California are quite different from those in central Mexico. They are relatively small, with fewer than 20,000 monarchs at most sites. Only 3 sites have a population of over 100, 000 butterflies. This is in contrast to the sanctuaries in Mexico, where the butterflies are concentrated by the millions.
With the help of a physical map of North America, can answer the following questions?
Challenge Question # 75
1) Why do you think there are two populations of monarch butterflies in North America?
2) Where do you think monarchs from the following places would spend the winter?
a) Denver, Colorado
b) Portland, Oregon
c) Boise, Idaho
3) Why do you think there are so many monarch wintering sites in California (over 150) but only 9 sanctuaries in Mexico?
How to Respond to Challenge Question # 75:
1. Send an e-mail message to: jn-challenge@learner.org
2. In the Subject Line write: Challenge Question # 75
3. In the Body of your message, answer any of the 3 questions above.
Comments From Observers
From LOUISIANA:
March 13 and other dates
I finally have some monarch news to report! Monarchs are around, but
not in large numbers. A female was found laying eggs on milkweed in
New Orleans, on March 31st. One was seen in Baton Rouge on the
April 1 and several were seen on April 2. I now have 2 in my yard--
April 8th. Several were seen in the Gulf of Mexico by some friends
of mine who work on the oil platforms. There were two reports from
the Gulf: One on March 13 and the other on March 14th. So they are
apparently filtering in, but not in masses like in some years.
Dr. Gary Ross, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
From LOUISIANA:
March 15 and other dates
From Mrs. JoDale Ales's biology classes.
We have seen additional monarchs as follows:
1) one on 3/15 at 5:10 p.m. in Baton Rouge, LA
2) one on 3/19 at 7:32 a.m. in Baton Rouge
3) one on 3/20 at 2:00 p.m. in Baton Rouge
4) one on 3/22 at 9:00 a.m. on Innerarity Island near Pennsacola, Florida
Dr. Gary Ross will present a program on butterflies at our Earth Day
Celebration in Baton Rouge.
JoAles@aol.com
From FLORIDA:
March 27 & April 3
This is my and my students 15th year of monitoring the arrival of
spring migrants coming back from Mexico into Northern Florida to lay their
eggs on the sandhill milkweed, Asclepias humistrata. Spring this year is
one to two weeks late and on 20 March the milkweeds were just peeking
through the sandy soil, and their new leaves had been badly frosted. A
week later, the milkweeds had pushed up new shoots from their deep roots,
only to be frosted again. We saw two adult monarchs and several eggs on a
few unfrosted plants.
On April 3rd, we saw three females, several eggs,
a few first instar and one second instar larvae. So far, there are far
fewer monarchs arriving this year compared to last, but it is good to see
our favorite critters back. We will be censusing the field every three
days though middle May when the new generation will be on its way up along
the Atlantic Coast to recolonize the northern range.
Dr. Lincoln Brower, University of Florida
Gainsville, Florida
From TEXAS:
March 28
On March 28, during my two mile hike through Wallis (Texas) I saw 4
Monarchs. The day was so lovely with no wind, sunshine, and 70 degree
weather. I was thrilled to see the butterflies and must have appeared to be
weaving as I was looking into nearby fields rather than the road. There
was a big weather change the next day. It was cloudy, cooler, and very
windy so I did not see them.
The latitude for Wallis is 29 degrees, 36 minutes, 14 seconds north and
longitude 95 degrees, 58 minutes, 10 seconds west.
Twyla Reinecker Orchard Elementary/Brazos Middle School
Orchard, Texas
reinecke@tenet.edu
From OKLAHOMA:
April 2, 1996
On Tuesday, April 2, about 12PM, at Ada, Ok. I saw a monarch flying
north. The wind was 20mph out of the south, it was sunny and the temp was
68. I am fairly certain it was a monarch, but I couldn't get close enough
to make a positive identification because he was flying about 15-20 feet above
the ground.
The interesting thing to me was that he was flying high in order to take maximum advantage of the strong tail wind. Two days previously, I saw and reported a monarch which was flying into a strong head wind, and he was flying very low to the ground so as to avoid the wind as much as possible.
We have had a drought for all of the winter; however, recent rains have
brought some of the moisture which we needed. The main problem is that we have
had several hard freezes after a number of warm days in late February. This
has caused all the plants to be behind their normal schedule.
Jim Herndon
jfh@cs.ecok.edu
From TEXAS:
April 8
Thanks to Dr. Bill Calvert for the following report from the Texas
Monarch Watch Hotline. "Monarchs are on the move and are laying
eggs in Texas." "In the last day or two, 8 were reported from
Linden, near Longview. Thirty one from Sabine Woods on the North
Texas Coast. And, thirteen from Lake Summerville. All were seen in
one day. Thirty monarch eggs have been located near Kyle on the
green milkweed, Asclesiaps veritas." (The exact dates of these
sightings was not provided. Therefore, they are assumed to have
been seen during the week of April 1st, and reported since our last
update.)
From ALABAMA:
March 29, 1996
Two monarch butterflies were sighted in Auburn, Alabama on March 29,1996.
Our latitude and longitude are 32.35 N,85.26 W. One was spotted on a
golfcourse and the other was spotted on an azalea shrub. They were
spotted in the same area of town. They were also in very good condition.
The students at J.F. Drake Middle School (Eron Smith, Rozanne
Patten, and Mrs. Rogow)
rogowcd@mail.auburn.edu
The Next Monarch Butterfly Migration Update Will be Posted on April 16, 1996.
 |
|
|---|
