Welcome to the fall monarch migration season! Here is the news from the migration trail:

• The Migration to Mexico is Underway!
  • Latest migration maps
  • Highlights from the Migration Trail
  • What does monarch migration look like?
• Let's Compare: The Life Cycle and Annual Cycle
• Teachers' Guide

Monarchs resting in Thornton, Ontario. How many more miles must they travel?

Latest Migration Maps

• Click for live maps and read the observer's comments.
• Make Your Own Map in the classroom! >>
• Also See: Week-by-week Migration Animation >>

Highlights from the Migration Trail
The word came first from Ontario this year, and the date was only August 3rd. Mr. David Brown of Kingston wrote:

"Although monarchs have been fluttering by for many days without much hint of directional flight, I saw about 50 monarchs this morning flying in a south to southwest direction, indicating that migration seems to have begun in this part of the world."

Do monarchs migrate earlier than the science books say? Before the Internet, collecting such an observation would have been hard. Now, "citizen scientists" are contributing to the understanding of monarch migration. We hope you're ready to help!

As the migration begins across eastern Canada and the United States people are thrilled by high monarch numbers:

• "We have noticed a drastic increase in Monarchs this year. In years past we were fortunate to see a few. They are in the air wherever we go. It is great to see!"
• "I was sitting on the shore of Lake Ontario and watched hundreds of monarchs appear from the lake, land on the flowers, and then continue south," wrote Elaine Williams of Finger Lakes Secondary School in New York.
• On Monday, Mr. David Burnet and his wife were driving down the Genesee Valley Greenway and were suddenly surrounded by thousands of Monarchs!
• Also on Monday, Fay Matthews-Garcia spotted monarchs in her backyard in St. Catharines, Ontario. She hoped they’d arrive by the hundreds as once before. “Well, this time they picked the neighbour’s yard and are there now by the hundreds. Why here? We assume because it is the first land after flying across Lake Ontario," she noted.

Reports from the Midwest have been unusually scarce:

• "What happened?" asked Tom Murphy of Cannon Falls, MN. "In May and June it looked like it was going to be a great year for monarchs." But very few monarchs are visiting his flower farm this year. "I just walked out to my flower patch and there were only 15 or so. Most years I would have hundreds or thousands...We did have quite a drought in this area, virtually no rain for over 4 weeks and many days in the 90's."

Typically, over half of the monarchs that migrate to Mexico come from the Midwest's Corn Belt. Did the drought affect the population? Let's see what people report in the next few weeks.

Mrs. Hewson of Thornton, Ontario, has been sending these pictures from her backyard. How does she know the monarchs were migrating?

Here's how you can watch monarch migration:

• How Track the Fall Migration to Mexico