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Monarch
Butterfly Migration Update: June 2, 2006 |
Today's
Report Includes:
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This
Week's Migration Maps and Data |
Use
today's data to make your own map, or print and analyze our map:
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News
from the Migration Trail |
Our
international network of observers added 166 monarchs to the map
this week. That's a record! Let's put these numbers into perspective.
As of today:
- 635
monarch sightings have been reported all season,
-
425 of the season's sightings occurred in May, and
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336 of the season's sightings occurred in a single week of May
(May 23-29th).
That
means that 53% of the season’s sightings occurred during one
single week! |
An
explosion of reports in late May.
Over
half of the season’s sightings occurred during a single week! |
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- The
monarch population builds with each generation during the breeding
season. When the monarchs migrate to Mexico in the fall their
population will be at its highest.
- A
huge push into Ontario took place, with that province posting
56 of this week's sightings. The migration pattern into Ontario
is interesting. As Don Davis noted, the first monarchs arrived
way up north at Thunder Bay (48N) at the same time that they appeared
along the eastern half of the north shore of Lake Ontario (44N).
They must be reluctant to fly across the cold lake surface until
the right conditions for migration have arrived, he surmised.
- The
northernmost monarch report has now arrived from Winnipeg, Manitoba,
at latitude 49N. Do you see it?
- The
migration along the East Coast is finally approaching 45N, lagging
behind by about 280 miles. Monarchs have moved into Maine according
to reports from four separate locations in that state: Mrs. Clark
of Winslow Elementary in Winslow, ME, saw a monarch flying overhead
while out in the front yard. (44.53 N, -69.62 W). Christine Smith
of Fruit St. School reported, "We had an incredibly warm
Memorial Day weekend and we had about six different Monarch sightings
around the Bangor, Maine area."
- We
close the week with a final report from New Ludlow Elementary
in Worcester, MA, whose school is about to close forever:
"On
Thursday around 10:45 a beautiful female Monarch was spotted fluttering
around our milkweed plants. The whole school yard was so excited.
All the children were yelling, "The Monarchs are here!"
Sighting Monarchs was a school-wide event and we were very proud
of our milkweed garden that our principal has allowed us to have.
Being part of Journey North these past years has given the children
from New Ludlow a new understanding and respect of the butterfly
world."
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Stay
Tuned: The Monarch Migration Continues! |
Other
Journey North migrations are coming to an end, but we track the
monarchs until they've expanded across their entire breeding range.
This normally takes until mid-June.
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The
Next Monarch Migration Update Will Be Posted on June 9, 2006 |
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