The extraordinary activity at El Rosario one week ago seems to have been an immediate reaction to the rather sudden increase in temperatures and warning of departure.
By the middle of last week, the number of monarchs coming down to the town of Angangueo kept increasing during the very warm temperatures, burning sun, and unbearable sunlight intensity to human eyes. Concerning.
Saturday, Feb. 14: "There will be so little fruit this year; flowers on our wild, native blackberry plants are all burnt out already," a good friend told me a couple of days ago in town.
Monday, Feb. 16: "We arrived to Sierra Chincua, and there were simply no clusters of monarchs anymore. The colony has dissolved; they are all scattered flying around," a tour guide coming with his group from the United States wrote to me this afternoon.
Last week, the team of creators of Project Monarch, a trinational research and conservation effort including WWF-México, CONANP, and the MBBR, led by Cellular Tracking Technologies and the Cape May Point Arts and Science Center in Cape May, worked together at the sanctuaries to tag monarchs with BlūMorpho transmitters, making one more important historical step in the 50-year research of the exceptional great migration.
These transmitters, which weigh about as much as a grain of rice, allow both researchers and the public to follow the migration of individual monarchs in real time. The public can track individual monarchs in the Project Monarch app.
Just in time.
It is evident now that the massive migration could be occurring now for at least five to six days, seeing the massive amounts of monarchs cascading down from El Rosario Sanctuary across Angangueo, clearly heading north.
The break-point to a rapid decline of the season seems unstoppable now.
The weather forecast predicts a drop in temperatures for tomorrow, hopefully slowing down their departure.
Estela Romero
Journey North
Angangueo, Michoacán, México
Estela Romero is an environmental educator with Monarchs Across Georgia. Reporting from Angangueo, Michoacán, Estela Romero's work is made possible by funding from Monarchs Across Georgia and the Monarch Butterfly Fund.
Monarchs continue departure from California overwintering sites
By Gail Morris, Southwest Monarch Study coordinator
With mating in progress, monarchs are leaving the security of the California overwintering sites and beginning their spring migration. The northernmost sites, like those in the Santa Cruz area, still have a few monarchs lingering, but their numbers continue to decrease weekly. Weather conditions will have a major influence of their progress through the region. Your reports of milkweed and monarchs will help us learn how the early phase of the migration is progressing.
Reports from the Field
Stephanie Turcotte Edenholm, Pacific Grove, California
Stephanie has continued to track monarch numbers at the Pacific Grove Sanctuary for the past two weeks.
Feb. 13
It’s a bittersweet morning when we come to the end of the season. We did our final, official monarch count in the Pacific Grove habitat at 7:15 a.m. this morning, with the temperature at 48°F. We had two days of rain this week, quite heavy at times. We weren’t sure how many we would find. I hoped we’d find at least one, but we actually found eight monarchs to end the season.
Interestingly enough, we found monarchs displaying almost every behavior we hadn’t really observed all season. We found a mating pair in a cypress, and the single female grounder in the same grassy area of private property, which was lethal to the 200+ monarchs two seasons ago. We moved her just in case, and so she wouldn’t get trampled on. We are all hyper-conscious about how precious every single monarch is at this point. The seven monarchs in trees were spread across four trees (two eucalyptus in the southern end along the fence and two Monterey Cypress in the east along the property's fence).
It was a hard season to have so few in our grove, but I am grateful for the 200+ that still came. It is interesting to note that the eucalyptus trees were favored all season long. The winter was mild compared to the last few years. We didn’t have the usual strong winds and rains for extended periods of time. Our more established Monterey Pines and Monterey Cypress remained standing in the grove. However, the trees are “thirsty,” and several are struggling.
Let’s hope that plenty of overwintering monarchs find the pesticide-free, native milkweed that they need and that the generations build in number until next season.
I am always hopeful for the season ahead and grateful for the opportunity to contribute.
Feb. 6
We have continued to have very warm temperatures in Pacific Grove since the previous count, and with that, I have seen monarchs flying all around the community. I never seem to have a camera handy when they are flying around me, and they haven’t stopped long enough for me to identify whether they are mostly male or female. However, the sun shining through their wings allows me to catch glimpses of wear and tear on their wings, and for those moments, I just enjoy that they exist.
In any case, we counted at 7:15 a.m. this morning, anticipating early fliers if there were still monarchs in the Pacific Grove habitat or neighbors’ yards. We did find one cluster of monarchs (11), just as you enter the habitat on the east end of the grove, on a eucalyptus tree near the footpath. The remainder were strewn throughout the eastern end, along the hotel’s fence and high up in the eucalyptus along the neighbor’s fence.
All the monarchs observed seemed positioned to fly as soon as they were ready. The temperature was already 57°F when we began, and I am sure it was warmer higher up. We already began seeing fliers at 7:30 a.m. or shortly thereafter. Our total count for Feb. 6 was 26 monarchs (21 clustered, one runner, four fliers). This was across eight trees, all eucalyptus except a loner on a Monterey Cypress inside the habitat.
Our temperatures are supposed to settle down this week. I made an error reporting last week. I cross-referenced my actual data collection book. We counted until Jan. 31 last season, and the final count was seven monarchs. I imagine that we will end with numbers closer to that this season.
Diana Magor, Santa Cruz, California
Diana and her colleagues continue to monitor monarchs as they leave the Santa Cruz overwintering sites.
Feb. 13
On a very cold Friday morning, Feb. 13, two of us went out to count monarchs still at Lighthouse Field. Dave Curley is a spotting maestro and immediately found small clusters of monarchs and singles, totaling 41, on the far east-facing eucalyptus trees of the main monarch grove. Some were already sunning, and later, a couple started to fly down to the wet grass in the meadow across from the path. Most were males, as expected, but one untagged female was spotted.
On Tree 21, just east of the official border of the grove, were a female and a male who had been photographed mating the evening before. Many of the monarchs we found after leaving the main grove were flyers who then landed on cypress branches facing the sun.
I did observe a squashed pair, no tag, that had apparently been mating in the middle of the road between the reserve and the new major construction site across the street. I have also just received word of a dead monarch at the church across the street, which may have been hit by a car in the parking lot. Outside these three, there was only one dead monarch found in the grove near the beginning of the season, which had been partially eaten by predators. Only one dead monarch inside the grove is a very low number!
Total for Lighthouse Field: 56
Thanks!
Thank you to Diana Magor and Stephanie Turcotte Edenholm for your reports during the winter overwintering season! A reminder to everyone: If you are seeing monarchs in the West, please report your sightings to Journey North. You can help us all learn where monarchs are this winter season and their movements.
Monarch sightings needed
Seeing monarchs? Your sightings help us present a balanced and accurate report of where monarchs are appearing each week. Report adults, eggs, and larvae to Journey North. Your detailed description of what you see can include, but is not limited to, the monarch’s gender and activity. If known, include the type of flowers if they are nectaring or milkweed type if laying eggs. Photos are encouraged and welcomed with all your reports.
Gail Morris is the coordinator of the Southwest Monarch Study (www.swmonarchs.org). She is also a Monarch Watch conservation specialist, the vice president of the Central Arizona Butterfly Association, and participates in several western monarch working groups. The Western Monarch News is based on your comments provided to Gail Morris. We hope to increase the number of sightings, photos, and comments entered into Journey North. We rely on the volunteers who communicate regularly with Gail and participate in our effort to increase awareness of the population of western monarchs. You can reach her at gail@swmonarchs.org.