Date: 03/05/2006

Number: 1

There has always been speculation that, due to the increased numbers of the Florida winter monarch population, there should be a migration north, but this has been elusive in observation or measurement. In Pinellas County, where Morris and I are located (I am in St. Pete., Morris in Clearwater, about 12 miles north), the natural route may possibly be further inland as our locations are on the peninsula forming the western side of Tampa Bay and the butterflies may opt to move through the inland route rather than crossing the mouth of the bay.

I have found it difficult to note northward movement as opposed to the fall migration arrivals. Females tend to move through at all times and do not take up residency, but the males do become resident.
Numbers increase over the winter and decrease in the spring. The lowering numbers may indicate the butterflies have left for greener pastures up north or something else like mortality. However, I do not see any "stream" of butterflies as identifiable as those that migrate south through the midwest in the fall. Here, they are individuals rather than groups.

Currently, I have seen only a few males patrolling and they look somewhat threadbare (older) and one female ovipositing, although there could be more than one since I generally observe them one at a time. However, there are not nearly as many monarchs flying as there were a few weeks ago. Sometimes, if I have a visitor, the males, 4 or
5 at a time, will zoom in and around us startling my guest. I'm used to Kamikaze butterflies, but to someone not familiar with monarch butterflies territorial disputes, their eyes get saucer wide and I sometimes get asked "They don't bite, do they?"

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Saint Petersburg, FL

Latitude: 27.8 Longitude: -82.7

Observed by:
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.