Date: 09/04/2009

Number: 1

My wife and I spent the Labor Day weekend walking and tagging. We normally start around the 20th of August. On the 22nd of August we tagged 12. The weather during the last two weeks of August was cloudy, cool, and damp. It was not tagging weather. The first week of September brought a high pressure system and our weather improved each day. When we went out to tag at our normal fields of clover and alfalfa, we discovered them all cut.

After miles of driving around the area on Friday, Sept. 4th, we discovered one large, hilly field that held 13 monarchs in it. On Saturday we went driving again in search of nectar sources. We happened along a large field of alfalfa that was being cut. I stopped the farmer and asked if it would be okay if we walked along his field on the opposite side of him and tagged monarchs. He looked at me like I was a bit crazy, but shook his head and said sure. We got 23 out of that field. In the afternoon, we went for another drive. Stopped and asked permission from another farmer, and he said sure, but he had only seen one monarch in his field as he was cutting.
Well, we found it and tagged it. Back in the car and back on the road.

After a while we discovered a large, scrub field of clover and alfalfa and got out to look. I spotted a monarch floating up from a flower against the horizon so we got our nets and went after it. After much walking, we tagged
21 in that field. On the way home we discovered one last field and stopped for permission. Again a look, but the farmer said sure. We got 2 out of that field. My wife and I estimate that we walked over 10 miles in the day on flat and hilly fields. Needless to say we were in bed by 8:00 that night and asleep by 8:01. So this year we tagged 73 monarchs in the wild. We have 27 tags left for all the caterpillars and chrysalises that I have in my
second grade classroom. This year was different than others because all of
our normal fields were cut. If they would have been left alone until we tagged then I would have had something to gauge the migration on. The weather in Wisconsin was definitely not conducive to migrating monarchs in the last part of August. We did find 31 caterpillars in various instar stages on August 30th and September 6th.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Shawano, WI

Latitude: 44.8 Longitude: -88.6

Observed by:
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