Date: 10/10/2013

Number: 28

Late flow - day 16. Monarchs are still flying past my window this morning - 4-5 so far. Another nice day with at least 20 monarchs feeding on the flowers in the garden and in front of the building. There is a constant turnover.

Vijay Barve stopped by late yesterday to talk about the experience at the recent Monarch Symposium and we got to talking about the late migration. The monarch currently moving through eastern KS have a long way to go. It's about 1300 miles from Lawrence to the overwintering area in Mexico. Assuming the migration advances at 25 miles per day, it would take a monarch leaving Lawrence yesterday 52 days (30 November) to reach the overwintering colonies. If advancing at a rate of 50 miles per day, they might be able to reach the monarch reserve by the 4th of November - just after the Day of the Dead celebration. Maintaining a pace of 50 miles per day, while not impossible, requires favorable conditions in terms of wind speed and direction, temperatures and an abundance of nectar sources. The latter fuel the flight and, if scarce, could force monarchs to spend lots of time feeding rather than migrating. However, the fact that tagging data shows that monarchs tagged this late in the season have a much reduced chance of reaching the overwintering sites indicates that task ahead for these late monarchs is not an easy one. Another 4 monarchs passed by while writing the above.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Lawrence, KS

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -95.2

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