Amazing Monarch Wings

Is the butterfly young or old? Is it a male or female? Has it had a narrow escape from a predator? Was it well fed as a young caterpillar? These are all questions to investigate. Wings tell quite a story.

When monarchs start to migrate north after they overwinter in Mexico, they arrive to the shores of the United States with tattered and torn wings. These migrating monarchs soon laying eggs on milkweed and then die. The next generation of monarchs continue the migration journey north. 

Monarchs Have Left

Seems like only yesterday that the monarchs arrived on the Day of the Dead in November. For nearly five months, the monarchs graced their ancestral homes among Oyamel forests in Mexico and Michoacán states, in Central México. They have now returned north to breed.

The last stopping point in the Rio Grande valley site is now empty of monarchs.

By Gail Morris

March 16, 2020

Finally, Rain!

Much needed rain graced California and Arizona this week in a multi-day precipitation event (which is what we call a rainy spell), accompanied by cooler temperatures. This limited monarch movement in the West, but they still appeared on sunny days embedded in the rains.