You may have seen one or two monarchs still here in Vermont in the last few days. Most monarchs leave around the third week of September to make there long trip down (around 3000 miles!) to the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. They collect in large numbers clinging to the oyamel pines trees which provide both protection and humidity (or the perfect mirco-climate) that allow the monarchs to overwinter comfortably. The few still present may not make it down to Mexico. Even those who do leave in time do not always make it to Mexico. On September 7, Hurricane Isaac blew a monarch off course and it landed in England! And that’s not all that was blown off course, here’s a link to the article: Blown To England.
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As a Newbie to citizen science, I am always exploring online for articles and blogs that can give me insight. Thank you
Hello I read your blog about the monarch bulertfty. I am amazed by all that you have learned. Fantastic work, I am going to share it with my class, they are Year 6 to 8. I think they will be very impressed.I live in New Zealand, we have the Monarch butterfly here too, and some develop on a plant in our school grounds. The plant is called the Swan plant, because it has seed pods shaped a little like a swan. We have a problem here, because a wasp that was introduced into our country, preys on the caterpillar and so Monarchs are endangered by it. My next door neighbours have like a monarch nursery where they watch and care for them, and try to keep the wasps from getting them.