Question about Monarch Watch

19 years ago

I am new to the tagging of Monarchs, and as I read the info, I have had some questions.

1. Do I tag every Monarch that I raise or find in my garden? If so, I'm going to need lots more tags.

2. Should I be starting to tag now? Online, it said middle of September. In the July Newsletter, it said end of August. I am having increased activity now. I am seeing more and more monarchs daily. Plus, I am releasing monarchs also.

3. Do I need to be doing this daily? I know that when the migration truly starts, I'll have 20 or more monarchs in my yard at a time. One year, I know I had over 100 on one single day. The sky and my yard were full of monarchs. I was a major pit stop! LOL This could become a full time job this fall.

Thanks for any help from any of you who have been doing this. I have always been a little afraid of getting involved because I seemed to be under the major migration route, and wasn't sure I could handle all the tagging. I guess, that's a very good reason to be involved. Maybe I can get the neighborhood kids to help me. We can have a Monarch Watch Party!! (Move over tmom, I'm pretty clever too). Maybe we can even get the local paper to cover it.

OkSandy

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Comments (4)

susanlynne48
19 years ago
I'm not quite prepared to tag yet, but admire everyone who does, Sandy.

It would be a great idea to notify the newspaper to let them know about your project. We need to get the word out about this worthy endeavor.

Susan
linda_centralokzn6
19 years ago
Information about tagging Monarchs. Find your latitude at the link listed, then look for your latitude below. My latitude is 35. It shows my midpoint peak to be Oct. 2nd., and the brunt of migration to be around Sept. 24th to Oct. 6th in my latitude. Be aware that these are "rough" gestimates. I could start tagging around Sept. 24th. Remember that the Monarchs migrate in waves with weather fronts- northerly fronts. Watch the weather around the time of your peak for them to talk about northerly fronts coming in with a cool down. If the weather is still quite warm at that time, they will still be intersted in mating, and not interested into going into diapause, and migrating. Last year, I had a nice wave of about 50 in my yard on Oct. 8th. Then, I had a wonderful wave of over 200 stop by on Oct. 13th. So, they were later than my Oct. 6th guideline. Since you are quite a bit north of me, your guideline may be earlier. I usually have some of my own to release when I tag. When they are in the migrating mode, they are very intent on nectaring, and the wild ones are pretty easy to walk up to and net, or pick up by hand, and tag. So, I do both.

I have tagged 200 the last couple of years. This spring was the 1st time that my tags were found in Mexico. One was tagged on Oct. 4th, and the other was tagged on Oct. 11th. So, that is when I plan to do most of my tagging.

Hope that helps. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Tagging Monarch peak dates
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emmayct
19 years ago
Good advice from Linda.

I tagged two of my releases today. I know it's still too early to start tagging, even here in CT, but I couldn't help myself. The Monarch population here is swelling and some here have begun to wonder if the migration has already begun.
I doubt it because just last weekend I saw two mating pairs flying about the garden. So they're still into reproduction, not migration.
Even so, I was curious and thought it would be interesting to see if these two new releases would stay close to home.

Maryann
butterflymomok
Original Author
19 years ago
Linda and Maryann,

Thanks for all the information. The monarch activity in my backyard is getting very busy. But, there is a lot of mating going on. I found more eggs yesterday.

Today I have 10 cats in "j" formation, 10 in chrys, and about 25 cats, all raised from eggs. I can't wait to release 10 monarchs in one day, that will be cool!

The monarchs are congregating in the trees in my yard and coming to the milkweed to nectar. They also check each other out for potential mates. I am recognizing some of the monarchs that have been around for a couple of weeks.

What fun!

Sandy