Monarch Season

Since many of you have children and are interested in butterfly gardening, I thought you might be interested in what’s happening with the monarch research that happens each year about this time. My friend David Cook works for Fish and Wildlife and keeps me in the loop. If you’d like to get in touch with him about participating, please let me know and I’ll hook you up. Below is the text of his email announcing the monarch season:

Hi Monarch Enthusiasts:

It’s becoming monarch time at St. Marks! The monarchs are wending their way south and typically have a peak migration through St. Marks between mid-October and mid-November. Last year we had banner days on Oct 29 (counted 1100, tagged 912) and Nov 3 (counted 1564, tagged 1513). I’m a little delinquent in contacting you, but we still should have plenty of opportunities to enjoy this year’s migration.

We’ll try again this year what we did last year – count and tag on Saturdays and also on mornings associated with cold fronts – in order to maximize the numbers tagged. We’ll color the tags blue again this year, in the hopes of receiving more sighting reports of St. Marks-tagged monarchs. There are still plenty of questions about where these butterflies are overwintering and how they get there. Over the years we’ve had a relatively low number of tag recoveries from central Mexico, and the St. Marks monarch migration pattern is still largely unknown. On the days following tagging at St. Marks, we hope to encourage people west and south of St. Marks to watch for blue-tagged monarchs and provide information on the route they’re taking. If you or your friends live or travel along the coast, or visit the coastal parks, please keep an eye out for monarchs with blue tags!

If you are interested in joining in on the monarch counting and tagging project this season, please let me know. If you don’t think you can this year, but want to remain on my e-mail list, please let me know that, as well. If I don’t hear from you I’ll go ahead and drop you from the list. On the same token, feel free to invite others to participate; no experience is necessary!

Schedule thus far:

Saturday, Oct. 11 First tagging day BUT we’re hosting the Wakulla Green Guides group, so I only need a couple of experienced taggers to join us.

Saturday, Oct. 18. Tagging day. I will be out of town so Bruce Ballister will lead. Volunteers needed.

Friday, Oct. 24, day before the Monarch Festival. We’ll count and capture monarchs, and if there aren’t that many, we’ll keep them for tagging demonstrations the following day.

Saturday, Oct. 25. Monarch Festival at St. Marks. Counting, tagging, and all manner of fun activities until 4 p.m. Contact the Refuge at 925-6121 if you have questions or want to help.

Saturday, Nov. 1. Tagging day.

Saturday, Nov. 8. Tagging day.

Those are the Saturdays scheduled thus far; one or two more might be added into November if monarch flights are strong and we have tags left. Again, we’ll ALSO plan to monitor incoming cold fronts and tag monarchs the next morning – that could be any day of the week!

If you know you’d like to join in on a specific day or two, or if you might be available for ad hoc tagging on days associated with cold fronts, please let me know. Also, if you’re interested in trying to track down tagged monarchs along the coast W or S or St. Marks on the day following tagging, let me know that as well!

Tagging day basics: Meet at the St. Marks gate by 6 a.m.* (when it opens) and proceed to the lighthouse parking lot. Drive carefully – there’s lots of wildlife at that hour! The leader will meet you there with the equipment, tags, etc. You need to bring: good flashlight or head lamp, shoes you don’t mind getting wet, NO bug repellent. Very highly recommended – long pants and long-sleeved shirt. If there aren’t many monarchs, the counting/tagging session takes about 1.5 hrs. If there are lots, then we’ll be there a while. Of course, you’re welcome to come and go as necessary.

*[Beginning Nov. 8 we’ll be on standard time and meet at the gate by 5:15 a.m.!]