We’ve just filed our annual report with the conservation group Monarch Watch as part of their tagging program. Gardeners placed small numbered ID stickers (tags) on the dorsal wings of 50 Monarch butterflies between August and October 2021. With luck, a tagged (expired) butterfly will be found in Mexico, the migration destination, recovered and reported.
A Record-Setting Year for These Special Pollinators
By far, this is the most Monarch butterflies we’ve counted in one season. No doubt the special new net helped with catching, but a fair amount of the butterflies were found as caterpillars on milkweed plants. The native plant species is the only type that Monarchs use for egg-laying, which is why conservation efforts call for planting as many of the drought-resistant host plants as possible. (Continued below)
Learn more about Monarch Butterfly Migration, habitat conservation and the Monarch Watch tagging program here. To date, there are 36,863 official way stations in the United States; sadly the species remains at risk, due to deforestation and the ongoing loss of natural habitats.
Migrating Monarchs Need Waystations for Food and Shelter
CVEarthlab Garden was launched in 2013 and a few years later, the play area was registered as an official Monarch Waystation. This means it provides shelter and food for the migrating butterflies. At CV, food is three different types of milkweeds and a variety of continuously blooming nectar-providing flowers, including annuals such as marigolds and Zinnia and native perennials (plants that come back every year) such as bee balm, black-eyed Susan, echinacea, sedum, coreopsis, goldenrod, violet, and hollyhock.
We have participated in the tagging program since 2019, but only started documenting CV Monarch caterpillar sightings around 2018. See the tag numbers we registered in 2021 on this spreadsheet; when a butterfly with the tag number is found it will be reported here.
Want to help support the 2022 Migration? In March we will start to grow butterfly-friendly flowers at our seed-starting event; there are many ways to help with conservation in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Send your contact info to CVEarthlab@gmail.com and we’ll keep you in the loop! -CVEarthlab Core Committee Members
Related posts: Monarch Butterfly was Tagged, Released Today (2019) ; CV Has Monarch Caterpillars! (2018) ; Why I Love Mulch! (2017) ; What’s In Our Butterfly Garden? (2014)
Concord Village EarthLab 