After record low, monarch butterflies return to California

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By HAVEN DALEY and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ

PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. (AP) — There is a ray of hope for the vanishing orange-and-black Western monarch butterflies.

The number wintering along California’s central coast is bouncing back after the population, whose presence is often a good indicator of ecosystem health, reached an all-time low last year. Experts pin their decline on climate change, habitat destruction and lack of food due to drought.

An annual winter count last year by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the tens of thousands tallied in recent years and the millions that clustered in trees from Northern California’s Mendocino County to Baja California, Mexico, in the south in the 1980s. Now, their roosting sites are concentrated mostly on California’s central coast.

This year’s official count started Saturday and will last three weeks but already an unofficial count by researchers and volunteers shows there are over 50,000 monarchs at overwintering sites, said Sarina Jepsen, director of Endangered Species at Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.



Butterflies land on branches at Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. The number of Western monarch butterflies wintering along California's central coast is bouncing back after the population reached an all-time low last year. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-california-butterflies-habitat-destruction-ffc90bc85fe95c60acc368e00966d025

[TexasBushwhacker]

1. The ones that fly through Texas to Mexico are having a good year too

[LiberalFighter]

2. Good news

[ffr]

3. Every Showy Milkweed can make the difference. If you have the ability, plant native milkweed

It's the caterpillars nursery.

I have about 40 plants on my property and I actively spread seeds eslewhere where I think they might germinate. I grow them in an indoor greenhouse too over winter and do the same to the seedlings. I have additional plants at relative's too.

While we all have a few seed pods, I cannot say though, that I've seen a Monarch butterfly in two years.

[DBoon]

4. The Monarchy lives!

[Greybnk48]

5. We hatched and released over 200 Monarchs this summer (2021), only loosing two.

We are cultivating milkweed all over our yard, and our neighbors are now being really cool about it. They see us out in the garden releasing these beauties several times a week and we now have a reputation, lol.

In 2020 we began keeping track. We released a little over a hundred, lost 0.

Prior to this we left them in our gardens and the ants and bugs ate the eggs. I'm sure I saw Robins snatching small caterpillars too. That's when we decided to gather eggs and raise them in mesh habitats. That led to massive success!

I credit 90% of our success to my daughter who lives with us right now. She is devoted to this in the summer. I'll take 10% for doing the gardening! and fighting off the neighbors about the milkweed the first couple of years.

[Jon King]

8. We do the same here in South Florida.

Just had one emerged tonight, will release tomorrow.

[Hekate]

6. Wonderful news. I'll keep an eye out for them!

[Bayard]

7. Wonderful news!

I had a few milkweed plants come up in the garden from seed, but they fizzled out.

[Jon King]

9. Home Depots and Lowes down here always stock milkweed.

They seem to always be bringing in carts and carts of them. So hopefully that means plenty of folks are helping the monarchs.

[csziggy]

10. We're still getting monarchs on our milkweed

A couple of weeks ago, there would be a half dozen or more on the flowers at a time with others lined up waiting their turns on nearby bushes. Now, there are fewer flowers and fewer monarchs, but it's surprising to see any this late in the year.

I'm outside Tallahassee and the monarchs tend to leave from St.Marks/Alligator Point to fly across the Gulf of Mexico. Most years the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge has a Monarch Butterfly Festival, but it was cancelled the last two years.

Celebrate migration miracle at Monarch Butterfly Festival

Last updated on September 27th, 2021 at 06:07 pm

Everyone ends up in Florida sooner or later it seems, and monarch butterflies are no different.

On their 2,000-mile fall migration from North America to Central Mexico, thousands of monarch butterflies stop over in Florida’s Big Bend and Panhandle in October and November. This miraculous migration is celebrated in an annual Monarch Butterfly Festival at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in picturesque St. Marks, Florida, a half hour south of Tallahassee.

The 2021 festival has been canceled due to the pandemic. Florida Rambler is retaining information from previous festivals on this page in the hope the festival returns in 2022.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The town of St. Marks, by the way, usually holds its annual Stone Crab Festival on the same day, making this a two-for-one destination. There is no stone crab festival scheduled as of late September 2021.

More: https://www.floridarambler.com/big-bend-getaways/monarch-butterfly-festival/

[róisín_dubh]

11. I had some on my butterfly bush up to our freeze last week.

I love them so much. In the summer, I was getting probably 10 at a time on my butterfly bush.

[nwliberalkiwi]

12. Pismo Beach

At Pismo Beach this weekend, there were many Monarchs in the trees at the Monarch Preserve.

[electric_blue68]

13. I love butterflies! TY to all of you planting milkweed! ...

Back when I lived near one of Manhattan's big northern parks I'd walk through the garden at least 1/WK often more. We'd get monarchs, tigertail, American lady, spicebush swallowtails, and more.
I still get there every year.

They maybe milkweed there having just looked it up. Next year I'll look for it. It does have the butterfly bush at times. I love that plant/flower!

One if my favorite things was when I'd be sitting on my veranda (my fire escape) that had a 180° view of the sky (it overlooked a 8 story drop that went eastward for 3+ block then rise up ward again) - and suddenly a monarch would come zipping by usually southward in a straight line parallel to the top edge of the fire escape railing.
It was such a sweet delight. 💖

Tangential - the Bronx Zoo has a butterfly house every late Spring till early Fall. Haven't been there in years. I used visit it more often. If covid is more under control maybe I'll get there in '22.
I just love it. So many varieties. They'll often land on white or bright colored shirts, tops - yellow, orange, pinks, purple. 🥰

[pfitz59]

14. COVID link?

A lot of communities cut back on weed-abatement programs during the crisis. Very likely milkweed regrew in abundance. Plausible cause.

[susanr516]

15. I live in S TX

We have several tropical milkweeds in our yard for the monarchs. They have beautiful red and yellow flowers. We have about a dozen chrysalises along our fence. I'm glad to hear the Western Monarchs are rebounding after all the wild fires. We do whatever we can to preserve the species.