How to Track the Monarch Butterfly Migration from your Desk

Monika,
….I would love to see the migration at the Llano River. We have a 5th wheel [travel trailer] and have camped at the KOA on the Llano River in Junction, Texas….
Is this the area where we would be able to see the migration? I think I saw the estimated dates for peak migration at the Llano River is Oct 10-27, 2014. Is this correct? Want to make sure I am in the right place and right time if possible.
Thanks for the information and for your newsletter/emails about the butterflies. Just love them.

                                     Sincerely,   Elaine

Emails like the one above are common this time of year.  Many of us who follow Monarchs  try to stay on top of the migration to plan tagging outings and sate our extreme interest and curiosity.

Won’t be long and Monarch butterflies will be passing throughout the Texas Funnel.  Check out the online tools that will help you track the migration.  Photo by Monika Maeckle

I check the Monarch Watch peak migration calendar, monitor the wind and weather, and keep an eye on email lists and social media before inviting my butterfly loving friends to join me for a weekend of tagging on the Llano River. Lucky for me my birthday is October 13, which generally falls in the middle of prime migration time (this year, October 10 – 22 for our latitude).  That all makes for a great Monika’s Monarch birthday weekend.
In the meantime, it’s fun to catch vanguard migrants on their early journeys south for observation and tagging.   And for those with limited outdoor access, social media and the web provide chances to experience the migration virtually. (Yeah, not the same, but better than nothing.)
Elaine, no sure way exists to predict exactly which weekend Monarchs will mass along the Llano River near Junction.   But by tapping the resources below, you’ll be able to determine the best chance of seeing the most Monarchs.
So make note and check out the cool tools available at the intersection of technology and (citizen) science.

Journey North

First stop should be the Journey North website.  A free internet-based program that explores the interrelated aspects of seasonal change, Journey North tracks wildlife migrations including hummingbirds, whales and bald eagles.   This time of year, the Monarch migration gets top billing.  Journey North founder Elizabeth Howard told us that 400,000 people per month visit the site during Monarch migration season.

And with good reason.  Journey North offers constantly updated maps showing where adult Monarchs, eggs, caterpillars, and roosts have been spotted.  Photos and reports from citizen scientists, butterfly enthusiasts, professional photographers and academics populate the site, along with training and resources for teachers and others.

In last week’s map, below, recently observed overnight roosts were limited to Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Note to Elaine: you won’t be missing anything in Junction, Texas, for a while.

Overnight roosts reported last week were limited to Wisconsin and Minnesota. Map by Journey North

Journey North also posts a weekly report on Thursdays based on observations from Monarch butterfly enthusiasts of all ages, from Canada to Mexico.
Journey North founder Elizabeth Howard often writes the updates herself, like this one from last Thursday.  “The largest counts have been in nectar-rich hotspots with Liatris. This late-blooming plant is a monarch magnet! When planting for monarchs, flower bloom-times are important. Include late-bloomers to attract migrating monarchs and provide vital fuel for migration.”

 Twitter

Using Twitter as a search engine is another great Monarch butterfly tracking tool. It provides real-time updates of Monarch butterfly sightings and offers a timely feed on Monarch butterfly news, from many of my favorite sources–including Journey North and Monarch Watch.

Tagged Monarch in Minnesota, courtesy of U.S. State Rep Phyllis Kahn and via Twitter

Granted, not everyone uses Twitter, but an estimated 270+ million people and myriad organizations tap the free, real-time application as a search engine and personal or professional broadcast outlet.
That means you can visit http://search.twitter.com and punch in “monarch butterflies” or “monarch migration” or “tagged monarch butterfly” and dozens of hours-old “tweets”–brief 140-character updates—will be returned, telling you where Monarchs are flying RIGHT NOW.
Such a search today turned up this tweet from Minnesota State Representative for District 60B, Phyllis Kahn: “Monarch butterfly tagged and released. About to take off for Mexico.”   Kahn offered the lovely Monarch on Goldenrod pictured above with her tweet.
Twitter search ONLY indexes recent updates. Google and other search engines are more akin to archives for the entire web. You can try searching Google News, but this won’t return the real-time reports Twitter delivers.  Check it out.

Wind Map

For those of us who live in the Texas funnel, the wind plays an especially significant role in planning for Monarch tagging outings. I work full-time, so during Monarch season, I plot each weekend for maximum Monarch activity.
Before leaving town, I check the Wind Map, a fantastic tool that shows which way the winds are blowing.  If winds are coming out of the North, that means Monarchs will be riding the wave and we could have a big mass when they drop from the sky at sunset and roost for the night.
If winds are coming from the South, Monarchs won’t be moving much. That could mean they’re stranded in place, which could also make for good tagging since they will likely hang out and nectar on late blooming flowers.

Dr. Chip Taylor, founder of Monarch Watch, recently suggested that tracking wind patterns through the wind map and matching them up with tagged Monarch butterfly recoveries would be a great citizen scientist project.    We’ll have to see if someone tackles that.
Either way, the map lets us know what’s coming.  Plus, it’s simply a dreamy tool, with it’s  visual articulation of nature’s breath expressed in real-time.
As the site descriptor says: “An invisible, ancient source of energy surrounds us—energy that powered the first explorations of the world, and that may be a key to the future. This map shows you the delicate tracery of wind flowing over the US.”

Wind map creators Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viégas. Courtesy photo

The wind map is an art project of Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg who lead Google’s “Big Picture” visualization research group in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The talented team are committed to a “rigorous understanding of visualization” informed by their Ph.Ds–Viégas’ graduate degree from the MIT Media Lab; Wattenberg’s in mathematics, from U.C. Berkeley.
LOVE this project.
Monarch Watch Facebook Page
If you’re reading this and you’re on Facebook, then you likely have already “LIKED” the Monarch Watch Facebook page.  If not, go ahead, do it now, and join the party.  (And while you’re at it, why not LIKE the Texas Butterfly Ranch Facebook page?)
With more than 23,000 fans, Monarch Watch’s page serves as a delightful online plaza where the Monarch Watch team from the University of Kansas engages with the rest of us to share information, photos, and wax passionate about Monarch butterflies and their migration.   Citizen scientists, recreational observers, and professional and amateur biologists and entomologists join the conversation.  Like this:

Toby Smith, who posted the above photo, is from Garland, Texas.  That’s just 292 miles north of here, so that tells me at least individual Monarchs are en route.  Be sure to click on the “posts to page” tab so you can see what people in the field are seeing.

Journey North devotes itself to wildlife migrations besides Monarch butterflies, but the Monarch Watch website brags Monarch butterflies, all the time.

Based at the University of Kansas at Lawrence, Monarch Watch founded the citizen scientist tagging program embraced by thousands of us who tag Monarchs each fall.  Its comprehensive website offers information on how to tag a Monarch, raising milkweed, rearing Monarch caterpillars, and a database of all the Monarch tags recovered in Mexico, so those of us who tag can find out if any of our butterflies made it home.
The site also posts predictions for when the peak migration will occur at your latitude based on Monarch Watch scientists’ well-researched opinions.  The Monarch Watch blog is also worth a look and you can join 30,000 others to get on the mailing list.
D-Plex List
If the above won’t sate your migration curiosity, then consider signing up for the D-PLEX list,  an email exchange that includes about 650 scientists, conservationists, enthusiasts, and others, including some very interesting characters.
Named after the Monarch butterfly’s Latin designation, Danaus plexipus, the D-PLEX is an old fashioned email listserv started by Monarch Watch founder Dr. Chip Taylor and invites the public.  Sign up to receive D-PLEX emails on the Monarch Watch webpage.
Careful, though.  The D-PLEX can overtake your email inbox.   Conversations can escalate, generating dozens of emails a day, many of which you may not find useful.   I’ve set up all D-PLEX emails to forward to a special email box that I check once a day, so as not to be overwhelmed.
Don’t forget to check in with us here at the Texas Butterfly Ranch, too.  We’ll do our best to keep you posted.

Related posts:

• Monarch Butterflies Headed our Way in Apparent Rebound Season
• Llano River Ready for “Premigration Migration” of Monarch Butterflies 
• How to Tag a Monarch Butterfly in Six Easy Steps
• Pollinator Power on the San Antonio River Walk
• 2014 Monarch Butterfly Migration:  Worst Year in History or Hopeful Rebound? 
• How to Raise Monarch Butterflies at Home, Part One 
• First Lady Michelle Obama Plants First Ever Pollinator Garden at the White House
• Monarch Butterfly Numbers Plummet:  will Migration become Extinct?
• NAFTA Leaders, Monsanto:  Let’s Save the Monarch Butterfly Migration
• What does climate change mean for Monarch butterflies?

Like what you’re reading?  Follow butterfly and native plant news at the Texas Butterfly Ranch. Sign up for email delivery in the righthand navigation bar of this page, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter, @monikam.