Posted on 12/01/2021 11:28:52 AM PST by nickcarraway
Around 100,000 monarch butterflies are estimated to make up the whole western population this year.
Around 100,000 monarch butterflies are estimated to make up the whole western population this year. With 12,364 in Pacific Grove, which is the most butterflies they’ve seen in five years.
So the big question is — why so many this year compared to last year when there were essentially none?
Stephanie Turcotte-Edenholm, an educational docent for the Pacific Grove museum of natural history education said, “The monarchs decide where they want to go and where they get their needs met. So if it was too dry here, if we didn't have enough nectar sources, if we didn't have the wind protection that they needed, they would decide to go elsewhere.”
Turcotte-Edenholm said there are many things impacting monarch behavior, from climate change to droughts.
“It impacts their nectar sources, the milkweed they need in the spring to lay their eggs. If it's dry that also means that it's warm and the potential for them to mate too early and then leave the sites looking for milkweed and then it's not available and they won't have any place to lay their eggs,” Turcotte-Edenholm said.
Although, this year there are thousands of monarchs fluttering their wings. A welcome sight for the volunteers who count the butterflies each week. They do it early in the morning, when the monarchs are clustered up, making it easier to count.
“So we scout out the whole sanctuary, agree upon where we're going to count and then with binoculars we count individually, ourselves visualizing groups of 20 or more. Then extrapolate that over the whole branch, add on another 20-30% depending on the density of the cluster,” Turcotte-Edenholm said.
A promising year so far for the western population of monarch butterflies, many hoping the trend continues.
All sites are getting counted over a three-week period. The next and final countdown at the Pacific Grove site will be this weekend on Saturday.
The butterfly count is up in CA!
Wowza!~
Ping
Stoopid climate kerfuffleage.
Glad to hear....
If its down, its climate change.
If its up, its climate change.
If its the same, Trump is a Russian agent.
Some of us care very much about these things. I spent a year in Big Sur with my kids and we always loved seeing these beautiful creatures. And other wild creatures too. Except a rattle snake. When we saw one, we called a neighbor who knew how to trap them. He took them to a canyon far away where there were no people.
So the big question is, why do my hydrangeas do well some years, and not others. I think these people don't understand that weather CHANGES. which changes other environmental things, it's weather.
Did you ever eat the rattlers?
This area in Pacifc Grove a good bit of the year you would never know it was a huge Monarch haven.
Makes sense.
People drove less during the pandemic last year and this year, so less butterflies wound up in car grilles and radiators................
Any decent ecologist, as opposed to green weenies, will tell you that naturally occurring fluctuations in populations of species is the rule, not the exception. There really is no need to “explain” an event which is just normal business as usual for the monarch butterfly.
Looking forward to growing my group this summer again. I know what to look for and will have the time to do so since I retire in April !!!!! going to plant a lot of early flowers to attract / feed them along with my milkweed, beabalm, coneflowers etc.
No, is it good?
The other creature we didn’t love but no-one loved or killed was the European Wild Boar brought in by William Randolph Hurst for his friends to hunt at his palatial home. The boar are terrific truffle hunters...follow them and possibly find those extremely valuable ‘shrooms. Scary, though. Tusks that could kill.
More CO2. More butterflies.
I think I see a connection.
It is such an amazing sight to see! So glad they are back. I’ve seen them in previous years over at Ardenwood and in Pacific Grove.
Article says “The monarchs decide where they want to go and where they get their needs met. So if it was too dry here, if we didn’t have enough nectar sources, if we didn’t have the wind protection that they needed, they would decide to go elsewhere.”
How would they do that? Do they send out scouts to reconnoiter where the good places are? How would they get back to the main body of butterflies headed south? How would they communicate?
I understand that one generation of Monarchs does not make a complete round trip. Succeeding generations “know” by instinct where to go for their winter grounds. But if that is true, then wouldn’t the butterflies always go to the same destination? How in the world can a new generation headed south know that their instinctual destination is poor on food or inhospitable and head somewhere else?
Nature is amazing.
Best friend's wife is one of those Monarch watchers and last year was a banner year for the number of butterflies that laid their eggs in her small back yard. I think she harvested over 75 eggs and raised them to adults in the butterfly cages I built for her. This year was the same.
A bad year was the year before last when she saw very little Monarchs in her yard and it was all doom and gloom about the Monarch population dying away....
Until the scientists can communicate directly with the butterflies and find out what is going on, it's going to be a continuous cycle of numbers up and numbers down..........
I know there have been salmon in Los Gatos Creek recently. But it's been decades since a salmon has been there, so these are not salmon returning to where they were born.
They DON’T taste like chicken!
In Westlake Village, Calif (about 30+ miles north of Los Angeles) where I used to work, I saw several years ago for months on end monarch butterflies flying by.
There sure were more then 100,000 of them.
A few decades ago I was in a park and had monarch butterflies flying by the thousands just above the grass for the hours I was there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.