In a year not too far into the future, it is not too fanciful to believe that scientists will follow individual Monarch butterflies on their migration by inserting an electronic chip in the thorax and monitoring their journey by satellite. When this happens we will know in real time exactly the route a Monarch takes, how time is partitioned into flight, resting and nectaring and how many actually survive the migration and arrive at overwintering sites. Think of the amazing and illuminating data we would get from electronic-tagging just a few Monarchs!

However, in 2017 we still do what we have done since Fred Urquhart pioneered Monarch tagging in the 1950’s: use sticky adhesive labels. Some of the early tags involved glue but fortunately with the advent of small, circular, lightweight, weatherproof adhesive tags introduced by Monarch Watch in 1992, tagging is still a remarkably simple and effective way of monitoring the Monarch migration. In more than 20 years of Monarch tagging in the eastern United States, about 14,000 tags, approximately 1% of all the Monarchs tagged, have been recovered at the overwintering sites in Mexico. Each tag recovery provides information on the date and location of release and recovery. Most of the tag recoveries in Mexico are of dead butterflies found on the forest floor often months or years after the butterflies have departed. Tagging provides no information on migration routes or residency duration at the overwintering site. Tagging Monarchs in the western United States has been very limited until recently so we know very little about Monarch migration in the west compared to what we know about the eastern population. However, significant citizen scientist- based tagging programs in Arizona and the Pacific Northwest over the past few years have begun to provide much needed data on the fall migration of Monarchs in the west. However, the limitations are the same as with eastern migrants; we usually only get information on release and recovery.

In 2016 two Monarchs tagged by citizen scientists as part of the WSU Pacific Northwest tagging program, provided a whole lot more data on their journeys and overwintering than just the date/location of tagging and recovery! Their stories are also now etched in the minds and imaginations of the children that helped give these two Monarchs their lives and journeys.

Amelia’s Monarch, Ms A4853, reared, tagged and released by Molly Monroe and Amelia Jebousek in Corvallis

Molly Monroe and her five year old daughter Amelia reared their female Monarch in August 2016 from an egg laid on their backyard milkweed by a visiting female. They also reared 23 others and ended up tagging 22 of them. Amelia’s Monarch was tagged with the serial number A4853 and released at her ‘Growing Oaks’ pre-school in Corvallis on August 30. We can only speculate on the route that Amelia’s Monarch took after her release but given that south was her destination, it seems likely that she followed the Willamette Valley through Eugene and Roseburg and perhaps followed the I-5 corridor through Grant’s Pass into northern California. She may then have passed through Redding and down through the open agricultural flood plain of the Sacramento River heading towards the San Francisco area.

One thing we do know is that Amelia’s Monarch appeared in Lisa De Angelis’ roof deck garden of her 4th story apartment in North Beach, San Francisco on September 18! Lisa had her I-phone at the ready and took a picture of Ms A4853 nectaring on Verbena, showing the unmistakable San Francisco skyline.

Amelia’s Monarch hung around Lisa’s blooms for two hours between 5-7pm spending most of her time feeding from Lantana, before flying off. Ms A4853 had taken just 19 days to fly the 470 air miles south to San Francisco or an average of 24.7 miles a day. Undoubtedly her route was more meandering thus she probably flew many more miles. Traveling had not taken a discernible toll on her condition; her wings were still vibrantly colored and in excellent condition. Clearly, North Beach, San Francisco was a refueling stop and she had not reached her overwintering destination.

We thought the odds of seeing Amelia’s Monarch again were slim but amazingly 23 days later, long time Monarch biologist John Dayton spotted Ms A4853 amongst 10,000 or so Monarchs on a Cypress at the Santa Cruz Lighthouse Field overwintering site!. She had flown another 64 miles south-south-east to Santa Cruz and if she was flying at the same rate as prior to her San Francisco stop she probably arrived in Santa Cruz around September 21. John Dayton’s photo shows Amelia’s Monarch to still be in excellent condition. The Lighthouse Field overwintering site consists of a small grove of Eucalyptus and Cypress trees just a few hundred yards from the ocean and is as nice a place as any to hang out for the winter as a Monarch could wish for. However, perhaps she didn’t get on with her fellow Monarchs, or the marauding crows that would sometimes dive into the Monarch colony feasting on the unlucky few, freaked her out. Whatever the reason Ms A4853 decided to set off again for a short 1.6 mile hop westwards to the much more famous Santa Cruz overwintering site at Natural Bridges State Park. Far fewer Monarchs (~3000) resided at Natural Bridges in October- November and Amelia’s Monarch was spotted there in a high cluster on Eucalypts on November 25 by Aleece Townsend, an active Monarch tagger in our program in southern Oregon. Perhaps this was Ms A4853’s final winter home? No it wasn’t. She turned up again on December 30 at yet another Santa Cruz overwintering site, this time at Moran Lake which is about 4.6 miles east of Natural Bridges. Amelia’s Monarch likely flew right over Lighthouse Field and part of Santa Cruz Bay to get to Moran Lake.

The Moran Lake site is a Eucalypt grove that surrounds a waste treatment works and the Monarch population there varied from 2-6,000 during October-December. John Dayton spotted Amelia’s Monarch at Moran Lake and I was fortunate enough to be with him on December 30 to see the by now famous and widely traveled Ms A4853 for myself! John took the final photograph we have of Amelia’s Monarch and she was still in remarkably good condition for a well-traveled four month old Monarch January and February 2017 were stormy, wet and windy in Santa Cruz and all of the Monarch colonies substantially dispersed by mid-late February. Amelia’s Monarch was not sighted again but this tenacious Monarch very likely flew inland eastwards or northwards looking for newly sprouting milkweed. Hopefully she laid enough eggs in northern California to produce another generation of Monarchs whose progeny would reach Corvallis and perhaps lay eggs on Molly and Amelia’s milkweed!

Part Two

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