Vol. 20 Issue 4, Winter 2015 By Nicole Hamilton As you read this, Monarch butterflies rest by the millions in Oyamel fir trees in a tiny mountain town outside of Mexico City. These butterflies lived in our gardens. They gobbled up milkweed as caterpillars and sipped nectar as adults. They sat on our fingers and […]

Monarch butterflies are not only on their way but are showing up!!!  Here’s the latest map from Journey North which shows reports on May 2nd (Alexandria), May 3rd (Fairfax) and May 4th (Newport News).  And there reports of egg laying!! View the map here and the list of sightings here.  Post any Monarchs you see […]

Mona Miller put together this excellent video on how to collect Common Milkweed seeds with fantastic tips on how to do it without getting the fluff all over your house 🙂 httpv://youtu.be/fhjkC1Mbzlg

Did you see a Monarch Butterfly today? Well wish it well for the great migration to Mexico because that’s where it’s headed!  Today marks the start of the peak migration for our latitude (39). Monarch Watch put together this great table that shows how the migration plays out. Latitude Midpoint Peak in monarch abundance 49 […]

This fantastic video tells the whole story – watch it and share it far and wide! httpv://youtu.be/zwb50jDl6r0 “As milkweed goes, so goes the Monarch”  Plant milkweed now — it’ll grow up big and strong for next Spring! As we head into fall, adult Monarchs need nectar plants – forget the Mums – plant Goldenrods and […]

Well we couldn’t get up to the Adirondacks to see Chip Taylor in person but he just gave this great talk on Monarch Butterflies at The Wild Center and they were kind enough to record it so we could share it with you! In his talk he discusses not only the population trends but also […]

This short video (5 minutes) talks about Monarch migration routes both in the fall and in the spring and the overwintering activities in Mexico: httpv://youtu.be/IQd8d5OskIs

This Saturday is our 17th Annual Loudoun County Butterfly count where we form into 8 teams, each led by an experienced butterflier (that’s a new area of expertise if you weren’t sure), as we identify and count as many butterflies as we can inside our count circle and along designated routes within it. We currently […]

This just in from Journey North: Monarchs are scarce this summer across their breeding range because of two key factors: 1. Record Low Last Winter There were only 60 million monarchs wintering in Mexico last winter, 80% below the 350 million monarch average.  The area of forest covered with monarchs  was only 3 acres, compared […]