Monarch Release

Skip, Susan, David, and I attended the 10th annual monarch tagging and release event at the Garden Hill Museum. The only other time I attended was in 2014.

Don Davis was there with lots of monarchs to be tagged and released. He kept them in glassine envelopes in a cooler. He told Skip that over the day he'd be releasing a couple of hundred butterflies.

There is a particular place on the wing where the tag is affixed

If a monarch is spotted, the Monarch Watch website is contacted (MWTAG.ORG) and the serial number is listed. The organization then looks up where and who released the monarch and the person who released it is contacted and sent a certificate. There were several of Don's certificates on display but three of them were from butterflies that were spotted after last year's release at the same event.

This was recovered from a dead monarch in Michoacán, Mexico 7 months later

as was this one. The tag code is given as well.

This tag was spotted on a live monarch in Dallas TX only 7 weeks after Don released it in Garden Hill. Perhaps it was still making its way down to Mexico - to one of 7 or 8 known wintering spots.

Monarchs only travel in the daylight hours and can make 140km in one day.

It's pretty remarkable that three of his monarchs from last year's event were spotted out of 200 or so that he released. 

There was an aquarium literally crawling with monarch larvae and another container with a couple of dozen pupae (chrysalises) attached to the top.

Don was also recognized in the Guinness Book of Records in 1988 for one of his released monarchs having travelled over the greatest distance at that time. To the right of the blue graphic is the tag that was recovered.

Skip got a shot of Susan and me looking at Don's display.

There was one other species on display. These are the larvae from the tomato worm. There were black ones

and big, fat green ones. And boy! do they ever eat a lot.

After a couple of weeks in the larval stage, they make chrysalises underground and then emerge as a large Sphinx moth.

 One of the young attendees had a giant swallowtail on his hand for quite a while. It really didn't seem to want to fly away. When I looked closer I noted it was missing one of its dangly swallowtails and it looked quite faded. It has probably been around for a while.

There were some beautiful echinacea plants in the garden. These were almost a coral colour.

There were also several pots of tropical milkweed on display. This is the kind of milkweed we see in south Texas.

It was a fun outing. Now that I know it's definitely an annual event I can be on the lookout for future ones.