Tagging Monarch Butterflies in the Garden--October 2009

Photos by Angela Cingale

On October 10th, The Williamsburg Botanical Garden Program of Monarch Butterfly tagging commenced with an enthusiastic crowd. The very next day, WBG had a sighting of two tagged butterfly in Ford's Colony which confirmed that the butteflies were taking advantage of the jetstream and were ready for their trek either to Florida or Mexico. How they know to do this is a mystery. Children and adults tagged over 60 butterflies and released them in the garden where they went to the nectar plants, Lantana and Buddleia. Under the supervision of Larry Brindza, Monarch Expert, Citizen Scientist, Author, and Tagger. Mr. Brindza gave an informative talk prior to everyone obtaining their own butterfly to identify with a small round tag on their left wing. There were 29 males (48%) and 32 were females (52%). Larry Brindza will be turning in the "data sheets" to Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas. If any of our tags are recovered it probably won't be until april or May of next year before they get all the info entered in the computer system and know how many tags were recovered. WBG's Monarch Team, Clare Britcher and Angela Cingale, will be monitoring the Monarch Watch website for sightings outside of Virginia and will report their findings at their next butterfly program. Participants can log in to Monarch Watch at - www.monarchwatch.org or they can call in to 1-888-Tagging to report one of our tagged butterflies. Photos courtesy of Angela Cingale

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