I've been living in the Grover Beach area for ~4 years, but visiting the monarch grove for about 15. This year has been _one_ of the better so far. With the milkweed I planted at the house I bought this year here, and milkweed I've seen my neighbors planting, I hope to continue to the uprise of their proliferation. That being said, my parents reported that in the 80s, there were about 2000x more of them than even now, so...
Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
21–30 of 54 posts
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#22When I was a kid on a farm in Saskatchewan, there were hundreds of Cabbage butterflies in my backyard, and usually a dozen or so Monarchs. I remember the Monarchs being easy to catch with my hands, as if they weren't afraid. Now that I know how much their population has depleted, these memories feel extremely idyllic to me.
Not Monarch Butterflies, but my youth included a similar experience with Lightning Bugs. They completely disappeared from our yards by my teens, but before then, a major part of the non-winter experience was catching and releasing them in bare hands at dusk.
We took it for granted at the time.
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#23Even with the acknowledgement of the concept "flagship species" in conservation, I still don't get the obsession of monarch butterflies. The effort put into it seems to be pretty "narrow" for lack of better words (as in, it can't help much for other species). Did I miss something about how important it is?
Monarch butterflies are beautiful and I want them to continue to exist. I can’t speak for others but for me that is reason enough.
You need better reasons than that. I doubt this is the case with monarch butterflies, but there are certainly lots of plant/animal species that are aesthetically pleasing but become invasive and wholly detrimental.
If I'm not mistaken, monarchs are poisonous due to their diet, so there's some potential for negative impact if they overrun a niche that some other animal was planning to eat.
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#24Obligatory George Carlin ref:
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#25This is wonderful news, 13,000 sightings in one location is 6x more than ALL western US locations last year. Western US populations have collapsed: 4.5m in 80s, 1.2m in 1997, to 100k in 2002, to 2k in 2020.[1][2] One issue is Monarch larva can only eat two plants: both milkweeds, toxic to their predators. Birds will vomit and then avoid them.[3] However, in recent years not one milkweed plant could be identified with…
Random anecdote: I keep a couple of milkweeds casually on my 4th story apartment balcony in SoCal and I get many monarchs coming thru, sometimes a handful of cocoons at a time. I got a cheap butterfly enclosure and I put the entire plant in it to keep spiders and the like from getting to them either in the cocoon or shortly after. I purchased the plant only incidentally as it looked nice and the monarchs were a pleasant addition.
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#26When I was a kid on a farm in Saskatchewan, there were hundreds of Cabbage butterflies in my backyard, and usually a dozen or so Monarchs. I remember the Monarchs being easy to catch with my hands, as if they weren't afraid. Now that I know how much their population has depleted, these memories feel extremely idyllic to me.
I have nothing else to add but a friendly wave to another saskatchewan kid. it's not everyday!
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#27I went to Mexico January past and lucked out that it was butterfly season. Ever since raising them with my own milkweed plants I had wanted to see this sight.
I can only encourage tourism for this event, a million butterflys flapping their wings definitely makes a sound and hopefully the more tourists that go to see them, the more value is placed on protecting their forestry reserves.
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#28This is wonderful news, 13,000 sightings in one location is 6x more than ALL western US locations last year. Western US populations have collapsed: 4.5m in 80s, 1.2m in 1997, to 100k in 2002, to 2k in 2020.[1][2] One issue is Monarch larva can only eat two plants: both milkweeds, toxic to their predators. Birds will vomit and then avoid them.[3] However, in recent years not one milkweed plant could be identified with…
Random anecdote: I keep a couple of milkweeds casually on my 4th story apartment balcony in SoCal and I get many monarchs coming thru, sometimes a handful of cocoons at a time. I got a cheap butterfly enclosure and I put the entire plant in it to keep spiders and the like from getting to them either in the cocoon or shortly after. I purchased the plant only incidentally as it looked nice and the monarchs were a pleas…
Thank you for your service.
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#29Anecdotally there has been an increase in Australia over the past five years, I see heaps of them whenever I go riding now and some about my house in suburbia.
I went to a small national park, a strip between two roads, and it was loaded with butterflies and dragonflies. It was like a disney film. It makes me think that vehicle pollution isn't their biggest threat but rather incecticides.
Re: Substantially more monarch butterflies have arrived in California to overwinter
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Monarch butterflies are beautiful and I want them to continue to exist. I can’t speak for others but for me that is reason enough.
You need better reasons than that. I doubt this is the case with monarch butterflies, but there are certainly lots of plant/animal species that are aesthetically pleasing but become invasive and wholly detrimental. If I'm not mistaken, monarchs are poisonous due to their diet, so there's some potential for negative impact if they overrun a niche that some other animal was planning to eat.
Monarchs have migrated for thousands of years between remote locations, long before humans had a large impact on the environment.