The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)

The coming and going of monarch butterfly season

- ROBERT MILLER Earth Matters Contact Robert Miller at earthmatte­rsrgm@gmail.com

It’s a lovely wave, borne by the wind, hello and goodbye in passing.

The monarch butterfly migration passed through the state earlier this month. If you looked in the right places, you saw them — orange and black swinging in the sky or paused, feeding on an aster.

And to the delight of everyone — dedicated lepidopter­ists and casual beholder alike — they were there for the admiring.

“I think it was a good year,” said Victor DeMasi, of Redding, who is of the lepidopter­ist kind. “In September there was a wave of healthy, fresh monarchs that came through. First, there weren’t that many. Then they were there. It came and it went.”

DeMasi gently tags the monarchs he nets, so that other researcher­s down the migration road can identify them too.

“I had 50 tags and I ran out,” he said. “I had to call for an emergency supply.”

Gary Lemmon, of Branford, is a monarch tagger as well.

Two weeks ago, he said, there was a huge wave of monarchs passing over Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven. Alas, he wasn’t there to see that.

A week later, he said, he went to Hammonasse­tt Beach State Park in Madison. The wave had passed.

“I tagged one monarch,” Lemmon said.

Patrick Comins, the executive director of the Connecticu­t Audubon Society, agreed it was a good year for monarchs.

“It may not be indicative of anything,” Comins said. “But it’s heartening to see.”

“I’m happy every time I see one,” said Louise Washer, president of the Norwalk River Watershed Associatio­n. The associatio­n’s Pollinator Pathway program is teaching towns and private landowners the value of planting flowers and shrubs that benefit a host of pollinator­s, including butterflie­s.

Sarah Breznan, director of education at the Woodcock Nature Center, which straddles Ridgefield and Wilton, said the numbers of monarchs she’s seen this year is about average.

But what she has noticed growing is the number of milkweed plants, whether in gardens or along the road.

“I don’t know if the word is getting out, or if it’s just seed dispersal,” Breznan said

Milkweed is essential to monarch butterfly survival — it’s the only plant monarchs lay their eggs on. It’s the only plant monarch caterpilla­rs feed on when they hatch And it’s the plant whose toxins make monarchs poisonous to predators — their beautiful orange wings say “Beware!”

As more pastures get turned into big agricultur­al fields, there is less milkweed out there to foster monarchs. Add large-scale use of pesticides and herbicides, and loss of habitat — whether in the U.S. or in the fir tree-lined mountains of central Mexico where monarchs overwinter — and you have a species in

serious decline.

Which is why planting milkweed is important. Just as important, Comins of Connecticu­t Audubon said, are the fall flowering plants, like goldenrod and asters. They feed and fatten the monarchs as they migrate south.

They’ll need every grain of nourishmen­t. Ray Moranz, pollinator ecologist with the Xerces Society — the national organizati­on dedicated to invertebra­te conservati­on — said while there are some flowering plants at the Mexican wintering ground, it’s not enough to feed the millions

of monarchs sheltering there.

“There’s no way there’s enough flowers to support them,” he said.

The life cycle of monarchs is astonishin­g. They leave Mexico and fly north to find the first milkweed flowering in Texas and Oklahoma. They mate, lay eggs and die. The next generation hatches and flies farther, following the milkweed north.

It takes four or five generation­s of monarchs to get as far north as New England and Canada. Each generation only lives a few weeks.

But in fall, as the light changes, the final generation beings flying south. These monarchs can live for as long as eight months, riding the winds, feeding and fluttering back to Mexico.

“They’re the Methuselah­s of monarchs,” Moranz said.

What’s tricky about butterfly counts is that there are so many factors involved.

Storms can kill monarchs as they fly north in the spring, south on the winter. The numbers can look excellent one year and terrible the next. The numbers can change within a year.

“Early in the season, it wasn’t looking so good,” Moranz said. “From July on, the news has been much better.”

DeMasi, of Redding, said prevailing winds may have steered the full wave of monarchs through the state this fall. And it’s just one state

“We won’t really know the numbers until there’s a count in Mexico,” he said.

 ?? John Pirro / Contribute­d photo ?? The monarch butterfly season was fleeting but gave dedicated lepidopter­ists and casual beholders the opportunit­y to admire them.
John Pirro / Contribute­d photo The monarch butterfly season was fleeting but gave dedicated lepidopter­ists and casual beholders the opportunit­y to admire them.
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