I just tagged our last monarch butterfly on Labor Day.
We bought 25 tags from Monarch Watch and we just happened to have 25 monarchs that were in the migration window. (They don't mail them out until the migrating generation emerges.)
Altogether we raised 55 monarchs this season -- not as many as in the past, but certainly more than the last two years when the population plummeted. We were lucky to even see monarchs at all those years.
We hope this bodes well for the future population, though it still worries me that we're still not planting enough milkweed. The news about illegal deforestation in Mexico isn't good either.
Though I find the tagging process somewhat stressful, I think it provides essential information about the migration that I hope will benefit conservation efforts. I'll be checking the list in the spring to see if they find one of "my" monarchs!
To learn more about monarchs in our yard and elsewhere, please visit our desktop-friendly website at www.ourhabitatgarden.org/creatures/monarchs.html. (Though not technically mobile-friendly, it's fine on the iPad, though a tad squished on the iPhone.)
