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LAWRENCE -- Monarch Watch, an educational outreach program at the University of Kansas, will team up with the Jayhawk Audubon Society to sponsor a monarch butterfly tagging at the Baker University Wetlands.
The public is invited to help tag monarchs from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 14.
"No experience is necessary, so bring the family and join us in the world's largest mark-and-recapture program," said Orley "Chip" Taylor, director of Monarch Watch. "If you have a net, bring that too, though Monarch Watch, JAS and Baker University will have nets to loan." Monarch Watch will provide the tags and tagging instructions, Taylor said. This program provides useful information on the origins of monarchs reaching overwintering locations in Mexico and the status of the population.
Last year, 325 participants tagged nearly 3,000 of the estimated 20,000 monarchs present, and 85 of those tagged were recovered at the winter colonies in Mexico. The monarch migration is progressively moving toward Lawrence and should arrive just before and following the cold front anticipated this week. The wetlands are an oasis of flowers in mid-September and each year tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of monarchs stop in the wetlands to refuel on the nectar from the abundant thistles, sunflowers, Spanish needle and asters, on their way south.
Although Monarch Watch officials anticipate fewer monarchs this year because of the storm-related mortality in Mexico last winter, "the butterflies should be abundant enough to keep everyone busy catching and tagging," Taylor said.
Check-in and information tables will be just inside the boardwalk entrance to the wetlands, so participants can arrive and leave whenever they please. The boardwalk entrance is a gravel driveway on the south side of 31st Street, roughly halfway between Louisiana Street and Haskell Avenue. There is ample room along the wide shoulder of 31st Street for parking cars. For more information on monarch butterflies, their migration, the tagging process and Monarch Watch, visit www.monarchwatch.org.
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