Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy

Mona Miller, the “Butterfly Lady”, just sent over her secret recipe for attracting butterflies and it’s the perfect time to give it a try! This time of year, Mourning Cloaks, Question Marks and Commas can often be seen. They overwintered as adults in the leaf litter and will be out looking for some sweets to nectar on as well as some sunshine to warm their bodies.

So to make this special blend, you’ll need:
- A ripe banana
- A swig of dark rum
- A spoonful of Molasses

Simply mix the ingredients together and put it out on a plate or other flat surface in the sun so the butterflies can get to it. You may need to take it in at night so raccoons and other animals don’t get into it.

Mona writes, “Viceroys, Admirals, Question Marks, Commas, Hackberry, Red Spotted Purples, Wood Nymphs are the butterflies that I have seen butterfly bar hopping.”

So, when I thought about doing this monthly series on Monarch Butterflies and “where are they now”, I thought it’d be a lighthearted fun set of posts throughout the year, tracking them as they went from Mexico to the US and Canada and back again to Mexico.

Then, I embarked on that first post in January with the reports of the lowest number of overwintering butterflies recorded but ending the post with a ray of hope….scientists modeled that with 6 more weeks of good weather in Mexico and enough milkweed in spring in the US, the population could rebound.

Well, as February hit and we dig out from our snow storm here, I was flooded by emails on a weather event of a different type in Michoacan, Mexico:  Rains, cold temperatures, mudslides and even a snowfall hit this tiny mountain area.  The towns of Angangueo, Ocampo, Zitacuaro and others were destroyed, leaving a trail of people dead, entire towns of people homeless and the future of Monarch butterflies as we know it in question.

Before I go further to recount the February events, I want to reflect on the words of Emily Dickenson that “hope is a thing with feathers”. To take that further, hope is a thing with wings, indeed, the wings of Monarchs. In this relay of life that our Monarch Butterflies endure, the surviving butterflies will start their journey northward in the next few weeks and we (you and I) play a key role in helping restore their population. The future of monarch butterflies is in our hands and it lies in the seeds of a simple plant, one that you and I can protect and grow far and wide: the Milkweed.

In coming days, I’ll do a post just on Milkweed, but for now, let’s step back into February to understand what happened to the people and the butterflies of Michoacan:

February 4^th was the first email I read and it started with this: “It has rained hard for 3 days and continues.  Angangueo’s river flooded all the way down to the Tuxpan river, and has done much damage in the area of the path of both rivers.  Also, a tornado went through the outskirts of Zitacuaro yesterday and destroyed some places we  know..…They have no electricity, which means also no water, no news….The hospitals have had to close.”

Then, Lincoln Brower sent this report:
“First killing winter storm for the 2009-2010 overwintering season.   I am just off the phone (4:30PM EST) with colleagues in Mexico 4 February 2010.   Pablo Span visited the Pelon colony when it was not raining on Tuesday 2 January and said there were more (presumably dead) monarch butterflies on the ground than he had ever before seen.   Pablo reports that the local Pelon guards told him that there are two colonies on Pelon, one called Carditos and the other La Costera.  According to our student, Raul Zubieta, there was a major winter storm occurring on the Sierra Chincua on Monday 1 February and that this likely has caused major mortality in all the colonies.

Second killer storm.  Pablo also told me that very severe weather is currently impacting the whole area.  At 6 AM on Wednesday 3 February heavy rain began falling and it is still raining at 5 PM on 4 February.  He measured the rain on 3 February at the hotel at 3.5 inches.  As of 740 PM 4 Feb, so far 15 inches of rain have fallen since Monday.  Two groups of tourists attempted to visit the butterflies at Rosario today (4 Feb). 

The first group succeeded, but the second did not because a bridge between Ocampo and Rosario washed out.  Pablo also said that the main highway bridge on Route 15 through Tuxpan washed out.  LPB tried calling Mitzi Mancilla in Tuxpan but could not get through.  Pablo also said that a colleague who lives near Crescencio Morales (located at the southern end of the Sierra Campanario – Rosario is at the northern end) reported serious flooding.  The ejido Crescencio Morales has been illegally and massively clear cut in the past 4 years.  It is likely that the erosion of the now barren former Oyamel forest area is extensive.  Another colleague in Angangueo reported frightening rain for 48 hours and still raining as of noon 4 Feb. and that a house fell down killing three children.  Little we can do…..”

While there was little to no coverage of this tragedy in our US news, there was some information gained through Mexican newspapers online and people posted videos to YouTube. Here is one of them: Angangueo Devastation

Reports show over 10,000 people impacted, 2,500 homes destroyed, hundreds injured and at least 37 killed. Dams broke, rivers overflowed, mountains deforested gave way to massive mudslides that buried homes and buildings below. The Mexican Army was deployed to help as they could. Through the rains, Monarchs clung to branches but were also pushed to the ground.

We hoped for weather above freezing so that they could survive. By February 7^th, the sun was out, rubble was being cleared and Angangueo was officially evacuated. I reached my friend Mario, who guided us through the sanctuaries and took us to special places when we visited last February. He and his family were fine but had lost friends in mudslides and floods.

Information on the Monarch population has been sketchy both because roads to the sanctuaries have been out so few people have been able to get to the colonies to check and because the clusters of Monarchs have dispersed some with the storms. I’ve seen reports that maybe 10% of the butterflies have died, but there have also been hopeful reports that while there has been mortality, it’s not as bad as it could have been for the butterflies.

Here is an account from Journey North with Lincoln Brower on data that has come in so far, pretty much leaving us with the recognition that we’ll have to wait and see: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/Brower022510.html

I’ll continue to follow this of course and will post again on our Monarchs in March. But in the meantime, start ordering those milkweed seeds!

I thought it would be interesting to do a monthly posting on Monarch butterflies: where they are and how they’re doing throughout the year. I’ll apologize in advance for the news in this post because it’s a bit of a downer but hopefully the news of the Monarch populations will improve as we move through the year.

For those who attended my program on Monarchs this past year, you know that they have a pretty interesting lifecycle that takes them through 4 generations of butterflies over the course of the year with the fall generation being the one that makes the epic journey all the way to Mexico! They rely on habitat here and in Mexico and both are under threats of different sorts. That, combined with the usual challenges of weather that they face make the great Monarch migration an endangered phenomenon.

But let’s kick off with catching up with our Monarch friends - those Monarch butterflies that you saw in late August, September and into October flew 2,000 miles to a very special mountain area near the town of Angangueo, Mexico. That is where they are right now: in a tiny mountain forest area outside of Mexico City, at an altitude of around 8,000 – 10,000 feet, clinging to branches of Oyamel pine trees, resting and awaiting the change in season so they can breed and begin the migration back.

Unfortunately, the numbers this year are at an all-time low. The World Wildlife Fund’s Mexico staff have been monitoring the number of monarchs and I saw this report from them posted by Monarch Watch. The places I visited last February and showed in my program were the three colony sanctuaries mentioned in the report below:

“The news is not good. The total area occupied by monarchs at the overwintering sites in December was 1.92 hectares. Only 7 colonies were found. The three largest colonies El Capulin (Cerro Pelon) 0.53ha, El Rosario 0.50ha, and Cerro Prieto (Chincua) 0.47ha constitute 78% of the total area. The totals for both hectares and numbers of colonies are at an all time low.

Good records of the numbers of colonies and area occupied go back to 1992 and there is less complete data for most years going back to the late 1970s and numbers this year appear to be lower than observed for any year since the overwintering colonies became known to science in 1975. The lowest previous total, 2.19 hectares, was reported in 2004.

This decline continues a trend that started in the late 1990s. In the decade of the 90s the mean area occupied by monarch colonies was close to 9 hectares. The mean for the last 10 years, through the 09 migration, is now below 5 hectares per year and the three lowest monarch overwintering populations were reported in this decade.”

Chip Taylor of Monarch Watch offers explanations for the low numbers:

“Without going into great detail and wishing not to repeat the October report, here is a brief summary of the reasons for the low overwintering numbers.

1.) High temperatures in Texas in March and early April limited production of first generation monarchs. It is these monarchs that recolonize the northern breeding range and fewer monarchs moving north/northeast out of Texas from late April to June impacts the rest of the breeding season.

2.) Conditions were less than ideal for the first generation monarchs as they moved north in May and early June.

3.) Upon arrival in Minnesota monarchs encountered drought conditions that limited reproductive success of first generation in that area.

4.) As the summer progressed, cool and cool, rainy conditions prevailed in many areas, limiting reproduction and slowing development of larvae.

5.) Colder than normal condition prevailed for most of the western two thirds of the northern breeding area from mid June into early September.

In many respects the conditions during the monarch breeding season in 2009 were a repeat of the conditions seen in 2004 that contributed to the previous low overwintering population number of 2.19 hectares.

In spite of the recent cold snap that reached into Mexico, there have been no indications of weather related mortality at the overwintering sites. Let’s hope that normal winter conditions prevail during the next 7-8  weeks. Even if there should be some mortality, our experience with the disaster of 2002, in which an estimated 80% of the population died as the result of a January storm, showed that, if at least 1 hectare of monarchs survives to move north and, IF they encounter normal conditions as they move north through Mexico and in Texas, the population can recover.”

Ok, so the news isn’t great this month but there’s the glimmer of hope that Chip offers that the population can recover if they don’t encounter further setbacks. Let’s hope there aren’t any bad cold snaps in Mexico over the next few weeks.

If there is enough interest, I’d be happy to do my program on Monarchs and their lifecycle again this Spring – just let me know.

Here’s an exciting update on our Monarch Butterflies from Journey South, a great organization that uses citizen science to track migrations of wildlife across North America:

Migration Highlights: Monarchs Crossing Mexico by the Thousands At last! Thousands and thousands of monarchs appeared across northern Mexico this week. Observers in the state of Coahuila say this is the best migration they’ve seen in years. Señora Rocío Treviño, who coordinates Mexico’s migration-tracking program Correo Real, forwarded the news. She wrote late Tuesday night after her spectacular monarch-watching day:

October 20: Saltillo, Coahuila
Today monarch butterflies adorned the sky and fields across Coahuila like we haven’t seen for years. From Cuatrocienegas to Saltillo people reported thousands of butterflies. I went out into my garden this morning and counted an average of 60 per minute for nearly two hours. This evening, I took my granddaughters to a stream in the “Boca de Leon” canyon to search for roosts. At last, there were clusters of some three thousand butterflies and something incredible that I have never encountered in all my years–a monarch with a tag! Unfortunately, I didn’t have my net so couldn’t catch the butterfly to read the tag but I did take a photo.

Can you find the monarch with the tag (etiqueta)? Take a look!
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/fall2009/Caption3_102209.html

Read Rocio Treviño’s report in Spanish:
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/fall2009/CorreoReal102209_Esp.html

Photos of the Week: What does northern Mexico Look Like?http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/fall2009/Image102209.html
The pictures at the link below were taken in the Mexican states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon and posted on Google Maps. This week, you can explore the landscape of the monarch’s migration trail across northern Mexico through pictures!

Links: Monarch Resources to Explore
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/fall2009/Update102209.html#Links

Just came across this You Tube video by Pat Sutton, helping to answer this question of “Where were all the butterflies?” this year:

Pat Sutton talks about butterflies

The Journey South has begun! On August 21, Monarch Watch and an organization called Journey North started getting reports of Monarch butterflies congregating in overnight roosts. This is a sign that the migration to Mexico has started!

The Monarchs that we see now are the last generation of the season. They will fly over 2,000 miles to a very special mountain area in Angangueo, Mexico (just outside of Mexico City). They will rest there through the winter, hunkered down, holding onto the branches of a special pine tree called the Oyamel. They’ll make short flights to nearby mountain streams but otherwise will rest through the winter to conserve their energy for the great  journey back next spring.

A fun activity to do this time of year is to watch and report your Monarch sightings: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/FallWatch.html

We also have a couple of programs coming up this fall to learn more about Monarch butterflies:

The first is a family program called The Mysteries of Monarch Migration. For this program, we’ll watch a great movie (45 minutes) on Monarch migration and talk about what Monarch butterflies need to thrive. While Monarchs are not an endangered species, their great migration is considered an endangered phenomena because of the habitat loss occurring here and in Mexico. Registration is requested (although not required) so we can have enough handouts and other materials for everyone.

The second is designed for kids, it’s our Journey South Workshop. We’ll see a short video and talk about the Monarch lifecycle and the great migration and then make some monarch butterflies that we’ll send (in a symbolic migration) to the children who live in Angangueo, Mexico. The children in Angangueo will care for our Monarchs through the winter and then send them back to us in the Spring when we’ll have a follow-up program. You can sign up for this program on our website. It’s free but we need to limit the size of the class.

“You’re going to count butterflies?” That’s the response many of us get when we tell the un-initiated how we’re going to spend our Saturday as the day of the great butterfly count approaches, and this year was no exception except that we had more people that ever jump in to help with this endeavor! In past years, our participants have numbered around 35 but this year, over seventy people of all ages came out to count! We were also fortunate to have eight leaders available this year so we could split up into more teams and truly cover our count circle.

Our butterfly count was held on August 1^stand we had a great day for it. Butterflies need the warmth of the sun to fly so having the temperatures in the 70s and 80s was perfect. Our eight teams had pre-determined meeting spots and participants met up at 9am. My team started at Ida Lee Park with the master gardener’s butterfly garden and then headed north along Route 15. Cliff Fairweather’s team started at Rust Sanctuary and then went along the W&OD trail as well as other points through Hamilton. Covering the center and north of our count circle was Mona Miller and her team as they started at Phillips Farm and then headed up to Lovettsville. Tom Raque and Eric Raun covered the Purcellville and Lincoln areas, doing justice to some great gardens, farms and parks through there. Jon Little led his team along Appalachian Trail Road and the Blackburn Center, while Bob Blakney and Larry Meade led two teams at the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship.

In all, our teams counted 4,899 individual butterflies and saw 46 different species. While we’ve had slightly higher diversity on a few of our counts, forty-six is pretty much on par. In terms of overall number of butterflies, this was the second highest in our thirteen years (in 2005 we had 5,042 individual butterflies). The higher number of individual butterflies this year may be due to having more participants spotting and identifying but we’ll have to watch this for future trends.

The interesting thing about this year’s count had to do with the species that were low in number versus those that were high. Least Skippers, for instance, made a real showing. In past years we’ve averaged 20-30 individuals but this year we had 386! We had similar observations with Clouded Sulphurs (774 this year compared to 80-100 in past years), Orange Sulphurs (393 this year compared to approximately 60 in past years) and Silvery Checkerspots (227 compared to approximately 20 in past years). Monarch butterflies (193 spotted) as well as Eastern-tailed Blues (242) and Spring/Summer Azures (22), were consistent with past counts.  

Overall, the swallowtail and fritillary butterflies were low in numbers and outside of the Least Skipper, we didn’t see as many skippers in general this year. Red-Spotted Purples, while better than last year, were still low in number. Hairstreaks were also either very low or not present. In terms of rare sightings, Mona Miller’s team was lucky to find a Giant Swallowtail at Butterfly Hill Farm in Lovettsville. They are always an impressive butterfly to see.  

A big “Thank You” to our count leaders and all of our participants! We couldn’t have counted all these butterflies without you and hope you’ll join us again next August!

To learn more about our butterfly count, visit the Loudoun Butterfly Count on our website. You can also download the Butterfly Count Summary of Data to look at the trends over the years.

Joe Coleman led our butterfly walk yesterday at the Blue Ridge Center and sent over this great write-up from the walk:

On Aug. 15, nine of us spent 3 hours searching for butterflies at the beautiful and diverse Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship (BRCES) in northwestern Loudoun County. BRCES (www.blueridgecenter.org) is one of my favorite spots in the county because it includes a wide variety of habitats, including extensive wetlands, rich upland oak-hickory forests that climb up the side of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Appalachian Trail, and extensive natural meadows along the powerline. It is located in the Between the Hills Valley, only a couple of miles from Harpers Ferry and the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers.

BRCES also includes large open fields where haying is rotated and Mountain View Farm, which is managed by Shawna DeWitt and Atilla Agoston. Atilla took some time away from farming to explain to us that all of their produce and flowers are grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides; and that their livestock grazes in the pastures, drink spring water, are not fed antibiotics, and never receive hormones.

He explained why they plant a lot of flowers in rows next to and among their crops. The flowers attract pests away from their crops and some of the herbs attract a number of the small bees and wasps that parasitize the caterpillars that that would devour a tomato plant in 24 hours.

All of this results, as shown in our Annual Butterfly Count, in BRCES being is one of the richest spots in the county for finding butterflies. We spent almost two hours yesterday morning on the farm and around the Visitor Center. Phil Daley assisted with the walk and Ray Smith, one of the participants, shared his extensive knowledge of the natural world with us.

After wrapping up at the farm we headed over to the Arnold Road trail, much of which is surrounded by heavy forest with a lush understory. While there were not nearly as many butterflies there, we did add several species that specialize in wooded habitats.

Between the two localities we found 22 species of butterflies, not a great day at BRCES, but certainly respectful. And if we had found the time to include the aptly named Butterfly Alley, the trail along the power cut, we would have surely added several more species.

We did find: Black Swallowtail Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail, Cabbage White, Clouded Sulphur, Orange Sulphur, Gray Hairstreak, Eastern-tailed Blue, Variegated Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary, Meadow Fritillary, Silvery Checkerspot, Pearl Crescent, Hackberry Emperor, Northern Pearly Eye, Monarch, Silver-spotted skipper, Least Skipper, Tawny-edged Skipper, Little Glassywing, Zabulon.

More information on Mountain View Farm at the Blue Ridge Center can be found here: www.blueridgecenter.org/farming/mvfarm.html

Here’s a terrific resource on gardening and pollinators: The Pollinator Partnership. 

They have excellent wildlife habitat and planting guides that you can download for free that are specific to our area. To go directly to the guides, visit their page called Ecological Planting Guides, enter your zip code and a map as well as the pdf file will come up.

There are also two excellent YouTube videos on the site that you’ll want to watch.  They’re really informative and talk about the role that bees, butterflies, bats and birds play in our food chain.

We can do so much just in our own backyards by planting the right types of plants, using wise practices (like not using pesticides), and talking to others about the wild nature around us. We’re all connected, and truly more so that most people realize.

For teachers, homeschoolers as well as anyone else interested in learning even more about pollinators, they have a page called Useful Resources that has nature activities for kids, educational curriculum focused on nature, lesson ideas, and more.

Just in case you have trouble with the pdf downloads, I’ll post two of the guides here, but I highly recommend doing the search on your zip code from their site too.

Pollinator Partnership Guide: Central Appalachian

Pollinator Partnership Guide: Southeast Mixed Forest

Ten people, including a couple celebrating their 27th wedding anniversary, participated in the Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s free monthly bird walk, led by Joe Coleman & Larry Meade, at the Blue Ridge Center this morning and found 56 species in the fields and woods there. 

After listening to a couple of Grasshopper Sparrows and the first of many (maybe 30) Indigo Buntings we carpooled to the southern edge of the center at the end of Sawmill Rd.  From there we walked along the western edge of the field where we heard and saw a variety of birds including a couple of White-eyed Vireos but missed on the Blue-winged Warblers and Chats that nest in that area. 

We then followed Butterfly Alley to Sweet Run & into the dense forest along the stream to the Arnold Rd Trail.  Within 200 yds of entering the woods we started hearing numerous Acadian Flycatchers (about one every 100 yards or so) and a few Wood Thrushes, but not a single Kentucky Warbler or Ovenbird, both of which were common in this area just a few weeks ago.  However, we did start hearing and then finally got great looks at several Scarlet Tanagers, a few of which were beginning to molt.

We took a side trip to Gordon Pond where we heard and saw a number of the same forest species as before and added a few more including several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.  After visiting the Gordon Pond we returned to the Little Turtle Trail where a few of us heard a Worm-eating Warbler. 

After crossing Piney Run we took the Farmstead Loop back to the Visitor Center, arriving there about 12:15.  There was a flurry of activity around the small pond near the Visitor Center, including a very cooperative Louisiana Waterthrush which posed for photos.  We added a couple more species, including a Raven, while tallying on the porch. 
 
When we drove back to Sawmill Rd to pick up our cars about 12:30 there was a Blue-winged Warbler in the hedgerow next to the parking area.
 
In addition to a lot of different butterflies, we also saw two large Black Snakes, one high in the trees where there was a lot of bird activity and one high on the side of one of the old stone houses on the center. There were also American Toads all along the trail and numerous green frogs at the pond. It was a great day for exploring Loudoun nature!

Al Eddy caught some great nature and wildlife photos during the walk and a few are included here in this post. 

Number of species:     56

Green Heron, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-shouldered Hawk, Mourning Dove, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, ChimneySwift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, White-eyed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Common Raven, Barn Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Carolina Wren, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Eastern Bluebird, Wood Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Blue-winged Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Common Yellowthroat, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Towhee, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Blue Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Common Grackle, Orchard Oriole, House Finch, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow