Monarch Taggers Experience Butterfly Kisses During Audubon State Park's Monarch Migration Mysteries
By: Julie McDonald, Audubon State Park Naturalist
September 10, 2007

Imagine going on a trip with no luggage; no food, water, map or compass; abandoned by your family; en route to a place that you've never been to.  Now imagine that you'll never live long enough to complete your round trip.  Your children and grandchildren will never live long enough to finish your trip, but perhaps your great-grandchildren might live to see your ancestral wintering grounds if they survive all of the life-threatening obstacles along the way.  Now, you're beginning to experience life as a monarch butterfly.

This past Saturday, John James Audubon State Park’s Naturalist staff, employees from Evansville's Swat Pest Management, and 41 community taggers participated in an ongoing large-scale investigative project to help researchers learn more about the lives of monarch butterflies.  The taggers safely captured, tagged, and released 143 monarch butterflies as the butterflies passed through the Sloughs Wildlife Management Area (Sauerheber Unit)northwest of Geneva, Kentucky.  These annual butterfly tagging programs attract families, scout troops, as well as interested community members looking to spend an afternoon away from the hustle and bustle. Tagging events like these help the community connect with nature and broaden the base of understanding surrounding these winged wonders.

This Saturday you can join Audubon State Park staff for the final two tagging opportunities of the year.  Programs begin at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and last about 2.5-3 hours.  During an informative introductive presentation you'll learn everything you need to know to identify and catch monarchs.  We'll then drive out to the Sloughs Wildlife Management Area for the weather dependent butterfly tagging portion.  Since most of the program is outdoors, long pants and closed-toe footwear is encouraged.

During mid-September, monarch butterflies are passing through this area on their journey south in search of warmer weather and more favorable wintering grounds.  At the end of their journey they'll congregate almost exclusively on 12 mountain peaks located just west of Mexico City, Mexico.   There, nearly all of the living North American monarch butterflies come together for a breathtaking spectacle as the Mexican trees and shrubs literally drip with these colorful creatures.

Although monarchs migrate every year, there is still so much we still don’t know about these magnificent insects. Monarch Watch, an educational outreach organization, developed the tagging stickers to track the monarch's journey progression and to answer some of the mysteries surrounding these unique butterflies. The sticker tags, placed on a monarch’s hindwing, each have a unique identification number, a reporting e-mail address and phone number so that tagged butterflies can be reported as recovered.

Join us at J. J. Audubon State Park in Henderson, KY this Saturday, September 15 at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. as we learn about these remarkable insects.

For more information about this program, email juliea.mcdonald@ky.gov . For more information about the park, visit: http://www.parks.ky.gov/findparks/recparks/au/ or call 270-826-2247.

Julie McDonald
Park Naturalist - John James Audubon State Park
P.O. Box 576, 3100 US Hwy. 41 North, Henderson, KY 42419
(Main Office) 270-826-2247   (Fax) 270-826-2286
(Direct) 270-826-4424
JulieA.McDonald@ky.gov

Did you know that John James Audubon experimented with a variety of art materials, like gold, to make his paintings lifelike and true to color?

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