Looking for Ontario Monarch Sightings

[donald...@gmail.com]

Wondering if others have spotted migrating monarchs with these southerly winds in recent days? A couple of Journey North reports suggest red admirals rather than monarchs BUT the Journey North report from Kemble, Ontario, on the Bruce Peninsula north of Owen Sound with photograph is clearly a monarch. Latitude: 44.722, Longitude: -80.932 . Please file your sighting reports to Journey North, Ontario Butterfly Atlas, iNaturalist. Thank you.

On reviewing old monarch tagging records submitted to Monarch Watch and on checking the Monarch Watch tag data base for recoveries in central Mexico, I discovered that one tagged monarch, released at Presqu'ile Provincial Park in 2000 was indeed recovered, with tag turned in to the Monarch Watch representative visiting the El Rosario sanctuary in 2014! Two tags handed in this spring 2014 were placed on monarchs in Fall 2022.

[b...@kryukich.on.ca]

Hi Don,

I had my first Monarch of the year at Eglinton Flats here in Toronto this past Monday, May 6. It was my second earliest ever. In 2012, an exceptional year for butterflies, I saw 12 of them in Toronto on May 4.

Yesterday, May 7, I had my first Eastern Tiger Swallowtail of the year in my front yard.

Cheers,

Bob

[Sonia van Heerden]

I have been seeing a few red admirals in my backyard but have not seen them land for enough time to photograph them. They have started to arrive in East York before the white cabbage moths. But I did photograph a red admiral in the Duncan Woods Park at Leslie and Steeles

on May 2nd. I believe he must have just left his cocoon and was sitting on the roadway drying his wings.

I hope the Monarchs do not come too early this year. There are no plants blooming for them as yet. Last year they were very late, and I tore out a few milkweed in my backyard as they had finished blooming.

Sonia

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[rick cavasin]

Hello Sonia,

On Thu, 9 May 2024 at 08:04, 'Sonia van Heerden' via Ontario Butterflies <onbutt...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I have been seeing a few red admirals in my backyard but have not seen them land for enough time to photograph them. They have started to arrive in East York before the white cabbage moths. But I did photograph a red admiral in the Duncan Woods Park at Leslie and Steeles

on May 2nd. I believe he must have just left his cocoon and was sitting on the roadway drying his wings.

I hope the Monarchs do not come too early this year. There are no plants blooming for them as yet. Last year they were very late, and I tore out a few milkweed in my backyard as they had finished blooming.

Just to provide a bit of information:

1. Cabbage Whites are butterflies, not moths
2. your Red Admiral was probably not one that had "just left his cocoon".  Technically, butterflies do not spin cocoons.  In general, their pupae are "naked" (no silk cocoon around it).  We call this naked pupa a Chrysalis.  But that's just a minor point of terminology.  More importantly, Red Admirals would not overwinter as pupae in Ontario.  These Red Admirals that are coming through Ontario right now are coming from somewhere down in the US, so they have flown a good distance since emerging from their Chrysalids.
3. I'm not an expert on Monarchs, but it isn't so much the blooms that are important for them - the adults can get nectar from many sources.  The most important part of the milkweed (for Monarchs) is the leaves, which are food for their caterpillars.  If a monarch arrives now, it will search out the new shoots of the Milkweed plants that are emerging from the soil, and they will lay their eggs on them.   Tearing up milkweed plants just because the blooms are done is not a great idea - the plants can still serve as an important food source for Monarch caterpillars.