Excellent question I've noticed a decline as well. I am no expert but have tagged monarchs as a citizen scientist for the past 3 years on the south shore of Long Island as part of the U of Kansas monarch watch project. Two years ago there were enough monarchs flying east to west along the dunes that praying mantis would ambush them on the seaside goldenrod. This year I the amount and rate of monarchs flying east to west on the coastal dunes decreased dramatically. I think this is linked with the observation that there appears to be less goldenrod stands; and, I think there are less goldenrod because of physical change of the dunes from hurricane Sandy. Some great stands got buried along beachfront that I have found monarchs at in past years. I wonder if there are less goldenrod available along the entire coast in the plants range. I wonder if this will set them back as the yellow blooms are an energy source timed with their migration. That is my speculation. I don't know if the monarch population actually did decrease markedly this year, I just saw less where I used to see more.
Peter Priolo Ctr Moriches -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
