We’re stoked to announce our first prize winner of the 2021 season! Andres from Santa Clara. Andres was on a landscaping job when he saw a monarch on this rosemary plant! Thanks Andres for snapping a pic for us.

 

 

Congrats to our second prize winner alisonrodriguez on iNaturalist. This monarch was spotted in American Canyon near the San Pablo Bay National Reserve.

 

 

Our third winner is terrysmith who observed a male monarch and uploaded it to iNaturalist. This sighting is from Oakland, CA! This butterfly seems to be hanging out in a community garden on several types of flowers.

 

Our fourth prize winner is Cheri from Arroyo Grande. She spotted a female monarch potentially laying eggs on a narrow leaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis).

 

We’re officially halfway through the challenge!

Our fifth prize winner is Rosemary from Alameda. Here’s what they had to say about it:

“I have a native plant garden that is three and a half years old and I think this is the first time I’ve observed a monarch.  I’ve seen admirals, viceroys, gulf fritillaries, painted ladies and western tiger swallowtails, but never a monarch.  It spent quite a bit of time on the ceanothus. It was really exciting to see it.”

They submitted their sighting through the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper co-developed by our partners over at Xerces Society. This mapper is where all of the data we’re receiving through other reporting methods, like iNaturalist and email, will eventually end up for storage and analysis.

You can report monarch and milkweed sightings from all over the western US any time of year to this site.

 

Our sixth prize winner is Sondra from Mountain View!

Here’s what Sondra had to say about the project:

“Thank you so much too for all the work researchers are doing to help the Monarchs in this critical time! The primary reason I started using the iNaturalist app was when I saw and photographed a Monarch with a tag and wondered where I could report the sighting (what conservation researchers needed the information). Also, it was such a relief to see and photograph a few Monarchs again after the devastating wildfires last year, to know that some have survived.”

It’s people like them that make our work that much more rewarding. 🎉🦋

 

 

Our 7th Prize winner is Kathleen from Penryn, CA. They are our most northeastern sighting so far. What do you think the butterfly is on?

Congrats Kathleen!

 

 

 

We’re really close to the end guys! Our 8th prize winner is from artsed4all on iNaturalist.

“Flying Monarch Butterfly spotted by Flo Oy Wong and her granddaughter Sasha while on their walk. Photo by Sasha.”

Can you spot the monarch in the photo? Even photos this far away are helpful to our scientists! Keep your eyes out for them!

 

 

Our ninth and second to last prize winner is Julie from the Santa Clara area. This monarch was spotted nectaring in an urban setting near Ulistac Natural Area and was reported through the Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper. Here’s what they had to say about it:

“We have a very nice narrow leaf milkweed patch nearby at Ulistac.org but haven’t seen any adults there yet this year. Most years we don’t see any ovipositing until the end of July.”

Thank you to everyone participating and keep your eyes out for these flighty ones!

 

 

Our tenth prize winner for our 2021 challenge season is our most eastern sighting we’ve received this year. And we’re really excited about this one because we’re not totally sure if it migrated from the coastal wintering sites.

Spotted in Beatty, Nevada, this monarch could have traveled from a few places.
1st – from coastal California
2nd – there’s a number overwintering sites near Death Valley (monarchs have been documented in a number of canyons in the Inyo mountains) check out the photo of the distance between the DV site and Beatty, NV.
3rd – this monarch could be traveling north from Arizona or Mexico (although monarchs in Arizona participate in an altitudinal migration rather than latitudinal, and monarchs who travel to Mexico are understood to summer in the eastern US)

It’s hard to know exactly where a monarch comes from unless they’re tagged and tracked, and usually in science, answers lead to more questions.

In other news, this prize winner was supposed to be the last of the season but we will be adding a bonus week to the challenge! We want to get as many sightings during the spring migration as possible so keep your eyes open and your phones at the ready!

 

The sighting is located in the map below.

The distance to the nearest overwintering site to the sighting.

 

 

Our bonus week and final prize winner of 2021 is this sighting in Albany, CA! This butterfly was spotted along the Cerrito Creek by Carla Din.

These photos show how they tuck their legs back as they fly and you can even see its proboscis curled up!

Thank you to everyone for participating and following along! Stay tuned as we have an exciting announcement coming up soon.