Joann Merritt's Essays

2003 Monarch Migration And Tagging
November, 2003

The number of Monarchs migrating through the Midland area was down this year: conversely the number and variety of Midnat experiences was up. During October Midnat teams successfully participated in the scientific game of Butterfly Tag, a sanctioned North American Sport with headquarters at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

October 5th: Kathy Lupardus took Lisa Armstrong and a friend to Harris’ orchard where they met the Kellys who had just completed tagging 25 Monarchs. Since Donna is a teacher and both she and Alvin are Midnat - plus they own a long handled net! - they were well qualified to help Lisa with a school assignment. Six Monarchs were netted for her to take to a Midland College Biology class where the butterflies would be tagged and released after all necessary information was recorded and forwarded to the University of Kansas. Lisa’s friend was in awe of the number and sight of these migrating Monarchs and seeing the delight of others added to the Kelly’s own enjoyment.

October 8th: Eddie Ray Merritt was also impressed with this smaller than usual migration as she had never seen this many Monarchs before. Being a country girl at heart our daughter-in-law also enjoyed seeing the cattle and later hearing David off in the distance as he called them. The cattle grazed among the graceful silvery fronds of Old Man’s Beard and beautiful bright yellow Broomweed. It pains David to hear Broomweed praised for its beauty as it is a dreaded weed to ranchers, no livestock will eat it and it uses moisture that native grasses need.

October 12th: Monday morning when Ron Alton, Park Ranger from Big Spring called about the Monarchs, I informed him they were gone, then at 4:15 P.M., David phoned to say that another flight of Monarchs was in the orchard. We knew this was a second group because on the 10th after the rain stopped and the skies cleared we gathered our net, tags and Allen Wemple and traveled to Harris’ where there were maybe two dozen butterflies in the entire orchard and they were not agreeable to being caught. On the 12th we again picked up Allen and met Ron and his family at a convenience store and headed for Harris’. When we got there David joined us and we all had a fun-filled Monarch Tagging Party. Very early the next morning the estimated 2500 Monarchs were already gone, this time for good.