Monarch Tagging!

Monarch butterfly photo, courtesy of Jeff Kramer, Wikimedia Commons


The Rolling Plains Texas Master Naturalists are tagging monarchs in Lake Wichita Park tonight, Friday and Saturday beginning at 7:00 PM. Members will meet at the Chat Trail entrance. Although this is a chapter event, the members will be happy to show and tell the tagging process and let children assist. So look for people with butterfly nets and learn more about these long-distance travelers.

Monarch Butterfly Tagging Event

Monarch butterflies migrate through Wichita Falls in their way to Mexico. This year the butterflies seem to be passing further to the west of us in large numbers; we aren't having the large numbers we normally do so far. For the past few years Master Naturalists have been taggin ghte butterflies to help learn more about their migration. This is a chance to learn more about monarchs in an up-close-and-personal way.

The Rolling Plains chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists is hosting a Monarch Butterfly tagging event in Lake Wichita Park on Monday, September 28 and Tuesday, September 29 beginning at 6:00 PM until dusk. We will set up near the parking lot at the entrance at the end of Fairway Blvd. Bring the kids; we'll have nets.

If you want to learn more about monarchs try Monarch Watch at http://www.monarchwatch.org/. It's a great site.

Monarch Tagging Event Coming Soon

The Rolling Plains Texas Master Naturalists tag monarch butterflies each year to help study this creature's migration. We enjoy it a lot, but thought this year we would add a public tagging event in a city park to help the public learn more about monarchs. We'll have a display with information, butterfly nets for children to help catch butterflies, and the tags and paperwork. This will not only help children learn more about monarchs but also introduce them to scientific method in a very basic way.

This will be a short-notice event, based upon when the monarchs arrive in good numbers in Wichita Falls. We are seeing a few butterflies already and should have large numbers passing through within the next few weeks. Since the butterflies haven't given us their travel itinerary and weather is never certain, we will probably make a date decision 2 - 3 days in advance of the event. We plan to tag in Lake Wichita park, near Murphy's Mound where the willows (and consequently, butterflies) are plentiful. I will post as soon as I have a date. I am just providing a heads up to get the event on your radar.

The Master Naturalists will also do some limited tagging at the EcoFair at River Bend Nature Center on October 3, so you can also plan to be there. I don't know what time the tagging will happen, and it is likely the butterflies will already be caught for the demonstration.