Andy Davis provides some interesting insights in his latest article..............
I'm sure most readers here are familiar with this program, and probably even contribute to it, so I don’t need to explain it here. So you should all know that this program asks people to report their first sighting of a monarch each spring. In doing so, this allows everyone to see real-time maps of the progress of the migration northward. Over the years, (20 now!) this program has grown immensely. Nowadays, people can report not just their first monarch, but other observations too, like reports of migratory roosts in the fall, first milkweed in the spring, etc. But the core of the project has always been the reports of first monarchs in the spring, and those are the data I’ve worked with most. As a scientist, I've collaborated with the program founder, Elizabeth Howard, on a long list of projects, so I'm well-versed in these data. In fact, these data are probably the single best source of information we have on the biology and nature of the spring migration.
By now, most monarch folks are aware that something has been different this spring, but what?
Read more HERE>>>>