Journey North: Monarch Butterfly

September, 2005
Don Davis has been tagging monarch butterflies in Canada since 1968. He has tagged tens of thousands of butterflies, but last week he encountered a monarch with perhaps the most surprising story of them all.

Don was visiting one of his favorite tagging spots beside Lake Ontario on Saturday. While there, he discovered a monarch that already had a tag on it! It’s always exciting to find a tagged butterfly and wonder when and where it was tagged. This time, Don figured the monarch was just a local butterfly. His friend, teacher Rod Murray, tags regularly at the same site.

The story took a twist when Don learned that his friend had not been tagging this fall. So where did this butterfly come from? Now Don had a mystery on his hands. He contacted Monarch Watch, the organization that coordinates monarch tagging, to see what he could find.

To his surprise, according to the number on the tag, the monarch was from Ohio! Not only is Ohio a long way from Ontario, it is south of Ontario! Why would a monarch go north during fall migration?

Don knows that hurricanes and other strong storms can blow birds off course. Could this have happened to the monarch?

Did Hurricane Katrina carry the monarch 165 miles in the wrong direction?

As these maps show, the dates and locations match the track of the storm closely. The monarch was originally tagged on the south shore of Lake Erie, near Cleveland, Ohio. A woman named Julie Clemens captured and released it on August 26th, along with 48 other butterflies. Where do you suppose the 49 butterflies are today?

“If hurricane Katrina caused their flight to Canada--which seems likely-- can they regain enough strength to start out all over again and make the whole journey? Did the whole group get blown in your direction?” she said to Don.

This maps shows the predicted track of Hurricane Katrina as it moved up the Ohio Valley August 30th and 31st.