This time of year they migrate all the way to Mexico.
They fly to Florida and other Gulfcoast states, then across the Gulf to Mexico.

And yes the numbers are dwindling. Some of that is farmers are plowing under the milkweed around the perimeters of their farmland to plant as many crops as possible.

Milkweed is essential to the survival of the Monarch butterfly.

 

That’s really interesting! The population has been bouncing around, some migration routes got hit hard, but other spots have become refuges. Having hundreds around sounds incredible. Maybe your area still has good milkweed and less pesticide drift? I’ve only seen a few stragglers this fall.

 

If you have not done so already, you really need to read this article: Incredible moment Long Island animal rescuer performs wing transplant on injured butterfly

 

ODOT mows the milkweed laden roadsides in late August, killing thousands of caterpillars a year. 😡

I saw more Monarch caterpillars this year than I have in a loooong time.

 

More bad sources, likely.

 

15 years I have watched the beetles disappear, the tarantulas and other spiders disappear, prairie lizards are very few, this year I wondered where the mice have gone. Now, I am not a big fan of mice however I thought they were bullet proof. One snake this year is all we have had. 8 Tarantulas on the move and that is counting all the ones we saw on the highway. Only one here at the ranch.
I watch those big sprayers roll onto the fields and then the airplanes from the sky. Drift? Poison in the water, All the water in the irrigation ditches recycles. 6th extinction?

 

Illegal logging in the Mexican wintering grounds are also having a detrimental effect on eastern Monarch butterflies.

 

I saw some in the summer here around my pink Jasmine vine. We see them every year but not in high numbers.