Monarch Bioblitz, Sponsored by the Marin Monarch Working Group

The Marin Monarch Working Group is leading a field visit to several monarch waystations in Marin County on July 29. Participants will take part in the Western monarch bioblitz, a citizen science project, photographing and recording information about the local Western monarch population during the summer breeding season. Write to Audrey Fusco, SPAWN Program Director, at audrey@tirn.net for more details about the field visit on July 29 and to RSVP. 

General Information about the Western Monarch Bioblitz:

Getting a good picture of a monarch butterfly is not easy. They are a restless lot, flitting quickly among the milkweed and pollinator plants during the summer. But scientists and environmentalists need to know their numbers and their whereabouts. And they rely on community members to take and submit photographs that can be combined into a continent-wide dataset. You don’t have to be an entomologist or a photographer to participate. We need all hands on deck!

This collection effort will be happening across Canada, Mexico and the US during the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz fromJuly 25 through August 3, 2025. This is when monarchs are the most numerous and widely distributed across North America. 

The idea is for community members to go out during this period and take pictures when and where they can expect to see a monarch. You can go on your own, with a friend, or join a group (see below for details).

How do you know exactly what to do? Here are the basics:

·       If you live in an area that is typically home to monarch butterflies, go outside and look for monarchs – butterflies, caterpillars, and eggs — and for milkweed. You can visit local parks, gardens, roadsides….anywhere!

·       Sign in the iNaturalist app or to the monarch milkweed mapper website (monarchmilkweedmapper.org) and submit your data. The data will be organized by a group of co-sponsors spread throughout the continent who will then share it among themselves and with other scientists and the media.

The Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper website has lots of helpful information about how to identify monarchs and milkweed, how to photograph them, and how to submit your data.