Twice as many monarch butterflies are in Pismo this year. Here’s why that’s ‘great news’
Good news, butterfly lovers — you’ll likely see more monarch butterflies flitting around the Pismo State Beach Butterfly Grove this year.
Several volunteer counts have revealed significantly more butterflies wintering at the local grove this season compared with the 2018-2019 season, when numbers crashed across the state to a record low.
The Xerces Society’s Western Monarch Count Resource Center, which provides daily butterfly count updates for a number of important groves throughout California, has consistently counted upwards of 5,000 butterflies in the Pismo Beach grove this month.
On Tuesday, the group counted 6,735 butterflies — more than double the number counted during the official Thanksgiving Day count in 2018.
“This is great news as it is more than what we had last year,”California State Parks Interpreter Danielle Bronson wrote in an email to The Tribune on Tuesday.
Another, official count is scheduled for Thursday.
The Thanksgiving Day count acts as a benchmark for each year’s population, since the holiday typically marks the start of the local butterfly season. Additional daily counts show the fluctuation’s of the population as the season progresses.
Though the number shows promise, the monarch butterfly population is still far from its height.
In the first Xerces Thanksgiving count in 1997, volunteers recorded more than 1.2 million butterflies across the state. Every year since then, the population has been less than 600,000, with most years at less than a quarter of the 1997 population.
In 2018, the statewide count recorded a mere 20,456 monarch butterflies, according to preliminary reports. That’s 1.7% of the 1997 population.
The Pismo Beach grove — historically one of the largest butterfly colonies in the state, according to Bronson — at one time hosted more than 230,000 butterflies a season.
A record-breaking monarch butterfly
The good news doesn’t stop at the numbers.
According to a Facebook post from Oceano Dunes Pismo District, a record-breaking butterfly is among this year’s larger population.
According to the post, Butterfly C651 is the “furthest-south tagged monarch to be found at a California overwintering site.” The insect was tagged less than a mile from the Mexican border, but “chose to fly to Pismo instead of Michoacán,” the post said.
Normally, the monarch butterflies consistently head south toward warmer weather — the majority of those seen in Pismo Beach come from as far north as Canada. It’s unusual for one to reverse direction, so to speak, and head north during migration.
According to the post, Butterfly C651 flew at least 636 miles to stay at the Pismo grove.
How to see butterflies in Pismo Beach
If you’ve got a hankering to view the butterflies, the best time will be from now until New Year’s Day, Bronson said.
That’s typically the height of the season. After that the butterflies leave to continue their migration further south.
The Pismo State Beach Butterfly Grove is located a mile south of Pismo Beach just off of Highway 1.
Through February, the grove is staffed 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, with docent talks at noon. On Saturday and Sunday, as well as holidays, the grove is staffed between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. with docent talks at noon and 2 p.m.
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 11:34 AM.
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