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Churchill High School ECHO Club
Texas Monarch Watch at Guadalupe River State Park and Honey Creek SNA This Fall the Monarch Watch TCP program was adopted by the environmental science students of Tom Anderson, Churchill High School. Five students, Laura Booher, Peter Donbavand, Parvonae Fernandez, Regan Murphy, and Brian Walsh constructed a life cycle poster of the Monarch butterfly, coordinated the volunteer tagging each Saturday The migration this Fall was quite different than the Spring northward migration. Weather conditions such as rain and unfavorable winds held the Monarchs a few hundred miles north of here for several weeks. All the while, their numbers increasing as they stalled out of their southern migration and remained along a line from Abilene to Dallas. They were waiting for a strong cold front to clear their route and when the front passed, the butterflies arrived in great numbers during a brief few days. Volunteers tagged 93 Monarchs by the end of day on October 18th. Ace Ed Gunter captured 85 of the Monarch Butterflies for tagging which makes him the undisputed record holder for GRSP. Only 13 more were tagged on following Saturdays in October to bring the total this season to 106. A very good number nonetheless and a great job by Churchill High School students. Spring migration of the Monarch Butterflies should begin in March and peak during April. Check us out for tagging days and join us at the Rust Visitor Center. All ages can participate. We have the butterfly nets, you just need to bring your strong running legs! Visit the Churchill HS we |
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in October, and have created a section for the Churchill HS webpage for Monarch Butterflies.
bsite at 198.213.60.251/churchill/club.html. For detailed information visit the Monarch Watch Website at keil.ukans.edu/~monarch/. You can also keep up with migration news in Texas by calling the Texas Monarch Watch at 1-800-468-9719 and is manned by Dr. Bill Calvert. The Texas Monarch Watch offers memberships for $10.00 which includes a Spring and Fall newsletter and tags. There are curriculum guides available for levels K-2, 3-6 and 6-8. This is an easy and fascinating family and classroom activity.