familiar monarchs

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Group facilitator Angelique shows Sara Cate a monarch up close

We still have monarch butterflies migrating through the Tennessee Valley.

Yesterday Jennifer and Wayne Roder with their four-year-old wee one Sara Cate went to Cades Cove to tag the orange and black lepidopterans (place numbered stickers on) with a group organized by Tiffany Beachy's citizen science program at Tremont in the Smokies.

Wayne caught one and Sara Cate (with a little help from Mom) caught two ornate moths, a common buckeye butterfly and a skipper. 

Jennifer is education director at Ijams and knows it's beneficial to get young ones tuned into nature at an early age, especially if it is in league with their parents. Bonds are formed, both familiar and universal. Jennifer is the creator of the new home school program for kids and their parents at the nature center.

Sara Cate had a memorable time, undaunted, even though her net was just a bit overwhelming. 

While they were there the group caught 15 monarchs including WJX869 three times. It happens.

For my monarch adventure, click: tagging. 

"I take this evanescence and lubricity of all objects, 

which lets them slip through our fingers 

when we clutch hardest, 

to be the most unhandsome part of our condition."  

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

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