So far this year, you are reporting on Nectar Connectors species at 194 sites, up from 168 at the time of our last message.

This includes sites monitored by 27 Local Phenology Programs. The top contributing Programs are:

• Mohonk Preserve in NY
• Vassar College in NY
• Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in IA
• Earthwise Aware in MA
• Kartchner Caverns SP in AZ

We also have 149 backyard observers reporting on nectar species. Thank you all for your efforts!

Western monarchs breed continuously throughout the summer before they begin their fall migration back to their wintering grounds. Within the western monarch range, you observed open flowers appearing rapidly mid-March, and in most species, the proportion of open flowers continue to rise.

The eastern monarch populations are also heading along their northern migration paths. Monarchs in the eastern population are heading along their northern migration paths, laying eggs on milkweed leaves and feeding on nectar from available flowers. In mid-May you observed a rapid increase in open flowers for common milkweed and butterfly milkweed east of the Rocky Mountains. 

If you have been keeping your data on paper datasheets, make sure to enter them so that your observations will be included in our messages! If you use the Nature's Notebook mobile app, make sure you tap that Sync button to double check that your data are uploaded!



Earn your Nectar Connectors badge! You can earn this badge by observing a nectar species once a week for six separate weeks in the same year. See it on your Observation Deck.

Thank you for your contributions to this important project!