Larry takes monarch tagging to the next level. He serves as the coordinator of the Monarch Migration Project at the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory, which is located at the southern tip of the Delmarva Penninsula, an area known for its spectacular fall monarch concentrations.

Larry's journey to this point began 15 years ago in the days of rectangular-paper tags and rubber cement. In October of 2000 he started helping Mark Garland and Andy Davis tag monarchs at Kiptopeke State Park, and he later took over the reigns as coordinator of this annual effort.

In 2002 he added another dimension to his tagging by weighing all captured monarchs with a small electronic scale. He also measures forewing lengths with digital calipers and monitors for Ophryocystis electroscirrha (Oe). This extra effort by him to collect such detailed data on each tagged monarch is something that few other taggers do, but in the end is extremely valuable to science. Because of this, in 2008 he collaborated with Dr. Lincoln Brower and Dr. Andy Davis to publish a major article in the Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society using his monarch data set.

In 2002 Larry also added a another monarch study site in an inland location. Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge (OBNWR) in Prince William County in Northern Virginia is 20 miles south of Washington DC at the confluence of the Potomac and Occoquan Rivers. There are several hundreds of native grass meadows, which provide rich nectar sources for the monarch migration.

Over the years Larry has given many presentations on monarch biology and the phenomenon of the monarch migration to refuge and state park visiting groups, conservation groups, and such diverse audiences as the Williamsburg Botanical Garden to an annual kindergarten class.

Larry's exemplary monarch tagging efforts make him well-suited to the scientist of the month club. Everone who tags monarchs should follow in his lead!

Dick Walton is one of the most famous citizen-scientists around. He spearheads the longest-running monarch migration census program in North America, the Monarch Monitoring Project at Cape May, New Jersey. The Cape May Monitoring Project is one of several seasonal programs affiliated with New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory. It was established by Dick and Dr. Lincoln Brower in 1992, and now represents one of the best sources of information on the status of monarch populations in existence. The greatest strength of this data set is its consistency - each fall, like clockwork, Dick and his monarch team (see below) conduct daily censuses around the same route, which takes the same amount of time, and which is conducted three times daily in September and October. This is done rain or shine, even if there are no monarchs to be seen anywhere! Thus, with these data, scientists can learn a great deal about not only how many monarchs there are each year in this area of the country, but also aspects of their migration biology that add to the collective knowledge of this butterfly. In fact, Dick is a coauthor on several scientific publications where these data were analysed by scientists.

Dick should also be commended for assembling a crakerjack team of dedicated monarch people who contribute to the censuses, tagging and demonstrations that take place at the Cape May Hawkwatch area during the fall. These folks include: Louise Zemaitis (field coordinator), Dr. Lincoln Brower (scientific advisor), David Mizrahi (vice-president for research, NJA), and Don Freiday (director of birding programs, CMBO).

Above all, it is thanks to Dick's dedication and stick-to-it-ness, that this data set exists. We at MonarchNet thank Dick for his efforts, and look forward to working with him much more in the future! Congrats, Dick for being our latest scientist of the month!

Gina Badgett is a volunteer coordinator extraordinaire! Gina has been the Volunteer Coordinator for the Monarch Migration Census and tagging program portion of the Monarch Research Program (MRP) at Peninsula Point over the past 8 years. Gina has tirelessly volunteered over 735 hours to this project! Gina took over the coordination of this part of the study after 10-year volunteer and program catalyst C.J. Meitner retired in 2003.

Gina’s family has also assisted with the migration monitoring and tagging over the years. Gina along with volunteers involved in other aspects of the MRP received the prestigious 'Wings Across the Americas Award' in the Butterfly Conservation Category in 2008. Gina received this award for her dedication to the monarch Research Program on the Hiawatha National Forest. The tagging Gina has conducted has assisted researchers in knowing where monarchs migrate. Gina has tagged over 3,500 butterflies. More than twenty of these tags have been recovered from El Rosario and Sierra Chincua Mexico.

Gina and the Peninsula Point monitoring site were featured in the German documentary “Highway of Butterflies” which played on PBS stations across the country. Gina also supports the Monarch Research Program on the Hiawatha by selling used books at her store to raise money for the project to supplement the yearly grant received by Wildlife Unlimited of Delta County.

Thanks to the efforts of volunteers like Gina, the data collected at Peninsula Point has enhanced scientific understanding of monarch migration. In 2004 in the journal Environmental Entomology published the paper 'Migration Patterns and Environmental Effects on Stopover of Monarch Butterfly (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) at Peninsula Point, Michigan' by authors C. J. Meitner, Lincoln Brower and Andrew Davis.

Thanks Gina, for your monarch conservation efforts!

As a retired cardio-vascular surgeon turned Texas Master Naturalist, Dr. Ridlon (Kip) Kiphart found his passion for monarch butterflies through a rather indirect route. His son, working for a native plant nursery in Texas in the early 1990’s, introduced several plants to Kip’s front yard in Dallas, and not only did Kip get hooked on the native foliage, but he also admired the butterflies that came to nectar. Captivated, he quickly set out to learn the differences among monarchs, viceroys and queens, and taking pictures. Following training as a Texas Master naturalist in 1998, he gradually immersed himself in butterfly biology and ecology, and butterfly gardening.

Through his volunteer work at Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne, Kip was introduced to the Monarch Larva Monitoring Program in 2002 by Monarch Larva Monitoring Project volunteer Mary Kennedy. After monitoring eggs and larvae that year, he officially became an MLMP Trainer at a workshop conducted at Bamberger Ranch in Texas. He has subsequently conducted dozens of other workshops for volunteers from CNC and Master Naturalists throughout Texas, including the popular semi-annual "MLMP @ CNC" Back Porch Review and the TMN annual meeting. Kip is a presenter at the Texas Monarch Monitoring Project semi-annual workshop. Many of the dots on the Texas MLMP map are the direct result of Kip’s powers of persuasion and enthusiasm.

In 2008 he received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award from the President’s Council on Service and Participation for volunteering 5000 hours for the TMN program. Kip has also continued to monitor monarchs every year since 2002, both at home in suburban Bergheim and at the Cibolo Nature Center. Finally, he is involved in a variety of other Wildlife Field Research projects, both as a participant and official photographer.