GMP 005: March Monarch Madness

Episode 005 show notes: Title March Monarch Madness    Links mentioned in this episode: Find Milkweed for monarchs at:  Grow Milkweed Plants website   Marine Monarchs:  facebook.com/marine.monarchs   Monarch Migration data:  learner.org/jnorth/maps/monarch_spring2015.html   The company jet:  Southwest Airlines   On this podcast I will be talking about three main topics. Weather, Marine Monarchs and my upcoming trip to Austin.   Welcome to Grow Milkweed Plants podcast episode five. Today is March 26th 2015 and I am the host Brad Grimm. Thank you for joining me on todays wonderful podcast.   Spring is here, at least thats what our calendar are indicating. Based on a quick look at the 10-day forecast between the monarch biosphere preserve and the U.S. Border weather seems to be favorable for the 2015 spring migration. Winds are north at approximately 8 miles per hour in Mexico and north-northwest at 16 miles per hours in Austin. Longer range forecasted winds are light and variable with predominately north-west to easterly breezes. The temperatures between Rosario and the Monterrey range from 41º to 85º. Its very nice to see that a freeze is not in the forecast. Central to south Texas is slightly cooler but is trending toward warmer weather. Texas has had a bout of storms recently that yielded precipitation. The precipitation seems to be followed by warm weather and that is typical for spring. It should be very good for the milkweed plants that the monarchs will be searching for.    The specific path along the Migration route is not clearly understood but funding is underway for monarch monitoring on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Monarchs may or may not intend on crossing the gulf and monarchs over the gulf could certainly become fatigued on that long flight. Monarchs can be blown into the gulf and monarchs have been seen resting on the oil rigs. Oil rigs may be an oasis for them to rest upon should the wind push them out over the water. One question that this study is looking to answer is at what frequency do the oil rigs host these overseas monarchs. There is a facebook group for the project that is called Marine Monarchs. Updates about funding and their progress will be available on their facebook page. I have no affiliation with the Marine Monarchs project but there is a good chance that I will make a small donation to the program. If you make a donation then Dr. Chip Taylor is matching your donation until half of the $8000 project goal is reach. Chip Taylor is matching up to $4000. But it's not really about the money. The project focuses on providing real time data about the monarchs migration pattern which can be compared to winds and weather to help everyone understand more about the amazing monarch migration.    With Monarch Madness in full swing I am going "all in" with a trip to the great state of Texas! My wife and I are taking the company jet to Austin for the first week of April. Our hope is that the migrating monarchs will be traveling thru Austin at the same time that we are traveling to Austin. Despite the fact that I am setting my expectations very high I have some concern that they may not be there in the numbers that I am expecting. The odds of being there when the peak number of monarchs are traveling thru is about as likely as docking my model Estes rocket with the space station based on a gut feeling about where to point the rocket and when to initiate launch.   I hope I scheduled the right launch time and trajectory for the trip when I booked everything back in November of last year.