Every year conservation groups and public agencies send people into the field to count monarch butterflies making their migration from northern climates to Mexico. The field work is done, but the tabulating will take a little longer.
The Thanksgiving Count, as it is known, ran from November 12 to December 4 this year, and early counts show numbers up for the butterflies, perhaps in the range of 300,000, better even than last year.
Which sounds good, but needs to be placed in the context of the overall sharp drop in monarch populations in recent years. Portland-based Xerces Society is a major player in the work to restore monarch populations; Emma Pelton visits once again with news of this year's findings.
Additional link: to iNaturalist.org, which provides many opportunities to interact with nature and provide citizen science.