KU’s Monarch Watch attracts a crowd

About 500 people attended Saturday’s fall open house for Monarch Watch, the area group of butterfly enthusiasts.

A monarch stops at a station on west campus to feed on milkweed plants.

The event is meant to celebrate the arrival of migrating monarchs coming from the north each year, and it is geared toward butterfly fans of all ages, said Chip Taylor, a Kansas University ecology and evolutionary biology professor and director of Monarch Watch.

Each year, millions of butterflies head south from Canada to spend the winter in the protected pine and fir forests in Mexico. The trek through the Lawrence area is under way and will peak around Sept. 23; monarchs will still be around into October.

A monarch-tagging event is scheduled for 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Haskell-Baker Wetlands, south of 31st Street between Louisiana Street and Haskell Avenue.

The open house was at Foley Hall on KU’s west campus.