The monarch rode the wind through the Eastman Nature Center in Dayton, sweeping down a bike path, then through fields of tall, tangled grass that bent with each gust. Finally, it alighted on a stem of goldenrod, oblivious to its stalkers: Three Rivers Park volunteer Emily Beltt and several curious children.
Using her net, Beltt caught the butterfly.
Seconds later, she gently held the female monarch in one hand and placed a small tracking sticker on its wing. The sticker, experts assure, would not weigh the monarch down or impede its flight.
This time each year, monarchs -- which weigh well under an ounce and are the only migrating butterfly in Minnesota -- begin their 1,800-mile annual journey to Mexico.
Along the way, many will die from storms, starvation, fatigue and predation, but the ones that make it represent an incredible natural phenomenon that University of Minnesota monarch lab scientists and others nationwide are still trying to fully understand.
The Nature Center's three-weekend program to tag the insects as they prepare for migration is one of numerous such programs in the Twin Cities -- the Minneapolis Monarch Festival is this weekend -- designed to help scientists do their field work. Armed with the standard stickers bought online, parents and intrigued naturalists can also tag monarchs at home.
Most monarchs do not migrate, and live only about two to four weeks as adults, laying eggs constantly until their death. However, migratory monarchs can live up to seven months, a necessity in completing the long trip that takes them south to Mexico for the winter. Then in early spring, they fly to Texas, where they lay eggs and die. It is those offspring that return to the northern states to continue the cycle.
"It's pretty amazing," said Eastman Interpretive Naturalist Vicky Wachtler, acknowledging that the explanations for how monarchs make such an incredible journey are still elusive. "Something just changes in their metabolism, their hormones."