Monarchs with Miss Emily
This afternoon our class walked down to the Lyon County Fairgrounds and met Emily Ostrander, the Lyon County Conservationist, at the flower garden. Emily taught us how to identify a Monarch and also determine if it was a boy or a girl. She shared with the children that Kansas University encourages people to help track the butterflies by placing a sticker tag on them and reporting data on the computer. We learned that this creates job opportunities for people in Mexico to collect and report this data when the butterflies eventually migrate there. Emily let the children take turns trying to net butterflies in the garden. They were able to catch and tag a few Monarchs and then release them. It was so exciting to see them fly away again and then try to catch more. We had a few minutes left so we walked over to the Community Garden and were able to net some there, too. Everyone had a fantastic time and even caught other kinds of butterflies,too. Thanks for the amazing outdoor lesson, Emily.
*please click on the top pictures to see more photos
