What other resources will you need?
You will need information on wind speed, wind direction, air temperatures, and cloud conditions for the day or period during which you make observations. This weather information can be obtained either by personal observation and measurement or if you do not have a weather station at school or locally, try an area weather network. Around the United States, and the World for that matter, weather data can be obtained from NOAA Weather sites, usually airports at National Weather conditions. Data is archived for most sites by the hour for the last 24 hours.

Where should you go to collect flight direction data?
To obtain the most accurate data, observations of flight directions should be made in open areas such as large fields where flight behavior of the butterflies is not modified by hills, buildings, trees, and other such obstacles. Locate a field which migratory Monarchs are passing through. Migratory Monarchs can be identified by the distinct directionality of their flight; they do not mill about randomly. Follow only one butterfly at a time. Select a butterfly that shows clear directionality. Position yourself under the flight path of the butterfly whose direction you will be recording. This will call for you to run around a bit.

What kind of flight direction data should you collect?
There are two kinds of flight information you should try to collect from each butterfly:

1. vanishing bearing
2. body orientation

Vanishing bearing is the direction in which the butterfly is actually moving through the field toward the horizon. Since this measure is often strongly affected by wind speed and direction, we would also like to know the butterfly's body orientation, that is, which way the butterfly's body is actually pointing.

How do you measure vanishing bearing and body orientation?
To measure a vanishing bearing, you watch a migrating butterfly until it "vanishes" from view and record the compass bearing in which the butterfly disappeared. Here's a trick to give yourself more time to accurately measure the direction the butterfly was moving: after you've run to intersect a butterfly's flight path and as you watch that butterfly flying directly away from you, sight on an immobile object on the horizon like a tree, hill, or pole, that corresponds to the compass bearing of the butterfly. Then, although the butterfly itself will disappear in a few moments, you'll have plenty of time to accurately measure the compass bearing (see notes on using compass below) of the object you've sighted, and can record this compass direction. To measure body orientation, you will need to be fairly close to the butterfly to be able to tell which direction the head is pointing. Two notes about body orientation measurements: 1) since this measurement is less affected by wind direction it can sometimes be in a very different direction from the vanishing bearing and 2) although it is helpful to have both vanishing bearing and body orientation measurements on each subject, it is sometimes impossible to get body orientation data. That's okay. It's better to have missing data than inaccurate data. Always remember to record the time of day that corresponds to each observation as well.

What if the butterflies are not actually migrating while you are outside waiting to collect data?
If the butterflies are not moving in a distinctly directional manner, record the date, the temperature and other weather information, anyway. We need to learn more about the time of day and physical conditions that restrict or favor migratory behavior.

How do you measure compass directions?
To measure directions using a compass and to report your findings you must adhere to certain conventions. 1. Directions are reported in degrees from 0 to 360. 2. North is indicated by 0 degrees, east by 90 degrees, south by 180 degrees and west by 270 degrees. Set the compass due north and determine the angle away from due north that the butterfly is flying. For example, a butterfly heading due south would be flying in a direction 180 degrees from due north. If the butterfly were flying west of due south, we would report some angle greater than 180 degrees, e.g. 20 degrees west of due south would be 200 degrees from the north.

How many Monarchs should you watch?
Since this exercise gets easier with experience, the first few butterflies that anyone follows should be considered "just practice". After that, during each observation period, every individual or group should attempt to obtain vanishing bearings for at least 20 Monarchs. The number of these butterflies that will also yield body orientation data is often less than 20 since body orientation is a more difficult measurement to make accurately. Disappointing as it might be, no matter how good you get at following Monarchs, not every butterfly will yield usable information. Sometimes that's because of the observer's location relative to the butterfly, but often the butterfly itself will stop to feed or start spiraling upward or do something else. This is normal and might be interesting to keep track of.

When and for how long should you watch the Monarchs? Because it is possible that the direction of flight changes throughout the day, the time of each observation should be recorded. The observation periods we suggest are:

• 10 am - 12 NOON
• 12 NOON - 2 p.m.
• 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Most people will find it convenient to make observations in the afternoon, but some of the most interesting observations can be made in the morning hours. To obtain a thorough understanding of the pattern of movement, observations should be made on several days at different times and in different weather conditions. After several periods or days of observations, the data can be summarized for each observation period. The mean, or average vanishing bearing should be calculated for each period. Differences between periods should be examined along with the corresponding weather conditions for each to determine if environmental factors might influence flight direction.

What do you do with these data?
Once you have summarized your observations, and discussed them with your cooperating group, a copy of your results should be submitted to the Data Submission Page so that we may compare your results with others we have gathered from around the country. Research Method Discussions

This Research Method forum is for discussion of the research methods used in the Monarch Directionality Project. You should post questions, comments, concerns, and, most importantly, suggested improvements to any aspect of the research method(s) above.

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