14 October 2025

In Case You Missed It

Two weeks ago a monarch butterfly with a broken wing was brought to Sweetbriar Nature Center on Long Island where they have a butterfly house (vivarium) with a wide variety of species. The injured monarch could not fly and would surely die but the Nature Center’s Wildlife Rehabilitation Director, Janine Bendicksen, searched for a dead monarch butterfly in the vivarium and performed a wing transplant.

The patient is a member of the migratory brood who travel to Mexico to spend the winter. Without the transplant she could never resume her journey.

Flying solo, she is now traveling 50-100 miles a day and resting at night at communal roosts.

Journey North tracks monarch butterfly fall roosts on their website. Click here or on the screenshot below to see the map and play the animation as the roosts change through time.

NOTE: The absence of roosting spots in the eastern U.S. does not necessarily mean they don’t exist. It may mean these roosts are not as noticeable in the forest compared to the Plains or that no one is reporting on them.