27 August 2026
It’s almost September and the final 2026 generation of eastern monarch butterflies is heading south for their wintering grounds in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico. For some of them it will be a journey of 2,500 miles.
In the past week I’ve seen several individuals flapping and gliding above my head in a straight line oriented southwest. Yesterday one flew down South Craig Street just below the rooftops. It was a reminder that monarchs cross many different landscapes on their way south.
Peak monarch migration through Pittsburgh will occur next month.
Watch their progress on the dynamic map at Journey North (today’s screenshot below). Learn about raising, tagging and tracking monarchs at Monarch Watch.
We had our first monarch butterfly at our house all day yesterday. August the 27. We have a butterfly habitat for our beautiful butterflies. We live in Ringgold Georgia in the northern part of Georgia.
Sewickley Heights Borough Park has so many monarch caterpillars on the common milkweed throughout the park that it must be on a monarch flyway:-) I even saw a chrysalis under a common milkweed leaf!