Swim

From A5 relay possibilities for a lot of kids,” stated Farrell. “They did a great job.”

Tray swam into the top 20 of the 100- (17th, 1:15.82) and 200-meter (11th, 2:44.00) breaststrokes.

“She had a great meet, too,” stated Farrell. “She has the best attitude. Kaya knows how to manage the pressure and keep the right approach.”

In her national debut, Tejeda cracked the top 25 of the 1,500-meter freestyle (24th, 18:42.95).

“We rested her at the Senior meet and she did awesome at nationals,” added Farrell. For backstroke, Milhomens recorded 18th in the 100meters (1:06.88), 19th in the 50-meters (31.44), and 22nd in the 200-meters (2:25.68). Due to having a concussion back in June, she had to stay out of the pool for three weeks, but was still able to get back in shape for nationals.

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“When she came back, we limited her workload, but, she worked hard to get back,” recalled Farrell. “What she has been able to do is exceptional.”

With a young group, Farrell was pleased to have Milhomens and Connor Booth provide leadership as the lone seniors.

“They set the tone and showed the kids what they had to do,” explained Farrell. “Their presence being there was huge.” this time is just a misperception on the part of the public?

Checking in with CT Agricultural Experiment Station entomologist Dr. Kelsey Fischer, it’s interesting to note that the question of “Where are the monarchs?” comes up every year. Fischer has worked with the Eastern subpopulation of monarchs, those east of the Rocky Mountains, since 2016. Their lowest population point was in 2013, she said.

When working in Iowa, and when she was getting her master’s degree in Delaware, Fischer was asked by friends, family and colleagues about monarchs every year. “Now, in Connecticut, the story is no different,” she said. “Every year, without a doubt, I get the question 'where are all the monarchs?'”

Fischer said she never judges how the monarch butterfly population size is doing based on summer observations. “Because the monarch migrates, the monarchs we see in CT are a direct result of earlier gener- ations of monarchs in different parts of the country," she said. “Monarchs could be anywhere. Check out the Journey North website. It looks like they’re distributing well.”

According to Fischer, if you study the migration patterns and the time needed to go from egg to adult, “the monarchs arrived in CT right when I expected to see them – in the middle of July – and I’ve been seeing adults, eggs, and larvae ever since.” In her opinion, “everything ap- pears to be on track.”

And the focus, according to Fischer, should be how well the monarchs are doing overwintering in Mexico. The population is all together there, she said, and is measured consistently each year. “At this time, they are all in the same place huddled together and we can get a real, strong estimate of population size,” Fischer pointed out.

Overall, she said it’s hard to answer the question, “where are all the monarchs?”

“Insect populations fluctuate and what we see in CT may be completely different than what our friends in Iowa, Georgia, Florida, or Ohio, just a few examples, are seeing,” said Fischer. If we are doing what we can do to help monarchs – most importantly, establishing habitat with milkweed and nectar resources from spring to fall – we are doing everything we can, she said.

For a source of real-time summer observations, Fischer advises checking out Chip Taylor’s blog (monarchwatch.org/blog/). Founder of The Monarch Watch program, Taylor is a scientist/researcher who has been working with monarchs the entirety of his career.