A. ABOUT US & HOW TO USE THIS SITE

Welcome to the site! My wife & I are both animal lovers, and she has saved many dogs from the pound. This photo is of me with my 147-lb. King Shepherd, Stormie. We saved him from Katrina after Animal Rescue found him on his own. He had been surviving in the worst section of New Orleans for 7 months before being rescued, weighing in at only 63 lbs! Here's a photo a year later after gaining 84 lbs.
How To Use This Site: Four Steps
(1) Scroll down narrow, right margin to the TABLE OF CONTENTS and find the article you'd like to read.
(2) Go UP to SEARCH and type in a few words of the article title. It will pop up for you (better than scrolling).
(3) Learn more about each topic by viewing the Recommended Research section at the end of each article.
(4) Scroll down right margin for two "HOT OFF THE PRESS! TODAY'S HEADLINES" sections, the first about bird happenings, the second about Monarch Butterfly happenings. Both are updated daily so you can read updated newspaper articles about both topics, each day!

B. GOING NATIVE: URBAN LANDSCAPING FOR WILDLIFE WITH NATIVE PLANTS

You can go native with native plants in your landscape. Watch these two videos and learn:

• Why landscaping with native plants is better for wildlife & the environment.
• About the problems caused by invasive, exotic plants. Odds are you have invasive exotics in your own backyard!
• The native plants you can use as alternatives to exotic plants. The second video even tells you where you can buy natives!
• How to create your own native plant landscape thats attractive to wildlife and people with our step-by-step guide that helps you choose the right plants for your landscape.

ENJOY!

C. CLOCKS, CRYPTOCHROMES & MONARCH MIGRATIONS- WONDERFUL STORY BY CHARALAMBOS P. KYRIACOU

My Waystation No. 613 sign in Fremont, Ohio

Monarch enthusiasts! Here's a wonderful story about the Monarch butterfly from the Journal of Biology (June 19 2009).

Minireview: Clocks, cryptochromes and Monarch migrations.

by
Charalambos P Kyriacou
Department of Genetics
University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK


Abstract: The annual migration of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) from eastern North America to central Mexico is one of nature's most inspiring spectacles. Recent studies including one in BMC Biology, have begun to dissect the molecular and neurogenetic basis for this most complex behavior.


Miniview: At the approach of fall in the northern United States and southern Canada, the Monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, starts to get restless. These butterflies usually represent the third or fourth generation that season, each previous generation having lived for around 6-8 weeks. The current generation senses the shorter photoperiod of autumn days and starts to shut down its reproductive system, lay down extra layers of fat, and in general become more physiologically resistant to environmental stresses such as colder temperatures. This state of diapause precedes one of nature's most glorious sights, the annual autumn migration of the Monarch from the northern United States to its overwintering grounds in central Mexico, where it settles in oyamel fir trees.


This alteration in the Monarch's physiological state, in readiness for the arduous 4,000-kilometer journey south, includes a three-to fourfold increase in longevity that will carry these individuals through to the following spring in Mexico. At that time they mate, lay the fertilized eggs on milkweed (Asclepias), and the few adults that survive begin their northern journey home. In two or three generations, each one laying eggs progressively further north as milkweed starts into new growth, the Monarchs finally reach their northern homes. In the autumn, the cycle begins again.


Butterfly migration and the circadian clock: This remarkable feat represents the longest annual insect migration known and has become a focus of study for the circadian biologist Steven Reppert and his group at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester. In a series of papers over the past few years [2-4], they have confirmed that, like migrating birds, the Monarch depends on its circadian clock to find the right direction. It has a time-compensated sun compass, so if the clock is made arrhythmic (by placing the butterfly in constant bright light for a few days), or is phase-shifted by a few hours, the butterfly will lose its way, because it uses the time to tell it where the sun should be in the sky. (Photo: Two Monarchs released in Beebalm section of Waystation No. 613 after hatching. Tested for OE)


To do this, Monarchs use sky-light spectral gradients and polarized ultraviolet (UV) light, for which they have dedicated photo-receptors. Consequently, they can orient themselves towards Mexico in the southwest under a variety of meteorological conditions.The likely neuroanatomical position of the circadian clock in the butterfly brain has been defined using antibodies against clock proteins (for example, PERIOD (PER), TIMELESS (TIM) and CLOCK (CLK)), as a region of the dorsolateral protocerebrum called the pars lateralis (PL). The polarized light receptor sits in the dorsal rim area of the retina, and, intriguingly, makes connections to the PL via nerve fibers that express CRY1, a cryptochrome whose ortholog in Drosophila acts as a blue-light circadian photoreceptor. Indeed, both in cell lines and in vivo, CRY1 in the Monarch displays some of the features one might expect of a photoreceptor. CRY1-expressing fibers also connect the PL to the pars intercerebralis (PI), which also expresses the clock proteins PER and TIM and is known to be important in insulin signaling, aging and diapause.In addition, the Monarch expresses CRY2, which is orthologous to vertebrate CRY proteins, and appears to act, as in vertebrates, as the major negative regulator in the molecular feedback loop that defines the circadian mechanism. CRY2 is coexpressed in the neurons of the PL that express other clock proteins such as PER and TIM, and shows the type of nuclear translocation movements that one expects of a canonical clock protein. Furthermore, CRY2-expressing fibers show rhythmic oscillations in the level of CRY2 within the central complex region of the brain, a region that has been proposed to house the sun compass in locusts.


Thus we have a truly extraordinary and tantalizing set of results in which CRY1 connects the polarized-light-input pathway to the clock, and the clock to the PI (which is expected to respond to day length and initiate diapause, enhanced longevity and the associated migratory restlessness), while CRY2 might connect the clock output to the sun compass. Connecting the circadian clock and the time-compensated sun compass to the brain of Danaus plexippus. It is not known whether TIM enters the nucleus in these neurons as CRY1-mediated TIM degradation would also provide a derepression mechanism at dawn. However, CRY2 also cycles and is at low levels during the day so it is conceivable that CRY1 also acts in the nucleus to send a degradation signal to CRY2 at dawn. Top right: light stimulates receptors to UV polarized light in the dorsal rim (DR) of the retina. A CRY1 expressing pathway (double headed, orange) connects the DR to the circadian clock in the PL (and perhaps vice-versa), which in turn uses a CRY2 pathway (blue arrow) to connect with the central body (CB), which may house the sun compass that mediates navigation. There may also be a direct pathway (pink arrow) between the DR and the compass. (b) Schematic representation of neurons and fibers expressing different circadian clock proteins in monarch butterfly brain. Regions expressing TIM, PER, CRY1 and/or CRY2 are highlighted in red. In these areas the four clock proteins partially colocalize. Areas expressing TIM or CRY1 are indicated in green. In these regions the two clock proteins do not colocalize. CRY1 positive fibers are represented by continuous orange lines. Projections of dorsal rim area photoreceptors are indicated by dotted orange lines. Neurons and fibers expressing exclusively CRY2 are represented in blue and within the central body are shown as blue circles and blue hatching. Areas positive exclusively to TIM and PER are indicated in light blue and brown, respectively. PL, pars lateralis; PI, pars intercerebralis; SOG, subesophageal ganglion; CB, central body; LO, lobula; ME, medulla; LA, lamina; RE, retina.


Following the milkweed trail north: One question Reppert and his team wished to answer was whether the spring and summer butterflies orient northwards (in the same way as their parents and (great)grandparents did southwards) in order to return north from Mexico, or whether they simply work their way north following the milkweed trail. In a study by the group published recently in BMC Biology, Zhu et al. treated diapausing fall butterflies with a juvenile hormone (JH) analog and showed that this stimulated reproductive development as expected. They observed, however, that the treated individuals were still able to fly directionally and point south towards Mexico. This means that although JH shutdown stimulates diapause and may initiate celestial orientation, JH deficiency is not required to maintain directionality, which can be independent of reproductive state. In contrast, the majority of wild-caught summer butterflies did not show any directional response, confirming earlier reports. These results therefore suggest, with some caveats, that the spring and summer butterflies may simply follow the milkweed back home rather than actively orienting with their compass. (Photo: Waystation 613 side yard- Common, Swamp & Tropical milkweed. I've witnessed Monarch flying down our street, then take abrupt turn into our side yard and alight on them)


One wonders whether treating summer butterflies with a JH antagonist might initiate a stronger orienting response? Genes associated with migrationTo identify genes that might be involved in orientation, microarray experiments were carried out to compare the brain transcriptome of fall migrants and summer butterflies. In addition, fall migrants treated with the JH agonist were studied, together with appropriate vehicle-injected migrant controls. Thus, the experimental design sought to identify transcripts that are differentially regulated between the summer group and the migrants (irrespective of the migrants' reproductive state). Forty transcripts were observed to show differences in expression, of which more than half had some annotation associated with them from other databases. The hits included a clock gene vrille, which regulates the Clk gene and the gene for tyramine beta hydroxylase (which is required for the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitter octopamine), as well as other genes involved in neural and behavioral plasticity.


It remains to be seen how important any of these are to the orientation phenotype; this can only be assessed by direct manipulation of these molecules in the brain.Monarch magnetism? The receptors for polarized UV light in the butterfly's retinal dorsal rim and their input to the circadian time-oriented sun compass help point the way to Mexico. But many animal compasses rely on magnetic fields, so how might magnetoreception be encoded within the Monarch? Reppert's group has also recently carried out a study of magnetoreception in Drosophila melanogaster. Using flies trained to respond to a magnetic field, it was apparent that various fly strains showed a modest magnetosensitivity, but only when light in the near-blue region was included. These wavelengths (around 420 nm) fit the action spectrum of Drosophila CRY, and indeed it has been speculated that the photoinducible electron-transfer reaction of this flavoprotein generates magnetosensitive radical pairs. In support of this hypothesis, fly loss-of-function cry mutants were severely compromised in their magnetosensitivity.


These results suggest that CRY could be a magnetoreceptor, or if not, that it might act as a signaling component downstream of the true receptor. Either way, attention must now focus on the Monarch's CRY proteins, and whether one or both of these can provide magnetosensitivity. Interestingly, in the central body, the putative locality of the sun compass, nerve fibers expressing CRY2, not CRY1, are observed. So, although one would presume from the fly data that the Drosophila-like butterfly CRY1 protein would be the most relevant in any photoinducible radical-pair hypothesis, we should perhaps not rule out CRY2. An initial way forward would be to transform the butterfly cry1 into the fly, and see whether it rescues magnetosensitivity in the cry mutant, and whether mutagenesis of the relevant radical-pair residues does not. This and many other experiments now suggest themselves, and there is little doubt that we will soon be treated to another breakthrough in the otherwise mystical phenomenon of Monarch migration.Acknowledgements.

~

I thank Chip Taylor for Figure 1 and Federica Sandrelli for drawing the Monarch brain in Figure 2.
References: Urquhart F: The Monarch Butterfly. Toronto: University of Toronto Press; 1960. Return to textFroy O, Gotter AL, Casselman AL, Reppert SM: Illuminating the circadian clock in monarch butterfly migration. Science 2003, 300:1303-1305. PubMed Abstract Publisher Full Text Return to textReppert SM, Zhu H, White RH: Polarized light helps monarch butterflies navigate. Curr Biol 2004, 14:155-158. PubMed Abstract Publisher Full Text Return to textSauman I, Briscoe AD, Zhu H, Shi D, Froy O, Stalleicken J, Yuan Q, Casselman A, Reppert SM: Connecting the navigational clock to sun compass input in monarch butterfly brain. Neuron 2005, 46:457-467. PubMed Abstract Publisher Full Text Return to textStanewsky R, Kaneko M, Emery P, Beretta B, Wager-Smith K, Kay SA, Rosbash M, Hall JC: The cryb mutation identifies cryptochrome as a circadian photoreceptor in Drosophila. Cell 1998, 95:681-692. PubMed Abstract Publisher Full Text Return to textZhu H, Sauman I, Yuan Q, Casselman A, Emery-Le M, Emery P, Reppert SM: Cryptochromes define a novel circadian clock mechanism in monarch butterflies that may underlie sun compass navigation. PLoS Biol 2008, 6:e4. PubMed Abstract Publisher Full Text PubMed Central Full Text Return to textHeinze S, Homberg U: Maplike representation of celestial E-vector orientations in the brain of an insect. Science 2007, 315:995-997. PubMed Abstract Publisher Full Text Return to textZhu H, Gegear RJ, Casselman A, Kanginakudru S, Reppert SM: Defining behavioral and molecular differences between summer and migratory monarch butterflies. BMC Biol 2009, 7:14. PubMed Abstract BioMed Central Full Text PubMed Central Full Text Return to textKanz JE: The orientation of migrant and nonmigrant monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus. Psyche (Cambridge) 1977, 84:120-141. Gegear RJ, Casselman A, Waddell S, Reppert SM: Cryptochrome mediates light-dependent magnetosensitivity in Drosophila. Nature 2008, 454:1014-1018. PubMed Abstract Publisher Full Text PubMed Central Full Text Return to textRitz T, Adem S, Schulten K: A model for photoreceptor-based magnetoreception in birds. Biophys J 2000, 78:707-718.

Recommended Research: Learn more about Monarch butterflies with these adult & children's books, jewelry, and yard items with a Monarch theme. Twenty items in all. Double click item for description.

I. WATCH NOVA'S THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY OF THE BUTTERFLIES...HERE IT IS!

In case you missed the wonderful NOVA program on Monarch butteflies. This one-hour program is divided into six chapters. Choose any chapter and select QuickTime or Windows Media Player to begin viewing the video. If you experience difficulty viewing, it may be due to high demand. We regret this and suggest you try back at another time. Don't forget to put it on full screen.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/butterflies/program.html


A photo of my side yard at Monarch Waystation No. 613 in Fremont, Ohio. Common, Swamp and Tropical milkweed. Want to make your yard into a Wildlife- Friendly one? Begin by creating a Monarch Waystation. What's good for Monarchs is good for a myriad of other butterflies, moths, songbirds, and insects.

Recommended Resarch: Learn from these adult & children's books about Monarch Migration. Double click for description.

II. RELAX...AND WATCH THIS SLIDE SHOW WITH MUSIC...RELAX...RELAX...AND APPRECIATE NATURE

The video is called Morning Mood, composed by an incredible Norwegian named EDVARD GRIEG. It's very relaxing. Click on the photo below, put the slide presentation on Full Screen with the rectangle in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. Then, sit back in your computer chair and relax and take in the photos and music.

Recommended Research: Learn how to relax with nature DVD's and audio tapes. Here's 32 selections. Double click item for description.

III. PHOTOGRAPHING BIRDS IS FUN! LOVE THE MUSIC TOO.

Recommended Research: Learn how to photograph wildlife. 16 items-double click for item description

IV. CREATE A WILDLIFE-FRIENDLY YARD! HAPPENINGS AT MONARCH WAYSTATION NO. 613

Friday March 27, 2009 The Crocus popped up by my backyard water garden on this cool day, in the 40's. The nights are still in the 30's. The bees worked laboriously getting nectar from the bright purple Crocus'. Their legs were fattened with nectar!

The Crocus burst from the soil about a week ago, but now are standing 5-inches tall and sprouting beautiful purple petals with gold-
yellow interiors! An oasis of nector for the honey bees!

June 2006: My wife and I decided to add a few "wildlife-friendly" spaces to our lawn. The introductory photo above is of our tree lawn on Lincoln Street in Fremont with a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. You can see the red brick portion of Lincoln Street in the background. Isn’t that better than a bare space of grass? Spaces in our tree lawn, side yard and backyard are devoted to Monarch butterflies. Monarch caterpillars can only eat Milkweed plants, so that's what we planted. Here's me releasing a recently hatched Monarch upon some Swamp Milkweed in our Monarch Waystation (photo above). Our yard has become registered Monarch Waystation No. 613 (right photo) and we have fun observing all the other species of butterflies and birds these spaces attract. Beautiful Tiger Swallowtails visit everyday. These wildlife-friendly spaces complement the lawn and attract many songbirds, including dozens of yellow & black Goldfinches. People walking past stop and admire the milkweed and nectaring flower blooms and the wildlife they attract.
Our side and back yards have small spaces devoted to wildlife. The side yard (left photo) has Swamp Milkweed, Cardinal flowers, Bee Balm, Lilacs, and Sedum. Songbirds, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, honey bees, dragonflies, and colorful insects are attracted to the nectaring flowers. So, by creating a Monarch Waystation, we help other species of animals and birds as well. Female Monarch butterflies lay eggs only on Milkweed plants. Without Milkweed plants, the Monarch couldn't survive. For some reason, many think of the milkweed as a “weed”; however, that’s only because they never saw the beautiful flowers that Common and Swamp Milkweeds produce. The aroma of the flowers are like a strong perfume!

I collect the eggs of our milkweed plants and hatch them on my front porch, then raise the caterpillars until they form a chrysalis. Here's a Monarch egg photo. It's barely visible to the naked eye. This Monarach egg photo was taken by Monarch Watch. The chrysalis' begin to darken just before they hatch into a Monarch butterfly. I take the Monarch butterfly and test each one for the OE virus. I'm considered a "citizen scientist" and help out Dr. Sonia Altizer at the University of Georgia with her studies of the OE virus. She’s studied this protozoan parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha….let’s just call it OE! I collect and hatch the Monarch eggs. It's amazing to watch the caterpillars transform into beautiful Monarch butterflies. During the summer of 2008, I raised, tested for OE, tagged, and released over 80 Monarchs from my yard alone. At one point, my wife and I had 44 Monarch caterpillars and they ate many milkweed plant leaves we supplied them on a daily basis. Here's the Monarch "cage" I used to raise the caterpillars in (right photo). The photo (below right) shows how they form chrysalis' at the top. One female Monarch has just hatched from its chrysalis!!

In the Fall, I will begin capturing and tagging adult Monarch butterflies, which will be making the long migration to central Mexico, where they spend the winter. I help Tom Kashmer and the Sandusky County Park District capture and tag migrating Monarchs as they begin their incredible journey to Mexico. The wing tags have a toll-free number to call at the University of Kansas. Over a dozen Monarchs tagged in Fremont by Tom Kashmer have been found and reported in Mexico. That's 3,000 miles away!

If you want to find out more about creating a Monarch Waystation, contact MonarchWatch at:
http://www.monarchwatch.com/

If you have children, it's a great way to introduce them to nature and to do more than sit in front of the computer all day long. Here’s a neat story on the news about a boy who started a Monarch Waystation at his school:
http://www.wdef.com/video/chattanooga_8_year_old_named_young_eco_hero/07/2008
Who said Milkweed wasn't a beautiful plant! Here's a picture of one of our 23 Swamp Milkweed plants in our side yard. Beautiful row of pink flowers that smell like a strong perfume:

This site will be updated weekly, with an on-going saga of the plight of the Monarch Butterfly. Hope you can join Monarch Watch, too. Look at how they explain the simple way to create a registered Monarch Waystation. By the way, the city of Fremont, Ohio has a registered Monarch Waystation as well. Drive over the Hayes Avenue Bridge heading east and look to the right. You'll see a field with Monarch Waystation signs. Thanks to Ken Myers, our Safety Service Director, Fremont City has joined Monarch Watch and put up the Monarch Waystation signs and left the area unmowed. In addition to the deer that bed down in that area each night and the songbirds which eat the grass seeds, I collected over 100 Monarch eggs from the Common Milkweed plants there. So, thanks Ken and the maintenance crews...you've already saved a 100 Monarchs!

Recommended Research: learn how to attract wildlife to your yard from these 17 resources. Double click item for description.