Audubon Butterfly Monitoring Project

Have you ever wanted to help pollinators? Are you interested in community-science?

The Audubon Society of Rhode Island is looking for volunteers interested in being a part of a community-science based project this Summer. The project involves monitoring Monarch butterflies and other butterfly species on coastal Audubon properties from May through July.

Monarch Butterfly populations are declining due to pesticides, habitat-loss and climate change. These beautiful butterflies migrate from Rhode Island all the way to their over wintering sites in Mexico and return in the Summer. During this period of migration, they will forage from flowers along the coast before making the long journey. Collecting data on Monarch butterflies will help Audubon with their conservation efforts.

Volunteers will monitor sites once a week by counting all butterfly species seen along a specific route. Volunteers will also be collecting weather data such as, temperature, wind speed and cloud cover. Monitoring will take approximately an hour. You do not need any experience identifying butterfly species.

To prepare our volunteers, we will be holding virtual training sessions on April 18th and 23rd from 7 PM to 9 PM via Zoom.

We will also be holding in-person training sessions on April 27th and May 3rd from 10 AM to 12 PM. In-person training will be held at the Audubon Nature Center and Aquarium in Bristol.

We ask that you attend one virtual and one in-person training session.

TerraCorps Land Conservation Coordinator, Nathan Archer will assign a specific refuge for volunteers to monitor based on proximity, capability, and interest.