Monarch butterflies tagged at Antietam National Battlefield

For the second year, The Monarch Alliance invited people to help capture, tag and release monarch butterflies at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg.

Twenty-three adults and children attended on Sept. 23. They spent two hours chasing after monarchs, tagging 14.

The butterflies are migrating to the central highlands of Mexico’s Michoacan state.

They will fly to one of 12 sanctuaries at an elevation of 10,000 feet in the transvolcanic region of Mexico, where they will hang in clusters of several thousand on the Oyamel fir trees. Millions will make the journey.

In March, they will leave the sanctuaries and fly north to Texas and Oklahoma to reproduce and start the annual cycle anew.