Counters reported finding only two monarch butterflies at Ellwood East during the latest overwintering butterfly count in Goleta on Monday. 

There were no butterflies observed at Ellwood Main, Main Annex, Ellwood West, Ironbark, Ellwood North, Sandpiper and Ocean Meadows, according to biologist Charis Van der Heide. 

“This is a very low year for the western population, sadly,” she said.

The late-season count was originally scheduled for Jan. 2, but had to be postponed due to the significant rainstorm that soaked the county during the holidays. 

The rain also threatened the overwintering butterflies in the trees at Ellwood Mesa sites. 

“When we have strong winds or an extended day of hard rain, monarchs can get knocked down from the branches,” Van der Heide said. “And when it’s cold and wet, they have a hard time flying back up to the protected branches.”

Additionally, the rainy conditions disrupted the tiny trackers biologists had attached to some of the butterflies to analyze butterfly activity.

The trackers allow anyone to track butterfly activity through the app, Project Monarch Science, but depend on the sun for the solar panels on the devices to properly function.

When it rains, butterflies are prone to closing their wings and staying in shaded areas and the sun is not able to reach the tracker, Van der Heide said.

As of Monday, biologists had attached trackers to 10 butterflies, doubling the number since December. 

But Van der Heide noticed low levels of activity for some of the tagged butterflies in a month span, meaning some of them might have died.

But she is hopeful because she says sometimes the butterflies go offline but later return.

“Maybe it flew out of cellphone range or Motus tower range and then came back,” she said. “If they have not been detected in a month, then they’re probably not alive anymore but it is hard to say.”

The Monday count is considered to be in the late-season, and there are only two more counts left. The next count is set for Jan. 30.

Since October, city of Goleta biological consultants have been counting the overwintering monarch butterfly population biweekly. 

Monarch butterflies first usually begin to settle into areas along the Central Coast in November in groves of trees with the best habitat structure to be protected against winter winds.

The previous count, on Dec. 15, recorded four butterflies across all Ellwood sites. 

These numbers, while disappointing to biologists and the city of Goleta, are not new. 

Several factors — including loss of milkweed habitat for breeding due to herbicide-resistant crops, pesticide use, climate change, logging and development — have historically been threatening the monarch butterfly population. 

In 2024, the butterfly was proposed to be added to the Endangered Species Act to prevent extinction. 

Also in 2024, biologists only counted four butterflies at the Ellwood Main Butterfly Grove, the largest wintering site in Southern California, as Noozhawk reported. 

Following the completion of the counts, the city will add the information to its long term data and share it with scientists studying monarch conservation, according to George Thomson, parks and open space manager. 

Residents can look at some of the long term data here.