2025 Early season Monarch count results
Sharing an update on results of the early season (Oct 18-Nov 2, 2025) Monarch count results…
Monarch butterflies are fluttering back to California’s coast, and volunteers across the West have been busy surveying overwintering sites for the 2025 Western Monarch Count (WMC)! Early reports estimate approximately 5,000 monarchs observed so far, though data are still coming in. Last year's early-season count tallied 7,601 butterflies. (View past years' data here).
Similar to last season, Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz is a standout site, sheltering around 1,100 monarchs as of 10/29/25. Numbers at Lighthouse Field are also climbing quickly, more than doubling over the last two weeks (up to 979 as of 11/1/25). A site in west Marin has topped 500, and other popular sites, including Pismo State Beach (235 on 10/29/25) in San Luis Obispo County, Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary (63 on 10/30/25,weekly PG count updates posted here) in Monterey County, and Gill Tract (87 on 10/24/25) in Alameda County, are showing early clusters that may continue to grow in the weeks ahead.
The early-season count officially ended Sunday, November 2, and we can’t wait to see the full picture once all data are submitted. Visit WesternMonarchCount.org to follow along (results are usually published a few weeks after each survey period). If you'd like to visit overwintering sites near you, check out our recent blog: ”Everything You Need To Know About Visiting Overwintering Monarchs”.
A big shout-out to all the community scientists, regional coordinators, and conservation partners who help power The Xerces' Society's Western Monarch Count--thank you!!
Isis Howard (she/her)
Conservation Biologist
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
503.212.0546 | isis.howard@xerces.org
Note: Western Monarch Count Monitoring Periods for 2025-2026: Early-season count is Oct 18 – Nov 2, 2025. Mid-season count is Nov 15 – Dec 7, 2025. Late-season count is Dec 27, 2025 – Jan 11, 2026.