Photo: © Debbie Hadley, WILD Jersey

As warmer weather takes hold at last, tiny shoots of milkweed emerge from the soil. Each day, I check my landscape beds for signs of the perennial. I know that until the milkweed appears, I'm not likely to see a monarch butterfly. My home lies almost precisely on the 40th parallel, and other butterfly enthusiasts living at the same latitude have reported seeing their first monarchs of 2008. Knowing the monarchs are so close by keeps me staring out the window. I'm not going to miss the first one to visit my yard this year.

If you live north of the 40th parallel, there's still time for you to join Journey North and report your first monarch sighting of the year.

More on monarchs:

• Monarch migration
• Birth of a butterfly