Date: 09/23/2002

Number: 1

Yesterday (9/23/02) morning in Vineland, there was a huge concentration of monarch
butterflies in and around the newly planted "Millennium Forest" just north
of the Agriculture Canada building on Victoria Avenue (very close to the
south shore of Lake Ontario).

There were hundreds, possibly thousands of
butterflies in the area. Some were flying around, and others were roosting
in trees, basking and vibrating their wings to warm up. The butterflies were undoubtedly at
various body temperatures- some were flying around (some strongly, some
weakly) and others appeared to be actively trying to raise their temperature
(basking on the bald cypress trees and some vibrating their wings).

Quite an amazing
spectacle- I've seen monarch congregations at Long Point, and this blew it
away!

Today, there is not a monarch to be found- I wonder how far they got?


Here are
some photos that I took.

Kim Barrett

Forwarded by Rod Murray from ONTbirds, a province-wide internet
list for reporting rare bird sightings.

Vineland, ON

Latitude: 43.1 Longitude: -79.2

Observed by:
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