Date: 04/11/2003

Number: 1

I saw my first monarchs here in South West Missouri over the last few days. On April 11 a good friend reported seeing one and I saw one yesterday, April 13, and another today April 14. The location for April 11 & 13 is 3 miles east of Hilda, Taney County Missouri. The April 14 location is Forsyth, Missouri also in Taney CO.

These three butterflies were flying close to the ground, frequently dipping down to "check out" flowers and possibly searching for sprouting milkweeds. All were in fairly good shape with good color but starting to get that dull look when the color starts to fade. I captured and released the specimen yesterday (Apr 13) to get a close look at the amount of wing wear. It was a female with slight chipping along the wing margins as one would expect from an older butterfly, so these first three could be re-migrants blown up by strong south-west winds we've had here several times a week. They were not newly emerged butterflies.

I have observed no local milk

Hilda, MO

Latitude: 36.8 Longitude: -92.1

Observed by: Thomas
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