Date: 03/06/2004

Number: 1

We saw the first monarch of the season at Eden, in Tallahassee, last Saturday, March 6th.

Eden is the name a conservationist friend of mine has given to his property just north of Tallahassee.

This is the earliest sighting date since I got involved in gathering spring migration data on that property in 2000. The previous earliest date was on March 16th, last year.

This sighting seems to be on par with early sightings in Texas and maybe elsewhere. The monach, or another one, was sighted again the next day. I suspect it was the same one, since we have milkweed in flower.

Yesterday, March 9th, I was finally able to capture a lady monarch (I assume the same one). It was a female, whose wings were pretty well worn. It was not laying eggs during the 30 minutes I watched her, and I could find no eggs on the milkweed plants.

I don't know whether it came from Mexico or the Gulf coast, but I do know it was the earliest we've seen a monarch in Tallahassee since we started our spring project.

Contributed to Monarch Watch

Tallahassee, FL

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -84.3

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