Date: 10/03/2004

Number: 1

After tagging about 75 monarchs one night at the end of August at Swan
Lake in Nicollet, MN (50 mi. WSW of Mpls/St.Paul), I thought the
"migration" was through. I did my volunteer/educating at the grade
school in early September, tagged with kids & left chrysalises. I
copied my tag pages & returned my 100-odd unused tags. (I tagged around
a hundred I reared at home as well.)

Lo & behold, last weekend (Sept. 25) was the duck hunting opener, and
my son and husband reported more monarchs than ducks flying about in
the bluebirdy-blue sunny sky at the slough! They assured me the flight
was not directional, just meandering. They said there were "monarchs
everywhere". Keep in mind, this is the place where I typically find
thousands roosting in the evenings over the end of August. This year...
only a hundred(s) or so. This past weekend they fared no better with
the ducks, nor the monarchs. However, I myself saw a beautiful healthy
monarch fly past my window in the back yard (yes, southerly) today,
October 3! And I've seen several around in the last week. This is
amazingly late for what I would expect locally. What an odd year, it
seems like Mother Nature is running several solid weeks behind!
No predictions on the next few months from me.

Contributed to Monarch Watch

Chaska, MN

Latitude: 44.8 Longitude: -93.6

Observed by:
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