Date: 10/14/2005

Number: 1

Friday morning, Oct. 14

I knew the roosting monarchs were in trouble when I awoke at sunrise and looked out my window. The back and side yards of my rental house on Chincoteague Island were already under several inches of water. I raced to the beach road on Assateague Island to access an interdune area where thousands of monarchs had roosted Thursday night in the seaside goldenrod along the shore of Tom's Cove.
I approached the area where most of the monarchs had been clustered late Thursday evening. They were still there! They had crawled up to the tips of the goldenrod flowers, some within a few inches of the flooding tide.
I stayed until the tide ebbed to make sure they would make it. They could not take flight; the winds were NNW at 20-25 mph with higher gusts. Any monarch that relinquished hold on the flowers was immediately caught in the wind and blown out to sea.

These I believe to be the Mid-Atlantic monarchs; they are pristine, with no wear or scars on their wings. Their wings are huge and their abdomens fat. They have not traveled far to arrive here. I wonder if they sense how perilous the next 24 hours could be . . .

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Assateague Island, VA

Latitude: 38 Longitude: -75.3

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