Around 3:30 this afternoon I noticed a large orange butterfly pass through the yard for about 15 or 20 yards along the back fence where I have some milkweed up with one plant over a foot tall. It was only a brief glimpse but I don't see how it could have been anything other than a Monarch. It never returned and I found no eggs on the milkweed. So I didn't consider it a reportable sighting until.....

I went down two blocks to the neighborhood park to an area that I have been maintaining for the milkweed. A couple of sprouts of milkweed came up in the grass a couple of days ago. Today I found milkweed sprouts between 1/2" and 6" tall, and they were loaded with 90+ eggs as follows:

1 plant, one half inch tall--2 eggs

2 plants, one inch tall-- 4 and 7 eggs

6 plants, two inches tall --4, 3, 15, 10, 5 and 17 eggs

1 plant, three inch tall-- 6 eggs

2 plants, six inches tall (leaves still not open)--6 and 7 eggs

4 or so plants, 3 to 4 inch plants tall--1 or 2 eggs.

I don't see how that many eggs were going to survive on that small of plants. Maybe the early caterpillars would feed on any unhatched eggs as Lincoln Brower suggested, get a boost and maintain pace with the milkweed as it continues to emerge. Anyhow, I collected the "loaded" stems by cutting them off underground, like harvesting asparagus.

I just got an email from Jim who lives in Pfafftown, just 25 miles away. He also saw Monarchs ovipositing this afternoon, also his first.

It was five days ago that Jim and I saw the Monarch in McBee, SC, about 100 miles to our south. I think I was going to predict 7 days before I’d see the first monarch in Greensboro—but the monarchs made it more quickly!

Also today, I traveled by an open area along a divided highway about 20 miles south of Greensboro where I often find early spring and late fall Monarch eggs. (I presume this is due to the better sun exposure than my yard or the adjacent park.) I did not find any milkweed (so also no eggs), but the dogbane was up about a foot in some areas.