Date: 05/25/2006

Number: 1

Here at Point Beach State Forest in Wisconsin we are currently
surveying for Piping Plover (endangered bird). During yesterday's survey (Thurs., May 25), the USFWS surveyor reported
that she found several dozen monarchs along the shoreline. She
speculated that they had washed up after being grounded in Lake Michigan during a storm the previous night. Several were still alive and she was able to revive them by carefully lifting them off the wet sand where they were plastered and putting them on vegetation to dry off. She said they appeared to be recovering nicely...

I am not
sure which direction the winds were blowing at the time of the storm -
you could probably check with NOAA or a weather station. There were
only a handful of monarchs per mile of beach the first time I reported.
I went back out today and collected for Chip's grad student and came up
with an even dozen plus two that were still alive and I was able to
save. This was over most of our 6 miles of beach but surprisingly, the
monarchs were very difficult to see - they really blended in well with
the sand, debris, alewives and zebra mussels.

Two Rivers, WI

Latitude: 44.2 Longitude: -87.6

Observed by:
Contact Observer

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