Date: 06/15/2007

Number: 1

My Monarch Waystation in western Loudoun County, Virginia, some 6 miles east of the Blue Ridge crest, is barren of monarchs thus far this spring.

The only monarch I've seen this year was on June 9 about 2 miles east of Cape Charles, Virginia. This female was nectaring at and, it appeared, very carefully sensing/probing Apocynum cannabinum, Indian hemp, as a possible egg-laying location.

Our Waystation/Backyard Wildlife Habitat supports 8 "plants" and about 90 stems of common milkweed at 3-3.5 ft and ready to bloom. Purple milkweed is blooming. A milkweed, likely a variant form of A. syriaca that appears "halfway" between the rapidly spreading, pale pink A. syriaca and the clump-forming deep pink- purple A. purpurescens is also in bloom. A. curassavica
plants-- about 20-- are in the ground at 1 ft tall. Butterflyweed, A. tuberosa, is within 3 days of blooming. Green comet milkweed, A. viridflora, is 1-1.5 ft tall with flower buds. Not a monarch to be seen. We're waiting and within the next two weeks, expect monarchs to show.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Middleburg, VA

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -77.7

Observed by:
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