Date: 06/23/2007

Number: 1

On Saturday, June 23, 2007, I saw a swarm of red admiral butterflies in and around a very large basswood tree that grows across the street from our house. There might have been 200 butterflies in that tree. The tree was flowering. Some of the red admirals were in our yard, feeding on the orange butterfly milkweed that grows there. I wondered if the butterflies had recently emerged, locally, but a Channel 3 broadcast included a story by an entomologist from the University of Wisconsin, who said that the red admirals had migrated north, into Dane County. I guess that people have been calling in reports of these butterflies from many different locations. I am not sure why so many butterflies converged on this particular tree. Perhaps they can smell the tree from some distance, and regard it as a food source.

Madison, WI

Latitude: 43.1 Longitude: -89.4

Observed by: Eric
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