Date: 10/24/2007

Number: 150

Tuesday (10/23/07) saw 20-25 monarchs, the first day this fall I have seen numbers. Yesterday morning (10/24/07) just as the sun was first hitting my yard, I walked along the outer edge, checking butterflies that might be sunning. The trees and high shrubs contained 120 to 150 Monarchs, most perched with wings spread, warming their bodies. Very few other butterflies were active that early. Within a half hour or so the Monarchs begin to move to my numerous crucitas shrubs (Eupatorium odoratum) to feed. At any one time I could see 25-30 individuals close together on a couple sunny sites. Within the next couple hours they began moving about, sampling nectar on my numerous crucitas and/or white mistflower shrubs (Epatorium wrightii); few also utilizing duranta shrubs. This action continued until about noon. Gradually, apparently after adequately feeding, individuals began to move off, all seemingly heading southward, some fly low but most 20 to 50 feet above the ground. This southward movement continued for much of the afternoon. But more individuals appeared from the north, flying over the adjacent treeline to drop into my yard to feed. It seemed that at no time all day did I have less than 100 (est) individuals visible at any time. By late afternoon, with the sun still highlighting a number of crucitas, feeding activity continued at a high pitch. It seemed that fewer individuals were moving off; the vast majority of the activity was centered around the sunny patches of crucitas. During the last ten years that I have been paying attention to my yard butterflies, yesterday's Monarch numbers represented an all-time high. I will repeat my visits again today. Other obvious "migrants" included Cloudless and Large Orange Sulphurs, both American and Painted Ladies, Red Admirals, and Queens.

Report courtesy of Mike Quinn, via Texas Butterfly Listserv

Mission Valley, TX

Latitude: 28.9 Longitude: -97.2

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