Date: 04/20/2008

Number: 1

I received a call from Margarete J excitedly reporting the first monarch she had seen this year. "A faded female in good condition". A student watering the potted milkweeds, we had set out adjacent to the south wall of our building, also saw a female laying eggs on these plants and one or more females have been attempting to lay eggs on these plants all day. We usually see our first monarchs in this part of Kansas (if we see any returning migrants) during the third week of April.

Margarete takes care of our Monarch Waystation so she was particularly excited to see the first monarch. I had looked for emerging milkweeds earlier today by found none and Margarete says she has no shoots in her garden either. Yet, when Margarete came to the garden this afternoon she assured me that the swamp milkweed was coming up and she was right but the shots are so small - less than a quarter inch - that it seems unlikely that a female could find the shoots. Warm weather is predicted for the next several days so there should be measurable shoots and leaves soon.

This spring is the first time that I can recall the monarchs being ahead of the milkweed. (Phenologically the plants are about 9 days slower to develop this year than normal). Yet, there may be a few hot spots in the region such as the edges of dirt roads where the milkweeds are up enough for the females to lay a few eggs.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Lawrence, KS

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -95.2

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