Date: 04/29/2008

Number: 1

Saw a lone butterfly by a source of water, flying from one dandelion to another.

I did not realize how extraordinary it was to see a monarch at this time of the year. I am currently taking a science class here at Gustavus College as a sophomore, and it is a class for future teachers. We actually spent a good part of last semester raising and studying our own monarchs as a way to learn a great deal about them in preparation of raising monarchs in our own classroom.

I have seen pictures of swallowtails and red admirals, although I've spent more time studying viceroys than those two. I suppose there is a possibility that it was one of those butterflies, but I honestly believed that I was looking at a monarch.
I was on campus, in the back of our cafe on the courtyard. I was about
3 to 5 feet away from the monarch.
The butterfly was about 5 feet from a fountain that had just been turned on the day before, and there were a group of 20 or so dandelions that had just bloomed that the butterfly was stopping on for a ten seconds or so.

So, in conclusion, I DO believe it was a monarch I saw because I am so familiar with them, and I now realize how exciting that observation was.

St. Peter, MN

Latitude: 44.4 Longitude: -94.1

Observed by: Jamie
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