Date: 05/15/2008

Number: 1

This morning as I was working my vegetable garden a faded female monarch flitted in. She was working close to the ground...I figured that she was lookng for milkweed. I'll walk the road and check the fields in the next two days looking for eggs. The milkweed is up in the garden on the north side of the house, in the field beyond and all along Raines Road.
There are new shoots every day and the earlier ones are as much as 12"
high.

The generation of monarchs that overwintered in Mexico left in late February and early March. I am sure given that time frame that my new visitor is an offspring from an egg laid in March or April. Any overwintering monarchs would only have lived an average of four weeks once they became reproductive, Though favorable winds could bring them this far north it would have been weeks ago. This one was not tattered, just very faded, There's been a lot of heavy weather to wear off scales on this spring's journey north.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Union, WV

Latitude: 37.6 Longitude: -80.5

Observed by:
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