Date: 09/09/2008

Number: 1

This was a wonderful day for observing migrating monarch butterflies. On Monday, their movement had been dampened by rainy weather, but things changed. This day began with temperatures across central Iowa in the low 40s, but the sunny weather stirred up monarch movement once again. During two hours of observations in the mid-afternoon at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, we counted the largest total yet for this fall--545 monarchs. In the first 30 minutes, we counted about 250 monarchs nectaring on tickseeds in the northern edge of the refuge. What a delight to see them racing here and there over the wildflowers.

September 11
Rain had fallen earlier, and a light mist was dampening the area in Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge. But as the mist subsided around 11 a.m., monarchs began flying over the tickseeds in the north of the refuge. The sun began coming out from behind the clouds, and monarch activity picked up. By noon, 100 monarchs were observed, and then in the early afternoon, the pace of movement picked up considerably in other parts of the refuge. In three hours of observing, 300 monarchs were noted--providing a lesson on how the butterflies deal with moisture, strong winds, sunlight, and clouds.

September 13
Following a day and one-half of rainy weather, we visited Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in the late afternoon looking for monarchs. The day still was cloudy, but we began seeing some monarch activity in the north of the refuge. To the south where the prairie meets oak woods on a hillside, we discovered monarchs flying out from the oaks to nectar on the prairie wildflowers. Then they returned to several roosts on the hillside oak trees. Great viewing. We counted 190 monarchs, but the numbers in the roosting areas surely were higher as the monarchs were swirling around our heads and stopping on the oak branches.

September 14
Three hours of morning observations turned up 220 monarch butterflies--many of which were dealing with a strong northwest wind of 20 to 30 miles an hour. The monarchs were stopping on oak trees in the south of Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, and struggling across the prairie for nectaring on wildflowers. The sun came out from behind the clouds for a time, and the monarch activity picked up. While observing the monarchs, I found one caught in a spider web. I took it out of the web, cleaned its wings of the webbing, held it up to the sky, and watched it fly hundreds of feet up to the top of an oak tree!

September 15
A sunny day on the prairie brought out strong monarch butterfly activity at Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. Most of the monarchs appeared to be moving away from their favorite wildflowers of the past week--tickseed sunflowers--and were turning instead to sawtooth sunflowers for their nectaring. During three hours of observation in the afternoon, 384 monarchs were counted--especially on the taller sawtooth sunflowers.

Prairie City, IA

Latitude: 41.6 Longitude: -93.3

Observed by: Robert
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