Date: 09/03/2009

Number: 1

September 6

The monarch migration is continuing to be strong across Neal Smith national wildlife refuge. During three hours of observations on a cool and sunny day, 368 monarchs were counted.

368 monarchs (in 3 hours)

September 5

Monarch butterflies are continuing to be on the move over the prairie at Neal Smith national wildlife refuge. In the northern part of the refuge, a large stand of tickseed sunflowers has been attracting the monarchs as they fly south over the Iowa farmland and approach the wildlife refuge. This morning, a visit to the heart of the stand turned up 160 monarchs in 20 minutes as they moved from flower to flower. Overall, the count of monarchs was 332 during two hours-plus of observations.

332 monarchs (in 2+ hours)

September 4

As the days go by, monarch butterflies will begin to spend more of their time nectaring on other wildflowers, but in the early days of the fall migration, they continue to favor tickseed sunflowers. That pattern continued this Friday at Neal Smith national wildlife refuge. During two and one-half hours of observations, we counted 307 migrating monarchs. Most of them were nectaring on tickseed sunflowers, but on one hillside, some were stopping on the goldenrod blooming so profusely on the prairie.
307 monarchs (in 2.5 hours)

September 3

This was an amazing day for observing the migration of monarch butterflies at Neal Smith national wildlife refuge. During two and one-half hours of counting in the morning, we saw 526 monarchs. They were continuing to visit the stands of tickseed sunflowers, and they were putting on a wonderful display of their colors against the yellow background of the flowers.

526 monarchs (in 2.5 hours)

September 2

During an afternoon visit to Neal Smith national wildlife refuge, 110 monarchs were observed in one hour and one-half. Once again, the monarchs were nectaring primarily on tickseed sunflowers. They were racing to and fro among the wildflowers in the north part of the refuge.

110 monarchs (in 1.5 hours)

September 1

The monarch butterfly migration is under way across central Iowa. The sky was mostly clear, the weather was cool, and the number of monarchs observed today differed sharply from two previous days over the weekend. In two hours and 40 minutes, we counted 251 monarchs at Neal Smith national wildlife refuge near Prairie City, Iowa. They primarily were nectaring on tickseed sunflowers, the favorite wildflower for the monarchs at this time of the year. Cool weather to the north--38 degrees overnight at one point in northern Iowa--appeared to have contributed to the speeded up monarch movement.

251monarchs (in 2.5+ hours)

Prairie City, IA

Latitude: 41.6 Longitude: -93.3

Observed by: Robert
Contact Observer

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