Date: 09/10/2009

Number: 1

Observations by Mr. Jim Wilson forwarded by Mr. Don Davis:

I spent the past two afternoons at Point Lepreau in search of Monarch
butterflies (to tag). On September 10th Joanne Savage, Samantha Perrin and I arrived shortly
before noon and spent until 3:45 PM at the Point Lepreau Bird Observatory (PLBO). The main purpose was to catch and tag as many MONARCH butterflies as possible. The day was sunny and warm with almost no wind and the date was about the theoretical peak of the Monarch migration at this latitude. However for awhile we were afraid that we might not see ANY Monarchs at all- they were almost non-existent. By 3:30 PM we had seen only three but had managed to capture two for tagging.

We returned September 11th at 1 PM and searched for Monarchs until 4:30 PM. My wife Jean joined the group, as well as Roger LeBlanc and his film crew who have been working on filming various nature topics around the province this summer. Once again, Monarchs were super-scarce. In three and a half hours of scouring all the sunny nooks around the alders and blooming flowers in the extensive open area of the tip we could find only three, all of which were captured for tagging. One year ago I visited for three hours following two days of heavy westerly winds and saw 200-300 Monarchs and was able to capture and tag 80, working alone.

This summer we have had virtually no westerly winds at all, which I feel are responsible for bringing many of the migrating Monarchs we see annually to the coast of the Bay of Fundy.

But despite the quiet "Monarching", they were two lovely afternoons spent at a location that's as spectacular as any along our coastline. We're very
fortunate to have continued acc My observation time: I was watching for ___ hours and ___ minutes.

Point Lepreau, NB

Latitude: 45.1 Longitude: -66.5

Observed by:
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