Date: 08/06/2010

Number: 1

I was at Robert Moses Beach on the South Shore of Long Island and I was blessed to see over 125 monarchs. Most of them were flying in off the Atlantic ocean (heading north). They looked healthy and were very playful. The majority arrived late afternoon,and quickly found some flowers to dine on.

I have only seen this many monarchs during fall migration, This was such an amazing day. I have been seeing many more this year than in the past several years, which is hopefully a wonderful sign of things to come. This year Long Island (particularly the south shore) has had many monarch sights.

I too was so surprised that I saw so many monarchs. I just happen to take the day off from work and decided to go to Robert Moses beach. This is the same area I frequent during the fall migration to hopefully get a glimpse of the migration.

The day was very sunny and about 85 degrees, The wind was out of the northeast and there were strong riptides/currents. The monarchs were coming off the ocean and heading north. There were also quite a few dragonflies with the monarchs. Some of the monarchs were resting on the sand, other were flying into the dunes, resting on the sea grass and enjoying yellow flowers (not sure what the flowers were). The ones resting on the sand I could get close to and could see they were monarchs and they were all very healthy. Some were spiraling in the air with another, some were mating, When I was leaving around 7 pm, I could see them hovering around the pine trees. I tried to see the tree they were going to land on to roost for the night, but they were fluttering when I got close. During the fall migration, at times the pine trees are covered with monarchs at dusk.Unfortunately I did not bring my camera or cell phone that day.

Hauppauge, NY

Latitude: 40.8 Longitude: -73.2

Observed by: Barbara
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