Date: 09/11/2010

Number: 1

The beauty of the monarch migration played out today across the hillsides and prairie of Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. A strong wind of 15 to 20 miles an hour from the northwest spurred the monarchs south in record-setting numbers on a clear day. The sight was amazing as they moved across the landscape in ones, twos, and threes or more. Some were flying low--10 feet or so above ground. Others were hundreds of feet above in a beautiful blue sky. They floated, they sped, they chased each other. Some stopped briefly on the wildflowers. In four hours of observation, 3,085 monarchs were counted. Many were counted from a single spot on a hillside as they made their way south across the prairie.

Prairie City, IA

Latitude: 41.6 Longitude: -93.3

Observed by: Robert
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