Date: 09/17/2010

Number: 1000

At Robert Moses Beach on the South Shore of Long Island, it was a day like no other. The previous day was a torrential rain storm with two tornadoes touching down in NYC. But today was 75 degrees, sunny and a light west wind. When I arrived at the beach @ 5 pm, there were over a 1,000 monarchs fluttering around, they made their descent to the pine trees to roost for the night. Such a beautiful sight, I have not witnessed this many monarchs since 2005, They were all healthy and strong. I was able to take quite a few photos. I also went back the following two days and only spotted 20 on Saturday and 33 on Sunday. I was so very lucky to witness this beautiful event. My observation time: I was watching for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The nectar sources were about 50% bloomed on Friday, primarily a golden rod type flower which were both white and yellow. When I returned Saturday (9/18), the same spot was bare. Will check again this weekend for the roost.

After the difficult winter in Mexico, it was amazing to see such a rebound in the number of Monarchs. I hope this is a positive sign of things to come.

October 2
Saturday was a beautiful day with temperatures in the 60's with a northeast wind. The previous day Tropical Storm Nicole passed through. I observed over a six hour period over 700 monarchs. Unlike my last spotting two weeks ago where the monarchs came in droves over a shorter period in time, on this day the arrivals were spread out over many hours. The majority of monarchs looked strong, healthy and were eager to feed on golden rod nectar, a few had torn wings but were just as diligent to feed. At sunset they roosted in a much larger area. Their predecessors two weeks before, where hundreds of monarchs roosted on one pine tree, today there were 10 -40 on a tree, but many more trees.On the next day I only spotted 30 over a 5 hour period. I can't figure out when they leave the South Shore of Long Island, if they fly out over the Atlantic Ocean to their next stop or do they fly west along the coast and skirt New York City? Bon Voyage!! My observation time: I was watching for 6 hours.

Hauppauge, NY

Latitude: 40.8 Longitude: -73.2

Observed by: Barbara
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