Date: 09/06/2010

Number: 1

This from a naturalist acquaintance to my husband who had heard about it via another friend:

From: William Martinus

Date: September 23, 2010 6:12:53 PM GMT-04:00

To: Russ Schipper

Subject: Re: Monarch flight question

Russ,

The below is what I sent to Steve Mueller on Labor day, Sept. 6, 2010.

Bill

We had storms all morning, and at 2:00, I checked the Lake MI beach because the sun had just come out. There were only a few monarchs by the house on maple saplings in the yard. When at the bank-crest, monarchs were heading south over the beach, bank to about mid- tree top level, flying in clumps, pairs, and individually all over. I could not count them as they few by in such multitudes to I got Shirley out there to sound off minutes and I counted; singles at first then by fives to keep up. Over 200 butterflies passed by per minute !! high of 235/ minute. We did this for several minutes and watched the phenomenon for about 1/2 hour and then I went over to tell the neighbors and we watched for another hour. All in all, about 2 hours of continuous monarch parade. Eventually tapering off a few hours later to only 75-120/ minute.

My husband checked the weather record for Grand Haven on Labor Day in the afternoon: the wind was mostly from the SE and around 10 mph. It started to clear up about 1 or 2 PM and was sunny by 5 PM. The temp was about 65 - 71.

Grand Haven, MI

Latitude: 43 Longitude: -86.1

Observed by: Ilse
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