Date: 10/06/2010

Number: 1

Chincoteague NWR, Assateague Island, VA, late afternoon Oct 6

I checked the ocean beach for dead monarchs at low tide this afternoon. The good news is that I did not find any. But the bad news is that I did not see any monarchs returning to shore after getting blown out to sea on W winds yesterday. The winds had shifted by late afternoon today and were WSW, making it extremely difficult if not impossible for monarchs to fly back to shore. I hope they made landfall on one of the other barrier islands earlier in the day before the wind shifted.

I also checked the causeway around 4:30pm and found one of the monarchs that I had tagged at 8:30 this morning. He was still nectaring in the planted goldenrods on the roadside and had traveled less than one-tenth of a mile in that time period.

Many more monarchs arrived around 5:30 this evening, just in time to roost in the seaside goldenrod and bayberry thickets along the causeway.

Editor's Note: This observer did not specify the number of monarchs present. We entered 'one' in the number field only to mark this record for future consideration.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Assateague Island, VA

Latitude: 38 Longitude: -75.3

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