Date: 04/09/2011

Number: 1

April 9

Adult Monarchs are nectaring on the Black Cherry Tree by my back fence. I checked out the milkweeds and found at least a couple dozen eggs. Eggs were found on Purple, Variegata, Tuberosa, and Incarnata. Most were found on Purple MW. There isn't enough up to feed the caterpillars.

April 13

We are having an unusual number of Monarchs flying through in search of milkweed for this time of the year. I have over 200 eggs on a very small quantity of milkweed. Some of the sprouts have up to 21 eggs. Here is a photo I took this morning. I am seeing females fly along the ground all over town in search of milkweed.

As of today, my numbers are still increasing.  As the Monarchs have reached us earlier than usual, there is a lack of native milkweed.   We are also suffering from drought conditions.  I will be scouting for native plants tomorrow and will have a better idea of the situation.  I found a small patch today with only two eggs.  My main concern at the present time is being able to rear all the larvae--or as many as hatch, which will require quite a bit of milkweed.  The first eggs I collected from last week started hatching today.   I have several varieties of milkweed in my yard, and have been a Monarch Waystation for a number of years.  However, I don't have near enough milkweed to feed up to 300 larvae.   Eggs are looking good and viable, have not found many duds.
 

Broken Arrow, OK

Latitude: 36 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Sandra
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