Date: 05/07/2011

Number: 1

Seems way too early, but we observed a monarch butterfly in my garden today. A few milkweed shoots are just starting to poke out of the mulch, and my tropical milkweed plants are still tiny, so I hope he/she is not in too big of a hurry to get the season started!

My husband was the one who observed the monarch. It was gone before I
could rush outside. I quizzed him thoroughly (an understatement) on it's
appearance and flight before I finally posted the observation because it just
seemed too early, but he assured me he saw a bright, fresh monarch butterfly
soaring over the empty pots and beds of my garden. Since he is an avid wildlife
photographer who has photographed many of my newly hatched monarchs (and has a
monarch butterfly as his computer screen saver), I finally had to believe him!

I have lots of newly emerging milkweed shoots near where the monarch was
flying. Since there are no eggs to be seen on any of them, I am assuming the
monarch was a male. Obviously that is just a guess, but there is not a lot of
milkweed to be found near my house. My yard is a milkweed oasis in the village
of Williamsville.

Williamsville, NY

Latitude: 43 Longitude: -78.7

Observed by: Pamela
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