Date: 09/07/2011

Number: 1

I have seen up to 12 or so monarch butterflies at a time in my garden since about the end of August. There may have been a few more than that, different ones feeding at various times They seem to have arrived later this year than usual, and there are not as many as there have been in past years. This concerns me quite a lot. I saw 3 or 4 cats on the milkweed a week ago. Again, there may have been more that I just didn't see. I live on the CT Shoreline, and we were hit severely by Tropical Storm Irene. The day before the storm hit, I brought in 1 large cat, 1 medium size, and 6 eggs and put them in an aquarium. Good thing, because the storm knocked over a huge tree, which crashed and squashed the large stand of milkweed where my cats lived. On the morning after Irene hit, the large cat (named Irene) pupated! That made me smile in the midst of so much destruction--life goes on. It looks healthy, so I hope that the butterfly will soon emerge. The other cat pupated a week later and also looks healthy. In the meantime, 3 eggs hatched, 2 and then 1 a week later. They are all doing quite well, eating and growing. So I hope they have time to pupate and become butterflies. I have seen 10 or 12 monarchs in the garden in the days after Irene.

Clinton, CT

Latitude: 41.3 Longitude: -72.5

Observed by: Sandra
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