Date: 09/16/2011

Number: 500

October 5
After two rainy days comes another magnificent afternoon of monarchs migrating and roosting. I spotted over 500 this afternoon in 2 hours. The wind was moderate from east north east, it was sunny and 65 degrees. It was totally surreal watching the monarchs fly in such numbers in such a short period of time. After feeding on golden rod flowers they settled in the pine trees on the dunes of the beach for the night. They looked very healthy with a couple of monarchs having been tagged.

September 16
The magic returns! After a rainy Thursday on Long Island comes a beautiful sunny but cooler (65 degrees) day and along with the beautiful weather are the monarchs. There is a gentle north east wind. An hour and half before sunset I spotted about 200 monarchs roosting in the evergreen trees along the roadway.They looked very healthy and active and were settling in for the night.

On this weekend last year I spotted over a 1,000, I hope the numbers increase in the coming week. Hurricane Irene destroyed some of the beach dunes which was home to golden rod which is a substantial food source for the monarchs. Evening temps tonight and through the weekend are projected in the low 50s.

Sept. 19
When I returned to the same beach early evening today, I didn't see any monarchs. The sky was heavily overcast. This is not unusual though, last year I would see a huge showing and the next several days the monarchs were noticeably absent. It's like they come through in waves.

Robert Moses Beach Babylon, NY

Latitude: 40.6 Longitude: -73.3

Observed by: Barbara
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