Date: 04/23/2012

Number: 1

My wife and I saw our first Monarch of the spring this afternoon - NEVER have we seen one this early! It was seen on Yellow Avenue in Waterman township of O'Brien County in NW Iowa. It was near the Prairie Heritage Center on Yellow Avenue. We also saw one an hour and a half later in nearly the same location. We only counted it once though as it is possible it was the same individual. We'll be keeping a close eye out for any here on our prairie remnant acreage just 12 miles north of where we sighted this one!

I've been photographing Monarchs since the early 1960's...I've photographed Commas and many others as well...even Viceroys that others often mistake for Monarchs. We have had quite the Red Admiral spring here...also many Painted Lady butterflies, but this was definitely a large (4" at least) very faded and worn/tattered Monarch.

We do have milkweed up here on our native pasture; I'll have to check the plants for eggs but we have not seen Monarchs here on our acreage yet. The Monarch we observed yesterday (4/23) was approx 12 miles south of where we live.

Hartley, IA

Latitude: 43.2 Longitude: -95.5

Observed by: Bruce
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