Date: 04/24/2012

Number: 1

Over the last three weeks we have experienced wave after wave of butterflies migrating north from Texas. First it was red admirals, then painted ladies, then American painted ladies, followed by variegated fritillaries, dainty sulphurs, two other sulphur species, grey hairstreaks, buckeyes, and now orange sulphurs (Colias
eurytheme) - with hundreds of them in the garden at any one time.

This short video (to be posted to our Monarch Watch Facebook page soon) will give you an idea of the number of sulphurs present today. I can truthfully say that never have I seen so many butterflies in our garden in April. The numbers and diversity actually rival anything we've seen in the fall when butterflies are usually abundant here.

Everything is early and remains so even though the temperatures have been nearly normal for the last three weeks. On Saturday (21 April) while mowing my lawn I spotted and Asclepias viridis (green antelope
milkweed) in bloom. The usual dates for first bloom of this species in this area are 8-12 May.

This is a spring like no other - at least in the last 20+ years that I have been following monarchs closely. Conditions have been consistently excellent for monarch reproduction of 6 weeks.
Everything to this point indicates that monarchs will rebound this year. A big bounce back is possible. I will summarize the situation as I see it as time becomes available in 10 days or so.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Lawrence, KS

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -95.2

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