Date: 08/19/2012

Number: 1

Just back from a family trip to Burlington, Wisconsin (42.687783, -88.27058). Observed a single Monarch exhibiting directional flight SSW over a stock tank on 8/19. Too far away to determine sex or condition.

On previous trips around the same time of year, the hay meadow was chock full of Monarchs along with other butterflies. This time, just the single monarch and a few singletons of other species. I was told by the residents that they've been having a bad drought all summer, but rains a few weeks ago greened things up. The clover in the meadow had lots of dried up blossoms and just a few fresh flowers. By report this has been a strange spring and summer with early warm wet spring and exceptionally hot dry summer.

The milkweeds (syriaca and incarnata) appeared healthy. The syrica had gone to seed pods while the incarnata was still in flower. Looked for chew marks, cats and eggs, but saw nothing.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Burlington, WI

Latitude: 42.7 Longitude: -88.3

Observed by:
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