Date: 08/24/2012

Number: 81

An incredible Monarch filled day here in the Adirondacks. We woke up at our hotel in Lake Placid, New York, and we drove towards Whiteface Mountain in Wilmington, New York. The entire 10 or so mile drive we kept on spotting Monarchs as we drove, on two occasions I even swerved to avoid hitting one. By the time we reached Whiteface during the 20 minutes we had already spotted 28 Monarchs. We opted for to drive up to the summit of Whiteface instead of taking the Gondola, because it would give us a chance to stop more along the way and take in some of the breathtaking scenery from the top of the 5th tallest mountain in New York. The entire drive up the Whiteface Veteran’s Memorial Highway we had Monarchs flying over and in front of our car. In addition to Monarchs we also came upon a large number of Painted Ladies at one of the scenic overlooks. They were amazing as there were literally dozens, way too many to count nectaring on one of the yellow roadside flowers that I have yet to identify, but the Ladies knew that it must have been a great nectar source because they were swarming on it.

Once we reached the summit of Whiteface at 4,867 feet at 50 F around noon, the butterflies were nowhere to be found near the summit. After spending a couple of hours at the summit we began our roadtrip back down the mountain and made numerous stops to allow our brakes to cool down. At out 2nd stop we were greeted by dozens of Monarchs flying high on the air currents on the northern slope as well as dozens of Monarchs nectaring on Goldenrod. It was the most Monarchs I’ve ever seen in one spot since my last Mexico trip in 2009. I took a memory card full of photos which I will post on the MTN Facebook page when I return. It was truly spectacular. On our way back we stopped at A&W Rootbeer in Wilmington for lunch and once again we had Monarchs flying in and out of our outside eating area, and through the tall pine trees behind the restaurant. We had even more sightings on our way back to our hotel in Lake Placid. What another incredible day of taking in the unexpected northern New York migration. All in all, in addition to the dozens of Monarchs nectaring at the one stop by the end of the afternoon we logged 81 Monarch sightings in all between 10 AM and around 5 PM.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Lake Placid, NY

Latitude: 44.2 Longitude: -74

Observed by:
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