Date: 10/10/2012

Number: 900

After three straight days of a rainy dreary cold front, today's 70 degrees and sun was a boom for monarch through Granville and Durham counties, just north of Raleigh NC.

Away from my "migrant traps" I had a few singles on Bidens, goldenrod and aster. But in my nectar superhighway from 2-4pm I tagged at one spot a record 109 monarchs, out of an estimated 900 that were passing through. Nearly all were on Baccharus, with a few on aster, goldenrod, eupatorium, verbena bon. Each swing of the net would scatter the lot, so I put the net down and caught probably 80 of them by hand, picking them off the smaller baccharus shrubs. They were quite intent to nectar!!!

Suprisingly I did not find any that were already tagged, though I did see many of mine again. I got some great photos of clusters of 25-30 monarchs in one field of view, several of them tagged. I could have tagged more but didn't want to run out.

October 12
As last years boom followed by bust, yesterday 10/11 same location, same time, same temp, same clear skies, same nectar, and only 35 monarchs tagged out of 50 seen. NOT dripping from the trees, and only a few caught by hand, my net extension was needed as many were high in the baccharus.

A dozen miles sw along I85 in Durham county I tagged several also on baccharus, and I hope to get some more coveries along this route. From Richmond, VA to Atlanta, GA I85 seems like a likely southwest route to follow. Through the developed cities and even around the non developed Falls Lake area, numbers of monarchs have always ben much higher along what I call the nectar superhighway, which is road shoulders, gravel access roads, power lines and rail lines that parallel I85.

Could it be that the monarchs are following the pavement southwest with many nectar "rest stops"?

Could it be that they are catching any wind currents from southbound traffic? Though I have found them on both sides of the road with no clear preference other than where the nectar is!

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Raleigh, NC

Latitude: 35.8 Longitude: -78.6

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