Date: 04/21/2013

Number: 1

We’re beginning to see a few more Monarch eggs here in Central Texas.
We checked the meadow on Saturday morning where we saw the mating pair last weekend but found nothing there.
We then checked the back of our lot and found 4 eggs…..all on asperula plants.

The native milkweed is now everywhere in abundance but still with a very low frequency of eggs.
We checked almost 100 plants before we finally discovered the 4 eggs.
We had well over a hundred eggs by this time last year.

Later on Saturday we attended the Old Settler’s Music Festival in Driftwood a few miles from our house.
It was sunny and in the low 70’s with a strong southerly breeze…..a beautiful day.

While standing in line shortly after noon the most obvious remigrant I’ve seen this year flew about 4 feet over my head into the wind.
It was so pale you could barely make out the black on its frayed wings and it was struggling to make progress.
It flew over the vendor tent and disappeared to the south as I tried to follow it to get a better look.
I was unsuccessful but my sudden interest in it peaked the curiosity of others in line.
When I returned the questions gave me a golden opportunity to explain how special that particular monarch was in nature.
Boy….talk about getting people excited…..by the end of the conversation they wanted to know where to get milkweed and they were all looking in the sky.

Quite the day….

Driftwood, TX

Latitude: 30.1 Longitude: -98

Observed by: Chuck
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