Date: 09/06/2013

Number: 1

I saw a monarch flying in from the northeast. Its direction was strong and it went straight to my butterfly bush. It didn't nectar though it landed on a butterfly bush in front of my house in the late afternoon and I started timing its rest. After a few minutes it flapped its wings slowly twice. And as I got closer, I thought - oh, there are two here, until I realized that the second one was actually its left wing. Within a few minutes, it flapped its remaining wing and it promptly fell off too. I never touched it, nor did I get super close (I stayed about 2 feet away). I really don't know what happened. In the past we have seen many monarchs pass through here, this year it was only the second one. It was pretty horrifying so I am hoping it was just old and not diseased.
There is no sign of the small caterpillar I saw the other week- no leaves eaten. I fear it is dead too.
This has been a disappointing year - 3 years ago we had 16 hatchings.

middletown, PA

Latitude: 40.2 Longitude: -76.7

Observed by: stephanie
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