Date: 10/07/2013

Number: 25

Late flow - day 10. (October 4) Cloudy with strong headwinds from the SW this morning and no monarchs were seen on the drive in to the lab. I checked for monarchs in the garden about 9:30 and counted at least 20 with more on the flowers at the front of the building. The high today is expected to be 87-90F (mean high for this date is 72F) with temps dropping to levels nearer to normal over the next 24 hours. Monarch numbers should decline rapidly over the next few days.

Late flow - day 11. (October 5) A strong storm passed through the area last night leaving more than an inch of rain. The temperatures were in the 50s this morning and only a few monarchs were on the move before 11AM. The current temp is 56F with partly cloudy skies. There are monarchs on the move in the garden and around the building and this could be moving day if the temps hit the mid 60s and the winds don't become too strong. Presently the winds are from the W/NW (10-15mph) and in some areas these could be quartering winds that should aide ground speed while pushing the butterflies to the SE.

Late flow - day 12. (October 6) Currently partly cloudy, 57F and with gusty winds (14mph) from the NW. Again, any monarchs on the move from MN to south of Dallas would be pushed somewhat to the SE today. (To the northeast of here - from northern Ill to western NY monarchs will have to deal with strong head winds - some too strong to allow for movement except in sheltered areas).

I just had a monarch fly past the window - glide really - through the space between our building and the Pharmacy building to the west. There goes another. With winds from the NW this is a low wind corridor - a protected and slightly warmer space.

There were still at least a dozen monarchs on flowers in the garden and in front of the building at 11:30. My guess is that the conditions yesterday were so windy that some of the monarchs didn't move on. It looks like that may be the case again today and, if so, we still should see a fair number of monarchs tomorrow. (At least 4 monarchs flew by while I wrote the above.)

Late flow - day 13 (October 7). Finally a good day to move to the S/SW for the monarchs remaining in the area (temp 60 and sunny with a high of 75 predicted, winds from the SW at 4mph). If there was movement the last two days, it was certainly minimal due to the low temps and high winds. I thought I saw a monarch on my way in this morning. There were still about 20-25 hanging around the garden and the flowers in the front of the building at 10:30.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Lawrence, KS

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -95.2

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