Date: 02/21/2014

Number: 1

Unfortunately, with all the unusually cold winter weather and hard freezes, we never found any monarchs to report this winter. Even our milkweed plant froze.

My husband and I took frequent week-end trips to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (Wakulla County) and searched along Hwy. 98 from Wakulla County all the way to Mashes Sands, Alligator Point, Bald Point, St. George Island, Apalachicola and Panama City Beach, Seagrove Beach, Grayton Beach areas. This doesn't mean there weren't any in the area, but we never found any.

Before the hard freezes hit our area, we once saw three butterflies on a large bush in front of Caroline's Restaurant in Apalachicola, but they were Viceroys since there were lines on lower wings.

On Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, we were at St. Marks to watch the Whooping Crane flyover on their way to their winter pen at the refuge. During our drive to the Lighthouse area, we saw what we thought might be a Monarch, but it flew out across a marsh and we were in our car, so could not confirm.

Looking back at the 2013 winter report, only one Monarch was reported for all of Leon County where we live... wish we had better news.

Tallahassee, FL

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -84.3

Observed by: Jo
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