Date: 04/17/2014

Number: 1

I had an interesting encounter with a monarch today. I was driving about a mile from my home on a country road when I noticed some milkweed growing amidst the wildflowers in the ditch near a field entrance. Deciding to stop and check the milkweed, I was happy to see that they were healthy, but disappointed not to find any signs of eggs or larvae on them. As I was about to get back in my car, a lovely faded monarch sailed past me and began to flutter near the milkweed I had just checked! Sure enough the monarch carefully laid an egg and then proceeded to lay more in several of the milkweed nearby. A wonderful moment for me -- and when I got home I saw that more monarchs were flying & some laying eggs on the milkweed in the nearby fields. It was a beautiful sunny day with a temperature of around 72 degrees F. After 2 nights of temperatures in the 30's, this was a good day for the monarchs to be active. And in spite of the low temps of the previous days, the babies are still doing well. This photo is of a newly emerged tiny monarch caterpillar.

Dobbin, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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