Date: 06/17/2014

Number: 1

Yesterday morning I noticed a monarch on the milkweed patch in my backyard. It was 9:30 a.m. and a sunny day although the milkweed patch was still in shade. My milkweed patch consists of common (next to the house), swamp (a lower/wetter area about 10 feet away) and a couple of butterfly weed (just emerged a few days ago) next to the house. The swamp milkweed was just beginning to come out of shade into sunlight and the female monarch was on the swamp milkweed. The temperature was 57 degrees Fahrenheit. The monarch flew over to my neighbor's lawn (in full sunlight now) and settled on the dewy grass for several minutes. She apparently warmed up enough and then flew back to the swamp milkweed for several minutes and returned again to the sunny area in my neighbor's lawn. She repeated this behavior for about an hour and a half. She primarily visited the swamp milkweed that was now in sunlight, but eventually all of the swamp milkweed was in the sunlight. She did not visit the common or butterfly weed that morning. My swamp milkweed has 7 established clumps and many small volunteers. She seemed to prefer the small volunteer plants (some of them were very tiny--less than an inch in height), but she did visit plants of all sizes. She disappeared around 11:30 (it must have been her lunch break). After lunch I noticed that she had returned about 2:00 and was visiting both swamp and common (now totally in the sun), but not visiting butterfly weed. The temperature was now in the low 60s. Later in the afternoon I went to check for eggs and found about 40 eggs. She had used both swamp and common milkweed but not butterfly weed. About 2/3 of the eggs were on swamp milkweed and 1/3 on common milkweed. Her preference was on small plants although I found eggs on taller plants also.

*Side note--In the last 10 years or so I have been raising monarchs only from the eggs I have collected. I haven't collected any caterpillars. Since that time I have never had a tachnid fly incident.

**Another side note--A few days ago a woman (whom I respect) told me she didn't like the idea of me collecting eggs. I believe she was telling me that I should let nature take its course. I have always had some reservations about collecting eggs and raising the monarchs indoors, but I know the survival rate is much higher when the eggs are removed from predators and other dangers. Any opinions or thoughts would be welcome.

***Last side note--I am seeing adult monarchs regularly as I visit various milkweed patches in Duluth, MN.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Duluth, MN

Latitude: 47.1 Longitude: -91.9

Observed by: Tom
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