Date: 09/06/2014

Number: 214

Allens Pond Census by the Mass Butterfly Club forwarded by Lauren Miller-Donnelly, MassAudubon South Coast Sanctuaries reported 214 monarchs at Allens Neck on Saturday, September 6th.

Location: 41.530, -71.01

Great turnout for yesterday's count (9/6/14).  It was foggy and wet to start off. After the group searched the Field Station quickly we decided to head to Allens Neck to check out the large fields on the grassland loop.  Once we
got there we started to see Monarchs sitting/resting and some nectaring in in the red clover/big bluestem dominated field. We walked through in a spread-out line and in the end we tallied 214 Monarchs, but I feel it was likely 300 considering we only walked though half.  We did see one female laying eggs at the start, and saw some large caterpillars. There is a lot of milkweed in these fields. With all the Monarchs and wet- vegetation that was quite a feat!

Grassland Loop is in bright green, just south of Allens Neck Road.  It’s a Monarch magnet with goldenrod and red clover abundant J I manage these fields for Grassland Birds, the field that they were in are restored warm-season grasses and red clover that are mown after Bobolink fledge ~ July 15th.  I believe a lot of the Monarchs were fresh from the region as these fields also host thousands of vigorously growing milkweed plants.

The sun then came out after lunch and it looks like a great list for Sylvan for the the afternoon.

Counts (monarchs only):

Field Station garden: 2 Monarch
Allens Neck: 214 Monarch
Sylvan Nursery: 5 Monarch

Westport, MA

Latitude: 41.5 Longitude: -71

Observed by:
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.