Date: 09/13/2014

Number: 400

Saw about 400 monarchs roosting near the lighthouse grounds on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. See story and photos here.

It was cold Saturday. On the lighthouse grounds, the car thermometer read upper 50s during most of the afternoon/evening. The night the roosts formed (9/13/14), it was miserably cold all day, steady winds of 5-10 mph, and earlier in the day they were 20-30 mph. The windchill had to be much lower than mid-50s when we first arrived to the island at around 11:30 am. We very quickly drove by the sunflower field, little activity, just a few monarchs nectaring in the sunflowers that we could see from the car. We did not check the private drive at that time. We had lunch and then went to Jackie's, etc. When we returned to the lighthouse grounds around 3pm, the roosts were visibly beginning to form. It was upper 50s.

It wasn't hard to spot the roosts. I just watched nectaring monarchs exit the sunflower field, and followed them as they flew toward the trees along the private drive. Lone monarchs would fly up to the trees, then fly horizontally along the treeline until they spotted other monarchs. The lone monarch would then attempt to settle in--sometimes the receiving cluster did not move; other times cluster members "flashed" the new arrival, but stayed put; other times the cluster broke up, everybody scattered/flew about 5-10 ft, then they all circled back and regrouped together back on the tree branches.

Kasey was on the lighthouse grounds, where it was still windy. You can see the tree branches moving in his video, whereas the other video was made on the private drive where it was much calmer. I did video all the roosts along the whole length of the drive, but did not post the video--it is long, I couldn't zoom in well with Kasey's cameraphone, and I am hesitant to reveal too much to the public.

I had a hard time photographing them at first. The crunching noise my feet made on the gravel path was scaring them, and monarchs in the lower bushes kept taking to the air as I got within 10-15 ft of them, then they quickly resettled in the same area. It took about a half hour for them to get comfortable with my presence. Along the private drive, there was no breeze (leeward side of tree line), it felt slightly warmer, and was quiet. Birds were beginning to roost too. Most of the monarch roosts formed between 3-4 pm, some monarchs did move higher in the canopy until about 6:30 pm, trying to catch remaining rays of sunlight that still hit the tops of the trees. They were in apple trees, honeysuckle bushes, and really any protected tree/bush along that treeline. But most settled in about 15--30 feet off the ground, in common hackberry with red maple around http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/hackberry.html. They were settled in by 7pm, it was 52F on the car thermometer at that time, parked at the lighthouse grounds.

The next morning it was quite cool. They did not leave the roosts in significant numbers until the temp reached 57F. Then many nectared in the sunflower field and along the cliffs next to the water. When we returned later in the evening, most all were gone. Just a few tiny roosts left.

Put-in-Bay, OH

Latitude: 41.7 Longitude: -82.8

Observed by: candy
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