Date: 09/14/2014

Number: 229

I just got to my office after doing two of my weekly butterfly counts at local tallgrass prairies, and it was obvious that the crest of the migration wave was passing through Omaha today. The weather conditions were very good: sunny, upper 60's, winds very light & variable (although mainly from the west/southwest). The numbers observed were incredible. Both of my transects are about two miles around. At one prairie, I counted 79, almost all in directional migratory flight or nectaring. At the other prairie, I counted 150! By contrast, my peak daily numbers for the equivalent migration period last year were 8 and 12, respectively.

A lot were nectaring; here's the flowers they were on: Tall Thistle – 92, Rigid Goldenrod – 47, Canada Goldenrod – 23, Azure Aster – 2.

There were also a lot in my backyard at home this morning, on the zinnias and buddleia.

There are also quite a few Painted Ladies at the moment, and the skies were full of migrating green darner dragonflies.

An amazing day!

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Omaha, NE

Latitude: 41.3 Longitude: -95.9

Observed by:
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