Date: 09/17/2014

Number: 287

Pulled in the driveway at 5:00PM, weather sunny 18C light SW wind and saw one monarch in the usual flight path we have been observing this year (south). And then they kept on coming; over the roof of our ranch-style house; down the side yard; across the abutting soybean field; even through the intersection of Essex County Road 46 (our road) and County Road 19 (Manning Road) in ones, twos and threes! Many were flying just above our heads; I could have reached out and touched them! We stood at the end of our driveway and just kept counting. A very small number stopped to nectar on Red Clover in an empty field across the street to the south; most just kept on going. At about 6:15 I noticed some starting to roost on the east side of a large cottonwood tree abutting the soybean field to the north of our 1 acre yard (separate report) but many more kept going. We have lived here 20 years and I have never witnessed anything like this! Where were they coming from; there are no significant natural areas to the north of us? The MacDonald Cartier Freeway (Highway 401) is to the north and the Ministry of Transportation to their credit, has for many years now left the substantial verges as a natural regeneration area and I have noticed lots of Common Milkweed and native nectar sources there. Could they all have come from there? Could Manning Road which bisects the county just west of us have acted like a barrier to channel them here? Look out Ohio here they come!

Migration Rate: 191 per hour

Maidstone, ON

Latitude: 42.2 Longitude: -82.9

Observed by: Laura
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