Date: 10/04/2014

Number: 250

Overnight temp 54. High 80. Very low humidity. South wind. Light in the morning, growing stronger throughout day. No successful directional flight. Any that went high were blown north rapidly. A few seemed to work south using trees and shrubs as windbreaks, but mad elittle progress. .

I’m entering this as peak migration because of numbers, but this is likely not the actual peak, which has occurred in the Oct 11 to Oct 18 window in past years. And JN reports show many still further north. Note that this count is at least partly additive to the roost repot for the same day.

Monarchs on every liatris patch I checked, plus several other flower types. I saw about 250 directly. Density varied too much for me to do an estimate based on known area of liatris. But I would be uncomfortable estimating twice the direct count.

Direct counting is more challenging than usual this year. Liatris emerges in the spring, but doesn’t bloom until mid-Sep through Oct. Stalks stay 12-18 inches most of the year, but grow taller if moisture is available in September. This year September was dry, so many are relatively short. On the other hand we got huge rain in June and above average in July, which is ideal timing for Prairie grasses, so grasses have grown as uniformly tall as I can recall. The shortest species, Little Bluestem is 3-4 feet tall. So Liatris, and Monarchs on it, are concealed.

The first picture is shows of the tougher examples. Monarch on Liatris in Little Bluestem. It’s not the toughest case of course, since the sun is lighting his wings. The second picture is a liatris patch that happens to be in the open, and apparently has local soil moisture. Even this is not too easy to count. A few Monarchs are clearly visible. But close inspection shows at least 15, most in shadow or partly hidden. There are probably more out of view.

Chalk Mountain, TX

Latitude: 32.1 Longitude: -97.9

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