Date: 07/19/2015

Number: 100

My brother is a charter boat captain off the shores of Lake Michigan in Kenosha, WI (SE Wisconsin).  Every fall he will call me and tell me he sees monarchs flying westward as he is out on the boat.  Today (7/19/15) he called and said he saw at least 100+monarchs flying directly west between 1:00 pm  and 5:00 pm. They didn't stop on the boat for a rest but flew high and with a purpose just like they do in the fall. He normally sees this behavior in the fall as they fly over the lake and also in the afternoons and that was happening today.  He was 12 miles out from shore.  Any thoughts?  My brother helps to raise the monarch so I trust everything he said.  He said there was also another butterfly alone with the Monarchs flying south.  A maroon and black but smaller in size. 

This morning (7/20/15) my parents who also live in Kenosha went down to the lakefront to see if there were monarchs roosting and they found none.  Usually in the fall, monarchs will line the trees along the shores because of the tough flight over. Later they did find three monarchs roosting high in a Linden tree sunning themselves at 6 AM today . There is not a lot of nectar there so they probably would have crossed the lake yesterday getting in later last night.

I live near Milwaukee WI (also SE Wisconsin) and until this week have only seen one or two monarchs.  Now it seems they are everywhere.  Kids and I probably collected 30 eggs yesterday.

Editor's Note: We checked the weather and there was a west wind all afternoon.  Perhaps earlier in the day the monarchs had been blown out over the water -- to the east by the west wind -- and were flying westward in attempt to return to land.

Lake Michigan, WI

Latitude: 42.6 Longitude: -87.6

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