Date: 09/13/2015

Number: 400

I spent the weekend on South Bass island in Lake Erie.

I joined my good friends, naturalists Jackie Taylor and Sandi Glauser, at the Lake Erie Islands Nature and Wildlife Center, where we hosted our annual Open House event on Saturday morning. Our busiest year yet—I’m pooped. Over 1000 scouts in 3 hours…

The day started very early Saturday am. I arrived to South Bass island via the Miller Ferry at 7am. I immediately went to the lighthouse grounds to look for roosting monarchs. I only found six monarchs. I then went to the nature center, where friends and I did an open house event from 9am to noon. I then left my monarch displays at the nature center, and headed to the lighthouse grounds to join Nikki King, Leah and Ed from OSU for a monarch tagging program. Nikki, Leah and Ed helped visitors tag, while I worked in the garden and answered visitors' questions about the garden. I found 7 monarch larvae in the garden, ranging from 3rd to 5th instar--mostly 4ths. It was sunny, low 60s, slight wind from the north.

I then returned to the nature center and packed up my stuff just before closing. As I packed, I noted a cold and strong W/NW wind had moved in. The winds escalated considerably over the next few hours, forcing organizers to cancel the memorial flare event that evening. Waves crashed over the breakwall downtown, as over 1000 scouts huddled in tents on the grounds of Perry's monument. Temps were in the low 50s. I hoped the cold wind might bring in monarchs to roost for the night... see photos here https://www.flickr.com/photos/candy__kasey/albums/72157658600564135

After a cold, blustery night of howling WNW winds, I returned to the lighthouse grounds Sunday am to see if monarchs had dropped from the sky to roost overnight. I arrived before the sun was up, and watched as the east sky purpled with the morning light. It was 52F, winds WNW at 5-10 mph. At 6:45 am, I walked up to the hackberry trees, scanning the treeline for monarchs. I found 300, resting in clusters of 1-2 dozen, scattered throughout the treeline about 15-20 feet up. I used my flash to photograph them initially, and found a tagged monarch with code UNW 487. As the sun continued to rise, the clusters began to softly light up. I noted 100 more monarchs in the daylight, which I had not seen in the early dawn light. By 7:45 am, the sun was shining directly on some of the trees, and monarchs began to bask. When the sun's rays hit them enough to warm them sufficiently, they would burst from the trees in groups of around a dozen, flying just 10-20 feet from the trees before immediately circling back and landing on the trees--landing so they were further apart, and basking. More and more began to bask. The early morning light now created glare, and I was thankful I had come so early to photograph them when the lighting was softer. A total of 400 monarchs! See photos here https://www.flickr.com/photos/candy__kasey/albums/72157658183044290

On my way home, I drove route 2 along the southern shore of Lake Erie. I stopped at Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge to make a phone call to my mom, to check on my kids. What a blessing it was that I did so! I found ONWR had recently redesigned and installed 3 new butterfly gardens, loaded with A.s., A.i., and A.t. All certified as monarch waystations. The entryway garden had six 5th instars in the Ai., and I watched 4 viceroy nectaring on the rattlesnake master. Just too cool. https://www

Additional note (9/15/15): Turns out Jackie tagged it on the island the day before. Nuts, I had hoped it came from Canada.

Put-in-Bay, OH

Latitude: 41.7 Longitude: -82.8

Observed by: candy
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