Date: 09/10/2016

Number: 150

I found this roost at Glacier Creek Preserve (GCP), 14810 State Street, Bennington NE (suburb of Omaha). GCP is owned by Univ. of Nebr. at Omaha (UNO) and is about 430 acres of restored prairie, cropland, with an educational facility/field lab called The Barn.

Photos were shot over two days: 10 Sept 2016 from 19:00 to 19:20 and on 11 Sept 2016 from 18:40 to 19:15.

Conditions on 10 Sept: A beautiful sunny day in mid 60's with winds from 4-10 mph. Wind direction N to WNW. Visibility about 10 miles. Overnight in low 50's. The day before, 09 Sept, we had a huge rain storm with wind gusts up to 30 mph.

Conditions on 11 Sept: Temperature in mid 70's. Wind 10-15 mph with gusts to 25 mph. Wind direction South. Visibility about 10 miles. Overnight temps in mid 50's.

The location is in a treeline with restored prairie on one side and corn/soybean cropland on the other. The prairie side supports all their favourite nectar sources. They moved around the trees to protect from wind. Many branches averaged 15-20 or more of resting monarchs. Over several trees at least 150+ not counting all the ones you couldn't see because they looked like dead leaves.

On these same two days I also saw smaller swarms of monarchs on my farmstead about 4 miles west of Glacier Creek Preserve. At the farm the monarchs were roosting in a treeline that has corn/beans on one side and clover pasture on the other side. I had about 50 in this area. In the gardens at the farmhouse, the monarchs were showing preference for white allium flowers.

Glacier Creek Preserve, NE

Latitude: 41.3 Longitude: -96.1

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