Date: 09/12/2016

Number: 20

Monday morning, Sept 12, I was at the Dave Huerkamp residence/ranch and was lucky enough to notice several butterflies flitting about in two willow trees. My photos aren't great, but when I examined them closely, it appears that some of the butterflies may have been viceroys.........I am not sure if viceroys are found west of the rockies, but two of them appeared to have the crossing line on the lower wing.
Others, at least 20, were definitely monarchs, though.
Temps were near 80 and the butterflies were nervously moving from place to place. One actually rose with the thermals and headed south.
As Dave Huerkamp suggested, they almost certainly follow the river basin all the way to California, since crossing the surrounding mountain ridges would put them in temperatures too cold for them to fly.
It was the best western monarch experience I have had, and I wish I could report more, but I flew back to Wisconsin later in the day and Dave wasn't able to say if there was a roost that night at his place.

Delta, CO

Latitude: 38.7 Longitude: -108

Observed by: Pat
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