Date: 04/03/2017

Number: 12

Today was a beautiful day, especially after the wonderful, stormy day we had yesterday. On Sunday it had rained almost 3 inches and we had multiple tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings. Thankfully, we mostly got rain, wind, thunder and lightning. It did hail for about 10 minutes, pea-sized pellets and some quarter-sized flat discs. The hail was not too intense, so I think the monarchs and offspring were not in danger. But today dawned sunny and at 10:00am it was 63 degrees F, with humidity 70% and winds SW 6mph. I went around the pastures watching monarchs and checking milkweed for about 2 hours. It seemed wherever I wandered there was monarch activity. There was resting, egg-laying, males chasing females, and a lot of nectaring on wildflowers. The nectar plants included yellow thistle (Cirsium horridulum), showy primrose (Oenothera speciosa), Texas dandelion (Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus), prairie plantain (Cacalia plantaginea), and wild blackberry blossoms. At one point I followed the most delightful female monarch as she went about egg-laying and nectaring. She had quite worn & tattered wings and spent a lot of time sampling both the the pink showy primroses and the Texas dandelions. I could tell she and the other monarchs really needed the nourishment. It is good that our fields have an abundance of wildflowers. This is a photo of her deep in a showy primrose, also known as a "pink buttercup" because of the sticky butter-colored pollen inside.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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