Date: 04/08/2017

Number: 100

Wow! The farm was really hopping yesterday (April 8). I saw about a dozen Monarchs in a couple of hours, patrolling, chasing, nectaring, and while covering only a fraction of the farm, found about 100 eggs and several young caterpillars. At least one cat was still eating its eggshell, and at least one egg was dark and about to hatch. Several plants had five or six eggs, one two-stem plant had seven. A large majority of plants in the front area, which had been mowed this winter had at least one egg, and many had two. Quite a few had three. The only Asclepias tuberosa I could find had six eggs on it. The rest were not accessible. Nobody wants to wade into the blackberry patch in high winds.

Milkweeds in the area that did not get mowed had fewer eggs. I suspect it is a matter of physical accessibility since we have tall thick prairie vegetation, and is something for me to remember.

One Monarch was nectaring from a Prairie Onion, Allium canadense var fraseri.

Some of the milkweeds look strange this year. Most of the Green Milkweeds are putting up just single stems now. I suspect the extra stems will follow shortly. A few were strangely attenuated (in full sun). A couple showed signs of leaf damage by some kind of critter that wasn't a Monarch, including a leaf miner. One plant had the big ragged holes in the leaves(not the way a Monarch cat eats them), and still had three fresh Monarch eggs on it.

Two males were patrolling territories. One I watched for about 20 minutes rested on oak leaves and then took flight and chased everything that came near, including lots of smaller butterflies that were not Monarchs. After the little butterflies were vanquished he would take a couple of slow laps up and down the treeline and then return to a resting place with a good view.

My "colossal" Waystation was really doing its job yesterday.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Gainesville, TX

Latitude: 33.6 Longitude: -97.1

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