Date: 08/21/2017

Number: 6

Change In Monarch Population this Weekend - East of Toronto

Went down to Northumberland County this weekend and unlike two weeks ago when I captured 114 monarchs - only 18 of which were female - and all were new and pristine, this weekend there were very few newly hatched monarchs and in the two large agricultural fields I visited which were filled with hundreds if not thousands of young tender milkweed plants, the vast majority of monarchs were egg laying females. Found many eggs and small caterpillars but only a couple of larger caterpillars. Saw 3 mating pairs.

The above being said, I was returning from a Hamilton area butterfly trip yesterday and taking a route north to our Hwy. 401 expressway through city streets about 4:30 pm when a solo monarch - pristine in appearance - was flying directly west across the street towards the sun. Only one, but such directional flight is typical of migrants here in the fall.

Newtonville, ON

Latitude: 44 Longitude: -78.5

Observed by:
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