Date: 10/01/2017

Number: 100

Must have had 100 migrating monarchs pass thru my yard today.
So exciting to see them.
Ten years ago I saw thousands migrating along the NH coastline, but I have never seen that many in my yard.
About 2-5 at a time on the dahlia patchs.
They must be having a successful year
and so might make a come back.
Hope they survive the winter.

The painted lady butterflies where migrating with them.

They did not care if I was right next to them.
They just wanted to get to my red dahlias for feeding.
The bees and monarchs and painted ladies were competing over the dahlias.
They did not care about me or my camera at all. Just on their mission to eat and go.

They came from the north and over the trees in the back yard.
I saw a couple drop from the sky like a leaf to the lawn to save energy and get up and fly to the flowers.

They were in good shape, a few little scratches on wings and one has a hole in her wing, but didn’t effect her flight.

As the sun was going down, the shadow from the house was on half of the dahlias, so they mainly stayed on the sunny flowers.
Must taste better warmed by the sun
plus they fly better when they are warm (not under 50 degrees)
and then numbers went down to 1 or 2
and then one sunned himself on a maple tree leaf and
finally they must have gone to roost in a tree some place.

They will probably be back for the next week.

Portsmouth, NH

Latitude: 43.1 Longitude: -70.8

Observed by: Denise
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.