Date: 03/13/2018

Number: 2

This is a photo of a female monarch nectaring on false garlic flowers (Nothoscordum bivalve) ~ she must have taken sips from at least fifty of these as I spent time near her this afternoon.

I had first started following another female monarch, who was scouting for milkweed, but I came upon this female who was resting on a very small milkweed plant. She caught my attention as she was in a small patch of newly emerged/just emerging milkweed and I could see that some of these had fresh eggs (the day before I had checked this group and there had been no eggs).

She was very sweet and was alternately resting, sun-bathing, nectaring on false garlic, and laying a few more eggs. I spent about an hour and a half just being with her. She would sit on the milkweed or on the ground nearby where her eggs were laid just resting for 15 minutes, then flying from flower to flower for 10 minutes, taking sips of nectar while the tiny flowers and long stems tilted with her weight. Oftentimes, she was hanging upside-down as she nectared. After her foray to get needed nourishment, she would sometimes browse to find a milkweed (not many yet) and lay an egg, then return to the same small patch of milkweed to rest and sunbathe.

At one point the other female monarch came flying past zig-zagging low over the grass, but she passed by and flew into the nearby woods. Me and the resting monarch just sat in the sun.

Like yesterday, today was a cool, dry, clear, blue-sky day. This afternoon it was around 65 degrees F, lightly breezy, brightly sunny, and around 30% humidity.

I am glad that there is such an abundance of false garlic flowers right now, thousands in our pasture and yard alone, but I also see a lot in the ditches and fields in our area. It is an easily overlooked but important nectar source for these early monarchs.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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