Date: 03/21/2018

Number: 50

There are many monarchs at the Convention Center, South Padre Island

We saw Monarchs all through the morning. They were fighting a strong wind from the southeast, but seemed to be determined to fly into the wind rather than with it. They were coming onto the island from the Laguna Madre /bay side, which is the opposite direction they should be going. Some are bright, but some are tattered. They were going to nectar where they could find it, which were the trees planted around the building.

We also saw many dead monarchs on the gulf side of the island, and collected some that we will be sending to Chip Taylor for one of his studies.

If there is Milkweed on the island, it will be at the Birding Center, which we did not get to yesterday, but plan to visit today. The Milkweed there will most likely be Tropical, but they did receive some grant money for a butterfly garden and hopefully put in some natives. Any other native milkweed would be growing in the dunes and inaccessible. We can check for eggs today.

We saw several Red Admirals, Gulf Fritillaries, and Swallowtails.

South Padre Island, TX

Latitude: 26.1 Longitude: -97.2

Observed by: Gracie
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