Date: 03/30/2018

Number: 18

There continues to be a lot of monarch activity here. There is flying & chasing, fluttering & laying eggs, mating, nectaring, and sun-basking.

At 9:30am it was 60 degrees F, sunny, breezy, and 67% humidity. I watched a female monarch nectaring on a Yellow Thistle (Cirsium horridulum). She was very content and happy doing this ... but a male monarch sailed nearby and she went on alert. Quickly, she flew to the fence line and hid herself by the dense blackberry vines. He missed seeing her and she waited (resting in the warm sunlight) about 5 minutes. When she felt all was clear, she proceeded to flutter very slowly & low over the pasture looking for milkweed.

It got to the low 70's today and was a beautiful Good Friday. The monarchs did a lot of nectaring. The nectar plants are flowering milkweed, pink primroses, false garlic (still some around), lyre-leaf sage (very abundant), Indian paintbrush, and of course that all-time favorite: Yellow and Purple Thistles ~ the powerhouses of nectar sources.

This is a photo of that early-bird female monarch as she nectars from a juicy Yellow Thistle to energize and warm up for her busy day egg-laying.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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