Date: 04/01/2018

Number: 15

A beautiful Easter Sunday and the monarchs were adding their wonderful grace and activities to the day! Around 10am I saw a male monarch nectaring from the abundant Lyre-Leaf Sage (Salvia Lyrata) wildflowers that cover our yard right now. He went from flower to flower hanging on and nectaring very acrobatically at times. By 10:30 it was 72 degrees F, with a mix of sun and clouds, breezy, with humidity at 74%. There is always a lot of dew in the mornings for the monarchs to sip off of the grass, plants, and trees.

As I went down into the pastures I briefly followed a female who was laying eggs and at times resting and sunning ~ holding her wings at the perfect angle and letting them gently open and close. I could see multiple monarchs across the pasture flying about. I also observed a very faded and tattered-winged male nectaring on milkweed flowers. I have been seeing more monarchs lately with quite damaged wings ~ though many I see are relatively bright and some just faded.

At around 1:30 I went out again and saw at least 8 individual monarchs at the same time. They are especially seen flying around the areas where the Yellow and Purple Thistles are blooming (singular ones and sometimes in groups of three or four) ~ nectaring from them, defending them, getting in air tussles because of them, using them as capture points for females, and generally considering them a central axis of activity. At this time the temperature was 76 degrees F, still partly cloudy, breezy, with 56% humidity.

At 2:15pm I walked down into the pastures and followed another female as she lay eggs on many milkweed plants ~ some of which is still emerging freshly and some of which is in the blooming stage. At the same time I observed at least 3 males making their swooping circuits, flying low over milkweed, sometimes circling me ~ with me as usual hoping they don't notice the egg-laying female I am trying to photograph!

Later, I continued my weekend survey of milkweed, eggs, and larvae. It was a happy surprise to find that the area that had been flooded on April 28th, now had many newly laid eggs and also quite a few 1st instars ~ meaning that some of the eggs that had been underwater had gone on to mature and hatch successfully.

This is a photo of the male monarch that was sipping nectar from the Lyre-Leaf Sage flowers early this morning ~ a wonderful Easter blessing!

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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