Date: 04/22/2018

Number: 11

This was a beautiful monarch Sunday. It started off cloudy and overcast after the thunderstorms the night before ~ but slowly and steadily it became a day without a cloud in a blue, blue sky.

At 12 noon it was 60 degrees F, breezy, partly cloudy, with 71% humidity. I did not see monarchs at this time.

By 2:15 it was 64 degrees F, mostly sunny, breezy, with 61% humidity. From this point on I began to see monarchs ~ flying, resting, and nectaring. The favorite nectar plants were Self-heal flowers (abundant), Prairie plantains (abundant), flowering Roughleaf dogwood trees (abundant), and my one potted Raspberry butterfly bush in the front yard.

It was wonderful to see so many monarchs throughout the day flying, floating, and and sailing about ~ the males getting into aerial skirmishes over territory. Not sure if there were any female monarchs.

By 5:30pm it had warmed up to 71 degrees F and was sunny, with 50% humidity and winds out of the NNW at 7mph. During the late afternoon/early evening there was a lot of nectaring going on. There was one particular flowering Roughleaf dogwood tree (Cornus drummondii) that was getting the most attention from bees, monarchs, and other butterflies. At one point I saw four monarchs nectaring here at the same time, sometimes squabbling between themselves, sometimes, sometimes contending with the other nectarees. This is a photo of one of the monarchs as he nectars from the tiny, cream-colored flowers of the Roughleaf dogwood tree in the late afternoon sunlight.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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