Date: 05/05/2018

Number: 1

Flew past me while I was rock climbing about 150 feet up the cliff, at roughly 6pm.

Although I'm not 100% positive it wasn't a Viceroy, I'm an ornithologist and am also very familiar with our local butterflies. I did check to make sure there wasn't the characteristic black line as it was flying past, and I didn't see one, although it's possible I may have missed it. I even looked for the black dots to sex it, and didn't see any, so in my mind it was a female monarch. It was also flying in the floaty way of a monarch.

I was rock climbing on a cliff about 150-200 feet off the ground, although I was at the anchor point on a ledge and looking out. But I didn't have any photography equipment up there with me as you might imagine.

Of course as a scientist I tend to err on the side of caution, so even though I'm 99% sure it was a monarch, I don't want to say I'm 100% positive. I did look at your monarch ID page, and leaf-out is still in the early stages up there (great for spotting birds!), so that would make it a bit too early for an adult Viceroy. Are there data for how high Viceroys typically fly? I was well above the canopy (although there is vegetation at the top of the cliff), and the butterfly was flying past in a straight line. So that may be another helpful clue.

I don't live in that area, I live in NYC (leaf-out just occurred here in full force with the few hot days we had last week), so I'm not sure what the status is of milkweed around there.

Gardiner, NY

Latitude: 41.7 Longitude: -74.2

Observed by: Ariane
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