Date: 08/22/2018

Number: 1016

A major monarch butterfly migration has occurred at Michigan's Harrisville State Park with 1,000 monarchs counted in six hours and 15 minutes. I had gone out of my house at 11:30 AM to release a monarch that I raised and observed 16 monarchs on my Joe-pye-weed flowers. The wind was NNW at 16 mph, so on a hunch, I decided to station myself at my favorite spot along the Lake Huron beach. Here are the hour by hour counts from noon to 6:15 PM when a hard rain moved in:
Hour Observed
Noon to 1 PM 154
1 PM to 2 PM 216
2 PM to 3 PM 150
3 PM to 4 PM 188
4 PM to 5 PM 168
5 PM to 6 PM 105
6 PM to 6:15 PM 19
Total: 1,000
Plus 16 in yard: 16
Total overall: 1,016

I have never observed so many monarchs in one day in August since record keeping began in 2010. The best August before today was last year when I saw 140 for the whole month with 32 in one day on August 30, 2017.

Weather: Rained hard all day yesterday, August 21. Today it was mostly sunny with two layers of clouds; one moving from the NW high, and a lower cloud movement coming from the SE. At the beach the wind was NE gusting to 26 mph. Temperature at start was 61F. with high of 73F. at end of count.

Harrisville, MI

Latitude: 44.6 Longitude: -83.3

Observed by: Frank
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.