Date: 09/08/2018
Number: 1000
Pelee Island Bird Observatory is quite busy with field research and not free to make reports. But they are reporting seeing thousands of monarchs this past weekend on their Facebook page. "Innumerable monarchs" showed up on West Beach on 9-8-18, staying 3 days before leaving their roosts. Here are some comments from their Facebook posts:
"On September 6th the wind finally shifted to the north and we started to see some new migrants. Thirty-one birds of 10 species were banded and a total of fifty species was recorded. There were quite a few Swainson’s Thrushes and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers in the netting area and a late Yellow Warbler was observed among a group of warblers on the census. Migratory Bald Eagles are coming through the area too.
On September 7th we heard numerous flight calls of thrushes flying over when we got out of the car at Fish Point. We banded 86 birds of 17 species (41.25 net hours) including the fall’s first Gray-cheeked Thrush and Purple Finch. A total of 66 species were recorded including 17 warbler species, a Swamp Sparrow, and a Hudsonian Godwit during the standard count period.
The wind got stronger and gusted up to 20 knots today, September 8th. We opened nets for a couple of hours and observed some Gray-cheeked and other thrushes, but decided not to bother the birds under the bad weather conditions. Trees were squeaking above us everywhere. Census was done as usual, but more than that, there were innumerable Monarchs in the sky and tree branches at the west beach! At the same time there were millions of stable flies at the tip and they started circling around me on my way back.
(photo: Monarch Butterfly)
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1742826595815268&id=334082646689677
Also a post stating: "We banded 93 birds of 14 species this morning including 35 Swainson’s and six Gray-cheeked Thrushes - 2.4 birds/net hour! There were lots of Red-breasted Nuthatches, Black-throated Blue Warblers and Ovenbirds. A Wilson’s and a Western Palm Warbler were new for the season. A total of 57 species were recorded during the standard count period.
For the last two days we couldn’t open nets, but the census was done and 36 species were recorded, including 10 warbler species, on the 8th and a total 47 species, including 11 warbler species, on the 9th.
The thousands of Monarchs waited almost three days for better wind conditions at Fish Point. They finally started flying around and going up high once the sun showed up. Lots of them were moving over the lake. I didn’t see any dead Monarchs from the bad weather on my census during these three days, which reminded me how important the mature forest can be for sheltering many different creatures during bad weather conditions. Good luck to the Monarchs!
(photo: Monarchs - It was hard to take a photo!)" https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1746369222127672&id=334082646689677
Pelee Island Bird Observatory, ON
Latitude: 41.8 Longitude: -82.7
Observed by: candy
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