Date: 03/13/2019

Number: 14

Strong front blew in this morning. Winds for last two days had been strongly out of the south.
Winds out of north now with a clear blue sky.

Noon Monarch flitting quickly in my yard West Austin. Too quick for anything except ID.
1:00 Monarch in East Austin at 10th street near downtown.
2:15 Monarchs (2) in North Austin at Rundberg and IH35
2:30 Monarch in Far West Austin at Spicewood Springs and HWY 183.
3-5 Monarch (3), in Far West Austin at Skyflower
5-6:30 Monarchs (2) at Mesa drive north of Far West Blvd.

I’m forgetting exactly where, but my count for the afternoon was 14. Basically everywhere I drove this afternoon I saw singletons flitting. All were pretty faded. Not tattered.

The East Austin was very near downtown in a church parking lot, she was close to the ground and checked out, without landing a bunch of weeds growing around the edges.

The Mesa Drive were nectaring on a Bradford pear tree. I should say attempting to nectar. They landed, moved to another spot, then moved again before flitting off, but none really settled down. Is the flower attractive but nectar poor or non-existant? A few wasps but no honey bees. Lots of honey bees on a very nearby Redbud tree, but no monarchs. I wonder if the UV or color on the Bradford Pear is more to monarchs liking and less to the bees?

I looked for milkweed on Sunday along 360 at Westlake High School (one of my usual monitoring sites but I did not find any. I'll check another spot near Wild Basin on Saturday to see if I can find any there.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Austin, TX

Latitude: 30.3 Longitude: -97.7

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