Date: 03/22/2019

Number: 1

Something ate it. I found it in my garden, although my milkweed doesn't seem to be up yet.

What struck me about it was how fresh the wings were -- this adult was not very old. I could see that the bird that ate it had come up underneath from an angle and gotten the abdomen and broken all four wings, which were still there on the ground. So I think it had not been there very long. (I know it was not there the day before, because I had been working in that bed.) It rained that night and now the wings are not there and it looks all beaten up. So it was not sitting there all winter.

We regularly have freezing weather here in the winter and had snow just a couple of weeks ago; I don't think they overwinter alive here!

Our weather in Tulsa really warmed up on Monday the 18th and it was pretty warm -- into the 70's during the day and probably not below 40 at night all week. Lots of question marks have been active, but I think they do overwinter here. There were thunderstorms with local high winds the night of the 20th but from the West, not the South, and it wasn't bad here. That system had a little tornado warning in the SW of Oklahoma so its motion would have been generally SW to NE.

I have A. syriaca, A. viridis, A curassavica, and A. tuberosa planted and none of it was up yet, although now I see a shoot and I see that someone reported some shoots a couple of days ago in Sand Springs, which is very near here, so it's likely some is up nearby. There are a lot of plants blooming, however, including my fruit trees, hyacinths, vinca minor, and pansies. This was close to the latter.

I was surprised to see it ahead of other observations, but (1) I was outside a lot all week because of break, and; (2) I have in the past tagged monarchs so it's something I'm more likely to notice and more likely to report than many other people. I have never seen one flying around in March before, and haven't seen another one.

Tulsa, OK

Latitude: 36.2 Longitude: -96

Observed by: Anne
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