Date: 03/24/2019

Number: 8

Counted 8 monarchs flying along a Miller County farm road. Most were flying in a northerly direction and were low to the ground. Were not able to get photos or determine if they were male or female. All but one of the butterflies looked healthy and fairly new except one - it was much more faded than the others. They appeared to be looking for either nectar plants or milkweed. There are several early spring plants blooming in the area but we have not seen any native milkweed sprouting.

We didn't leave our house until about 5:00 PM. We saw the monarchs in about a 45 minute span driving very slowly along the north/south part of a small county road and then onto a farm road that passes a friend's land. The first parts of the road run east to west but we didn't see any of the monarchs until we reached the parts that run north to south. Those parts of the road are bordered by trees on the east side - the butterflies were flying along just above the road and the grass along the sides of the road. There are some early spring wildflowers blooming but the monarchs didn't seem to want to nectar from them. No signs of native milkweed yet. Hope to see more monarchs soon and hopefully find some milkweed we can report - like most of the country our weather has been strange this winter and into spring.

We went back to the Miller Count road where we saw the monarchs yesterday (3/24/19) afternoon to see if there might be some more that we could get photos of. We were able to count 13 monarchs in the same area. Most of these had ventured out into a sunny patch on the north side of the road that runs east to west and were feeding on Henbit. Most of the monarchs we saw today were faded and had a few worn spots on their wings compared to the ones we saw yesterday. The one we got the best picture of is a male. We are attaching a picture of one of today’s monarchs (3/25/19) from so you can compare it to other pictures you have received.

Texarkana, AR

Latitude: 33.6 Longitude: -93.9

Observed by: Anita
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