Date: 07/08/2019

Number: 2

The northeast side of the state of Michigan has a fraction of the milkweed that the Traverse City area has. My monarch hotspots in East Tawas and along Lake Huron shores are all underwater, due to high lake levels. But even so, there is little milkweed along the roadsides, and I remarked to my friends up here that it is a bit worrisome. They agreed, they used to see milkweed all the time, but now milkweed is found in small patches miles apart. I used to bring caterpillars up here to feed them in the summer during our vacation--I am glad that I didn't, I would be hard-pressed to find enough food for them. The milkweed is just gone.

We headed to the downtown Alpena harbor to take a walk along the breakwall. Years ago, I would routinely find mink and milkweed there. Feeling a bit dismayed over the lack of milkweed throughout the area, my heart leapt when I found a good-sized patch at the entrance to the walkway on the breakwall. We finished our walk, and as we returned to the boardwalk entrance, I looked over the railing to scan the milkweed and spotted the tell-tale signs of a 5th instar monarch larva. Piles of huge frass, relatively speaking. I squealed and pointed it out to Maya. As I took photos of the 5th instar at the top of the plant, Maya went over to the other side of the plant and found another 5th instar on it. We hadn't seen chew holes on the milkweed on the Lake Huron side of the breakwall, but the harbor side (leeward) milkweed had both monarch larvae. Of course, a smart mama monarch would prefer that wind-sheltered microclimate on the harbor side to lay her eggs!

I took tons of photos while Kasey and the kids headed to the nearby playground to play. As I took photos, one of the 5th instars wandered into the flower buds and began chomping away! It was cool to actually be able to photo-document this behavior, I have seen it before on butterflyweed but never gotten a good photo. I got both video and photos, and I was quite tickled.

As I snapped away, a young husky named Apollo ran up to greet me. The 10-week old pup played with me, as his mama excitedly photographed the monarch I pointed out to her. While she took pictures, Apollo's daddy and I talked about the lake levels. He told me that his grandparents had seen the lake high like this once, about 40 years ago. But the lake is now up 20 inches, and has been high for the past 3-4 years. Local officials are now considering installing floating docks in the small boar harbor.

Climate change is going to be costly.


Video of monarch 5th instar eating common milkweed flower bud https://youtu.be/SlTyZmgT87A

Alpena, MI

Latitude: 45.1 Longitude: -83.4

Observed by: candy
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