Date: 08/04/2019

Number: 69

Evening of August 4th 2019
At the TIP at Point Pelee National Park
7pm-8:30pm sunset at 8:46 pm
25°c & humid, partly cloudy with very light breeze
Both east & west sides of the Tip are calm/glassy
From the moment I exited my car at Tip parking lot there was a Monarch! The sightings continued all over west path/shoreline, Monarchs nectaring on Sweet Clover & Thistle, flitting over path, down path to Tip, 2, 4 dancing over west path & over sandy shoreline.
So much activity for this early in August.
An hour & a half of non-stop activity.
Counted 69 (prior evening same time frame there were 5) but counted only those coming from the north going toward the Tip assuming I had already counted those returning from the Tip going up west path back north. There easily could have been more than the 69 reported. There was a system of thunder showers that arrived earlier north of the park from the NW possibly accounting for the higher than normal number.
Did not observe any continue south over Lake Erie. That rarely occurs that late in the day.(Maybe up to 2 hrs before sunset.)
Did observe a few fly out a short distance to the west over the lake but returned to shoreline trees.
Monarchs only briefly settled on trees, Hackberry & Hop & on bare tree branches. Interesting that most were male. All Monarchs appeared somewhat fresh. Did not see any faded/torn like the activity throughout the day at our home outside of the park which remains normal with 2-4, patrolling males & females laying eggs.
Did not locate any clusters however a few did fly into interior trees. Unable to view due to inaccessibility to east side due to high water level.
I observed similar activity with a count of 100 back on evening of July 21st, again a high # for July compared to previous years.

https://youtu.be/yu15wSnbZUA
More photos at- https://www.facebook.com/PeleeParadiseSanctuaryMonarchWaystation10275/

Point Pelee National Park, ON

Latitude: 41.9 Longitude: -82.5

Observed by: Darlene
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