Date: 09/03/2019

Number: 80

I was lucky enough to see 2 roosts this evening, one had about 30 and one 50 butterflies, with more fluttering around.

Editor's note: contacted observer for more details on this sighting

It was about 7-730 pm when I was observing the roosts. I had noticed at least 20 monarchs fluttering around about 530-6.

The wind was NW that day (9/3) and the roosts were on the south facing side of a stand of trees, so they would've been wind protected and facing the clearing of our yard for morning sun. I took some pictures with my phone which was how I was able to count them. There were a few additional small clusters of maybe 5 butterflies each I saw in the morning on different nearby branches. Large silver maple trees if that matters, on the edge of our grove which is a thick stand of large trees.

We have an 11 acre hobby farm here, so a large yard with a lot of flowers I've planted specifically for nectar. I love butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds so try to give them a good habitat. There are goldenrod, coneflowers, monarda, black eyed Susan, ox eye sunflowers, zinnia, Cosmo, and 4 o'clock blooming now in addition to whatever wild weeds, clover etc.

The nights have been pretty cool, in the 50s. I didn't see any roosts the next night in the same trees. Not sure if they moved on, possible as light NW breeze yesterday, or picked a different tree as we have many.

Bricelyn, MN

Latitude: 43.6 Longitude: -93.8

Observed by: Sarah
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