Date: 09/07/2019

Number: 360

On September 6 evening, the weather was beautiful and we only found 9 monarchs roosting at South Bass island's lighthouse grounds. But that all changed on September 7th.

Daven, Maya, Jayden and I monitored monarchs all day on South Bass island on the 7th. The morning started off cool with a few rain clouds in the distance. I hoped the weather might make monarchs take cover on the island. But as it warmed up, I became more doubtful.

We headed over to Gibraltar island to visit Cooke's Castle and Stone Lab. Monarchs were sailing over the water, and we watched them fly across the island at tree top level in a southwest direction. We saw 9 monarchs on the 6-acre island in 2 hours time. It made me hopeful, so after we returned to South Bass island, we headed for the lighthouse grounds.

We found 260 monarchs scattered along the driveway next to the treeline, and 100 more nectaring in the sunflower field! They were scattered in clusters of 2-4 dozen all along the drive, mostly in the hackberry trees about 15-25 feet up.

I spotted a tagged monarch, but my aging Rebel camera managed only blurry pictures in the low light. I handed Maya my Nikon Coolpix, and begged her to try to get a photo of the tag code--she has far better eyesight than me. She did it! A couple riding their bikes came over, and we recruited them to help. Robert is a birder, and he ran to get his binoculars from his car parked at the ferry. He and Daven found another tagged monarch, but we couldn't make out the code.

Nevertheless, it was quite fun! We met some new monarch friends, Robert and Eileen, and got one tag code. It may be months before we find out where the monarch was tagged, but I hope we find out sooner!

I never tire of chasing monarchs.

Put In Bay, OH

Latitude: 41.6 Longitude: -82.8

Observed by: candy
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.