Date: 03/25/2020

Number: 12

We saw twelve along a local county road yesterday and counted two more this morning -one on the Texas side of Texarkana and the other on the Arkansas. Most were flying very low to the ground and the majority were headed ENE.

We saw the first group of 12 monarchs along AR Hwy 296 (locally known as Dooley Ferry Road) on Wednesday, March 25. It was one of the first sunny, warm day we have had in a long time. We started our drive at 12:30 PM and drove for about an hour. It was in the upper 60's when we left and the upper 70's by the time we got back. Dooley Ferry is an east/west road and most of the monarchs we saw we flying easterly along the ditches by the road. We were not able to get photos because they were all flying about 3 feet above the ground and would not stop - there are very few nectar plants for them to feed on along that area. All of the butterflies were very faded but looked healthy and were having no trouble flying. We saw the other two monarchs yesterday between 9 and 9:30 AM. One was flying along the west side of Summerhill Rd, in Texarkana, TX and the other was flying across Hwy 108 on the Arkansas side of Texarkana.

We have also seen Buckeye, Tiger Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, different Sulphurs and Red Admirals in our area.

We do have milkweed growing in our area and have been checking for eggs but have not found any.

We know the butterflies we saw on Wednesday and Thursday were monarchs because we have been tagging monarchs since 1997 and have had 15+ tags recovered. We both taught for 42 years and during that time discovered Journey North while searching on line for lessons to use in the classroom built around monarchs.

Texarkana, AR

Latitude: 33.5 Longitude: -94

Observed by: Anita
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