Date: 07/29/2020

Number: 50

At 8:30 AM State Park Volunteer Naturalist Jim was taking a walk through Cherry Creek State Park when he came upon a large field of blooming A. incarnata. He contacted me to say that he made a conservative estimate of 50 monarchs; some flying around, others nectaring. I arrived at 2:00 PM to confirm identification. There were also Queens, Viceroys, black swallowtails, and whites.
The monarchs far outnumbered the other species. Jim said that the quantity of monarchs had decreased a lot between morning and afternoon. While I was there, I counted 9 monarchs/ 5 minutes. There is abundant A. speciosa in the area, too. We observed many monarchs flying into the nearby Russian olive trees, and believe that they had roosted in those trees overnight. That could explain why Jim saw so many monarchs earlier in the day; perhaps they were leaving their roosting site as the temperature warmed. My photo shows two monarchs mating in a nearby olive tree.

Aurora, CO

Latitude: 39.6 Longitude: -104.8

Observed by: Pamela
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