Date: 09/06/2020

Number: 22

Not a large roost, but it's a start.

The roost we saw was at my sister's home (just down the road from my home) on Sunday, September 6th around 6 pm. She said that they had seen "about 20" butterflies the day before (September 5th), but they hadn't noticed them before the 5th.

We estimated the number. There was nine in a tree and others flitting around. I didn't think to take a picture because I ran home to get my Monarch Watch tags. We were able to tag eight of them. If you'd like the tag #'s, they were ACJJ105-112.

The temperatures here were crazy. The high temp was 91 degrees that day around 3 pm, 68 degrees at 1 am, and 59 degrees around 5 am.

The wind (breeze) was from the south. The butterflies were on the north side along a east-west treeline, so they were shielded.

We've had roosts around us a number of times before. We've seen numerous ones each fall for the last three years (once we started looking!). I submitted other roosts last year and included a photo or two.

We were very happy to see the roost, however small it was, last night. We lost so many trees in the derecho that hit Iowa in August, we wondered if we'd see them again.

Marion, IA

Latitude: 42.1 Longitude: -91.7

Observed by: Janna
Contact Observer

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