Date: 09/06/2020

Number: 200

With two cool nights, with temperatures dropping to 12 C or 54 F, followed by bright sunny days and strong westerly winds, followed by a cold front that brought rains, thunder,and lighning, monarchs were on the move in the Port Hope, Ontario, area, along the north shore of Lake Ontario - about 100 km east of Toronto. The monarchs were "flightly", easily disturbed or startled into flight from nectar sources, and clearly moving with an urgency to both feed and migrate. Clear directional flight westward was obvious, stopping to feed, but if disturbed would either circle back and try landing again on the flowering plant, or take off in a westerly direction, sometimes flying very high in the sky. It was most interesting to see how these monarchs manoevered and soared (as opposed to flapping their wings) in the strong winds, tacking back to a nectar source. On September 5th, I tagged 104 monarchs. In the photo attached to this report, there were about 200 monarchs at the top of this tree. There may have been other nearby roosts. Photo was taken just before sunset - about 7:30 pm EDT. Based on past experience, I suspect that this week may be the peak of the migration for 2020 and when we observe the highest number of migrating monarchs.

Port Hope, ON

Latitude: 43.9 Longitude: -78.3

Observed by: Donald A.
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