Date: 09/19/2020

Number: 100

The roost is made up of several branch-fuels of monarchs in several trees across three backyards. I may be underestimating the number.

On 9/19, about 3pm, I noticed about 50 Monarchs on my Seven-sons Tree (counted by ones as best I could) nectaring.
The next morning 9/20 at 7am, a few butterflies were on the tree and others began to waft in from the tree line to the south. I realized they must be roosting nearby. I looked through the trees in my yard and the yards on either side of me and noticed clusters of Monarchs still roosting.

On 9/21 at 7am, I looked through the trees on my property and on the properties either side of me, and saw several individual clusters. I counted by ones as best I could and added them to the numbers in the air and on the tree. I think it is a low count, however, because today, at 7am, 9/22, walking further afield, I found more clusters behind other adjacent houses. It was cooler and dewy so they were later in flying.

I have a good-sized pollinator garden which is registered with MonarchWatch as a Monarch Waystation. It has several nectar plants but currently they seem to prefer the Seven-sons (Heptacodium miconioides). In the past I have tagged 100+ monarchs in my yard. The trees they roost the heaviest in are the Hackberries in back with a few clusters in some River Birch or Osage Orange. A few years back we had about 30 in some pine but they aren’t using that this year.

It hasn’t been very windy the last few days but they would definitely be shielded by the houses to the north, roosting on the north side of the tall trees to the south. Also, there are mature yard trees to the east and a few to the west, so it’s very protected.

Overland Park, KS

Latitude: 38.9 Longitude: -94.7

Observed by: Micky
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