Date: 09/21/2020

Number: 117

Wow! We have had monarchs roosting in the lower branches of a large common hackberry since Saturday evening, Sept. 19. This morning, Sept. 22, we counted 117. The day is overcast with a little drizzle, and it doesn't appear they are leaving today.

They have been roosting almost exclusively on the leaves of the lower branches of a large hackberry tree (common hackberry, Celtis occidentalis). This tree is part of a thick hedgerow with large trees at the back (east) edge of our back yard. (A few have also roosted in lower branches of a large red oak in the middle of the back yard..). They have roosted on the north side of branches, giving them some protection from the south winds we have had. (Sunday's winds were up to 14 mph out of the south.). Additionally, our back yard is shielded quite a bit from the wind in general by a wood fence on three sides (east, south, north), the large oak tree, and our home (2+ stories tall).

I am not sure where they are feeding. We have quite a few flowers in our front and back yard, including lantana and coreopsis, which I have read monarchs like, but we haven't seen the monarchs frequent those. We have also checked out the vacant land on the other side of our hedgerow and looked for milkweed or other food sources but didn't find any. We do live in a neighborhood with lots of flowers, and there is still some undeveloped land within a fairly short distance of us (about 1/2 mile away) where they might be finding food.

Wichita, KS

Latitude: 37.7 Longitude: -97.2

Observed by: Debbie
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