Date: 03/17/2021

Number: 11

There was a thunderstorm this morning bringing lovely rain. When I went out at noon, I didn't see any monarchs ~ it was cool, cloudy, and breezy. I did see more milkweed up and many had eggs on them.

At 1:30pm I went around again and it was a different scene: monarchs were spread about flying low, nectaring, looking for milkweed, and sunbathing/resting. I saw 6 in our middle pasture and walking up to our front yard/upper meadow saw another 5 monarchs. It was 71 degrees F, cloudy, lightly breezy, with 43% humidity.

At one point there were four female monarchs very near me ~~ a lovely experience! They were fluttering low looking for the newly emerging milkweed. There was a moment when two of them accidentally got too close to each other (each focused on their own path). They both flew quickly upwards, one very high, the other went sideways ~ both came down in different areas and resumed their searching.

I had to go away to do errands this afternoon, so only took a few quick photos. This is a female monarch nectaring on a small yellow flower. Still not sure what these flowers are, but they are abundant in our bottomland underneath the trees. The monarchs rarely nectar from them as they prefer the false garlic flowers, but this monarch took a sip from several of them.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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