Date: 03/25/2021

Number: 20

Lots of monarchs today!!
I first went around briefly from 12noon-12:20pm. It was 69 degrees F, sunny, gusty wind at times, and 54% humidity. Just in our front and back yard and near upper pasture I counted 16 individual monarchs. There were four females actively looking for milkweed and egg-laying. There were monarchs flying around, nectaring on the newly opened yellow thistles (easy to spot these) and a couple of sunbathers. There were males chasing females into the air in aerial exhibitions of speed and agility! There seemed to be a new influx of monarchs today along with some of the regular ones that have been here for awhile.

At 12:45-1:10pm I went around again, this time following particular egg-laying females. It was 73 degrees F, sunny, windy, with 47% humidity. I observed one female looking for good milkweed and laying eggs. She also nectared from the false garlic flowers briefly. A second lovely female was selectively laying eggs. She found some of the milkweed I had been checking on daily. Yay! This fresh milkweed now has monarch eggs. This was near a fence line with blackberry blossoms & she took a break to nectar from them. A third female I followed was doing a good job finding multiple milkweed plants to lay her eggs on. I could see a male not too far away sunning on a small milkweed. A second male flew over him causing them both to air tussle ~ but that caused one of them to notice "my" fluttering egg-laying female. He zoomed toward her and up they went in a fast spiral high into the sky. I could not follow where they ended up. Along with these three females I followed, there were also other flying monarchs and ones I could see fluttering low in different parts of the pasture.

From 1:20-1:35pm I went out briefly (my camera battery got low). It was 73 degrees F, sunny, gusting NE wind, with 45% humidity. I had at least 6 monarch encounters in a short time/space interval. One encounter occurred when I was walking around the corner of our small barn and a chasing pair nearly flew into me ~ this disrupted the male's pursuit and the female made her escape. I followed her for awhile as she looked for milkweed ~ she also nectared briefly from wildflowers at times. I saw a male nectaring from the 2nd newly opened yellow thistle. As he flew away a much smaller butterfly decided to challenge his presence. Well, to my surprise the monarch had a little aerial push-back with the little flyer. Usually, the monarchs tend to shrug these things off and fly on, but maybe he was feeling his nectar. Everybody seemed frisky today.

At 2:10-3:00pm I set out with a fresh battery. Still sunny, windy, 74 degrees F, 41% humidity. Monarchs were everywhere! Just in our middle main pasture I saw 5 egg-laying females and 4 males flying around, sunning, nectaring, looking for females. Again, there were some amazing aerial pursuits as females tried to outmanuever the males ~ usually successfully as far as I could tell.

A bit later I was down in the lower pasture watching a female monarch finding milkeed and laying eggs. I noticed a male come sailing around, beginning to nectar on false garlic flowers one after another. She stopped her egg-laying and froze on the tip of a milkweed crown, even though he was about 25 feet away. He then sailed right toward her. She dropped like a stone to the ground, wings closed, well-hidden in the grass beneath the milkweed. He hovered around a bit looking for her and then went back to nectaring on false garlic flowers. She and I waited, both stock still for several minutes. Finally, she decided the coast was clear and went back to egg-laying.

It was a wonderful monarch day! They seemed active and happy. The gusty wind meant they often were flying against it and sometimes sailing with it. They definitely needed the hydration and nutrition from the nectar plants: favorites here being yellow thistles, false garlic flowers, Lyre-leaf sage, and wild blackberry blossoms.

This is a photo of one of the beautiful monarchs seen today, as she lays her eggs on a fresh milkweed plant.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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