Date: 09/08/2021

Number: 4

Each morning we go out on the dock on Lake Champlain and have our coffee. For the last week we have seen adult Monarchs flying erratically out over the lake, generally heading south.

[Additional information contributed by observer, added by Journey North, 09/10/21]:
We live along Lake Champlain on the Vermont side north of Burlington. It is quite rural along this section of the lake, however, it has been a destination for summer campers since the late 1800s. At that time there were large dormitories where wealthy folks from the cities on the east coast used to come for the cool summer lake breezes. Most of those buildings are gone and what remain are small cottages and cabins spread along the lakeside here and there. Most everyone has a dock and some of us have rafts in the lake.

Each morning we go down to the dock with our coffee to watch flights of cormorants, seagulls, herons, etc., pass by. We look west across to Vermont's chain of islands: South Hero, Grand Isle, North Hero and Isle la Motte. It is while sitting on the dock early mornings that we see one or two Monarchs flitting by. You wonder what they are doing out over the lake. The fields and woods, etc., are behind us. After sitting we take a walk out to Lake Rd and back. it is on those walks that we see the occasional monarch flying randomly along the field edge. Milkweed grows there. Now, we take that walk several times a day, so some of the monarchs are seen around 9am and others are seen either at noon or around 7pm. We have not seen large groups of monarchs. Usually one or two flitting here and there. Out over the lake I guess is directional. In the fields when we see them they are probably nectaring.

Town of Milton, VT

Latitude: 44.7 Longitude: -73.2

Observed by: Carl
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