Date: 09/12/2021

Number: 1000

Estimate of 1000-1500 monarchs. Copse of trees in the center of a large circular drive at the picnic area of Goose Lake Prairie State Park. Arrived at 6:00 PM. At 6:10 PM the monarchs began flooding in from the priaire which surrounds the picnic area and into the trees. The circular drive is surrounded by trees and shrubs but has large openings on the east that look out into the prairie fields. Temperature was 84 degrees, skies mostly clear and wind was at 6 mph. The fields were full of mostly goldenrod, several of the late sunflowers, asters and boneset. Trees in the copse were mainly mature oaks (red, white, and pin). There were also black walnut, basswoods and maples. The monarchs preferred the trees near the center of the copse. A few roosts were in other trees on the south end of the copse and some on the outer trees to the east of the circular drive. Roosts of 20-30 could be found in some of the perimeter trees but the oaks, basswoods and black walnuts in the center hosted the majority of roosts of which some of those groupings were approximately 100 individuals. Monarchs were still flying and assembling roosts until after the sun had gone below the horizon which was about 7:30 PM and numbers were too difficult to see after about 7:20 PM.

Morris, IL

Latitude: 41.4 Longitude: -88.3

Observed by: Phyllis
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