Date: 09/26/2021

Number: 25

over a period of less than an hour my wife and I observed dozens of migrating monarch butterflies from our patio this afternoon.

[Additional information contributed by observer, added by Journey North, 09/28/21]:

Sunday 9/26/21 was a beautiful day here in Strasburg VA. As my wife and I sat on our patio (once in late morning and again in mid-afternoon) we noticed monarch butterflies, one after another, flying south.

We estimate that we observed dozens of monarchs in the morning and again in the afternoon. It wasn't hard. "There's one!" And a minute or two later "there's another one". We've never seen anything like it.

Observation time was an hour or so, twice: late morning and mid-afternoon.

They were flying from north to south--some low to the ground and some at treetop and higher.

Breeze (mainly from the south), warm and sunny.

We live at the northern base of Massanutten mountain in the Shenandoah Valley. The north fork of the Shenandoah River is within walking distance from our home. We regularly observe birds migrating through our area. We believe that the natural gap between the mountains makes our location ideal for migrating birds--and after Sunday 9/26, monarch butterflies.

At the rear of our lot is a steep (sloping down) untouched wooded area with a wide variety of hardwoods (some 100 ft. tall). there's also a very steep area a couple of lots from us (with a stormwater management pond at the bottom) where natural ground cover (thistles, milkweed, etc.) grows (it's so steep that it's impossible to mow). we occasionally see monarchs flying around this area during the summer, but nothing close to the numbers that we saw on Sunday.

Strasburg, VA

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -78.3

Observed by: Ray
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