Date: 04/13/2023

Number: 16

There was a flurry of monarchs here today! Throughout the day you could have a close encounter with a monarch just by walking outside. If you were in one place, like me working on garden tasks, the monarchs would visit you multiple times. It was a sunny, blue sky day, 70's temps, around 50% humidity, and soft breezes.

For a count I went walking around (about 5 acres) from 1:00-1:30pm. I saw 16 individual monarchs. They were flying, checking milkweed, resting/sunning, nectaring (on thistles, flowering milkweed, and blooming trees), and a couple of females looking to lay eggs.

We had thunderstorms yesterday afternoon, so today seemed particularly balmy. As the day went on there seemed to be more and more monarchs flying around. At one point, as I stepped out the front door, a mating pair flew right past me and landed in our sweet gum tree in front of the house. I will add their photo to a Monarch (Other observations) report.

This is one of the afternoon monarchs sipping from a yellow thistle (Cirsium horridulum) ~ they never seem to worry about the sharp parts.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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