Date: 03/06/2024

Number: 2

When I got home in the late afternoon, I saw a monarch butterfly sailing low over the front yard. Yay! The first monarch of the season. I got my camera and set out to get a pic. Well, this guy was zooming around, not stopping to nectar ever, and covering about 7 acres looping around trees, up and down the pastures ~ often flying low over the wildflowers. For more than 30 minutes I watched this male monarch speeding around.

Having given up on a photo of him, I began taking photos of little butterflies nectaring from false garlic flowers. Suddenly, a monarch flew to a nearby yellow thistle ~ finally he was stopping to nectar I thought. Well, it wasn't him, but a female monarch. And her nectaring only lasted a few seconds, because the male monarch swooped in and grabbed her. They soon were a pair and flew off quickly, sailing towards the woodland trees. I will add a Monarch (Other Observations) report and a photo of the mating pair.

Luckily, I had gotten a quick photo of the female as she nectared. She has slightly faded wings with a little tattering at the edges.

Yesterday was the first day I found milkweed sprouts ~ our native Asclepias viridis (Green milkweed). I found more
emerging plants today (about 25). None had any monarch eggs yet.

Montgomery, TX

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -95.8

Observed by: Kathy
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