Date: 09/17/2024

Number: 15

Here are some thoughts on this year's migration:
We did not have big numbers of monarchs coming through the last week of August, so no roosts to report then.
Early September had quite a few monarchs eclosing at Ahlgren's nature preserve, about 5 miles south of the town of Balsam Lake.
We would see singles and doubles through that time period, but then again, no roosts. Weatherwise, Wisconsin has been right on the upper range of temperatures, and after a very wet summer, the last few weeks have been very dry.
The past week, say from September 10 to September 17 has been like summer, temps in the 80s and winds almost exclusively from the south.
Again, no roosting, but the last few days there have been good numbers of monarchs at Standing Cedars nature preserve, just west of East Farmington. We have seen similar numbers for the last few days there (12 to 24 approx per day) but cannot say if these are migrating monarchs or a late hatch from the area.
Daily travels along East/West roads during the day almost always catch a few monarchs migrating into the southerly winds, 4 to 10 mph or so generally.
Sadly, there are no good alfalfa fields blooming in this area; farmers cut them just before bloom. However there are late fields that might get a bloom still; if the late monarch hatch continues to send monarchs our way, i dream of a major weather change with a cold north wind bringing all of the monarchs through our area even at this late date.
Tomorrow we are heading up towards Ashland and the lake superior area. It will be very interesting to see what monarchs we see, even though most of our travel will be on north/south roads.
In short, the Journey North report of late egg laying seems to be playing out through this part of the world.
Our last hope is for good weather and good timing for our last migration numbers.
Goldenrod and Asters are the main food source still.

Osceola, WI

Latitude: 45.2 Longitude: -92.7

Observed by: Pat
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