Date: 09/23/1998

Number: 1

Yesterday, the monarchs began to fly from the north into the Baker Wetlands
near Lawrence, KS. We have a favorite collecting/tagging area near the
western, center of the wetlands. This evening (23 Sept), we saw several
roosts and an estimated 500 monarchs. We counted monarch butterflies in a
row of elm trees that extended about 60 meters along the road. All the
monarchs were roosting high in the trees on the north side of the road.

The sunflowers are in full bloom; thus, the monarchs will have several days
of feeding available on site. Normally, the monarchs arrive about the time
the Bidens (Beggarticks) are in full bloom; however, with the unusually hot
temperatures in Kansas, there has been a delay in the migration for
northeastern KS.

If the numbers of roosting monarchs become thousands, my students and I plan
to place remote temperature sensors in the roost. We hope to compare the
temperatures within the roost to a control site. Our sensors register
readin

Lawrence, KS

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -95.2

Observed by: Ken
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