Date: 04/02/2001

Number: 1

I have been watching for them this as usual and have seen none so far in the Baton Rouge Area. I attribute this to
several things.


1. It has been cold almost the entire month of March and winds have been
form the North/northwest much of the time.



2. We have had several (Almost weekly) periods of 3 to 4 days of heavy rain
combined with cold temps in March. If there were a few lone Monarchs that
made it this far, this was the type of rain and cold that could beat them to
death. The one exception was the week of March 19 to 23. It was bright and
clear all week, but it was still quite cool with north wind much of that
week.




It is expected to get into the low 80's this week, perfect Monarch weather
for us. I expect to see Monarchs and will report all my sightings.



I have noticed from your Maps that compared to the last several years, the
sightings for 2001 show that as of March 28, the monarchs have not reached
as far north as they have in years past. This at least is consistant with
my sightings and assessment of conditions here so far this year.
Also a
botanist friend of mine from Northeast LA has stated that the common spring
plants are even somewhat late this year, again reflective of the cooler
conditions we have experienced. It will be interesting to see if the
reports to your site of native, wild-growing Asclepias are also later than
in years past.


We also had several good freezes this past winter which killed a lot of the
Asclepias currasavica grown by gardeners and that served as a winter nursery
plant for monarchs in South Louisiana in the mild winters of the past 3
years. (Mine did not freeze at all in 1999-2000 and I gave them no extra
protection). I know lots of people in New Orleans had monarchs reproducing
in their Gardens all winter last year. This year was more normal and the
relatively few reports of early monarchs to your site reflects this.

Baton Rouge, LA

Latitude: 30.4 Longitude: -91.2

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