| Comments | Our monarch count today, over 5 thousand!! Our small group arrived at a pecan orchard in SE Midland Co. at 9 AM. The temp. was 58F, calm & sunny. We walked a 5 acre area and observed roosting Monarchs in clusters of 18 to 112, on branches 6-10 feet from the ground. As the temp. warmed, we saw Monarchs in groups numbering 1 to 30, come in from the pastures on the North of the orchard. At 10:30, the wind began to blow 15-20 mph from the South. The Monarchs continued to come in thru the trees & not above them. They seemed to be looking for a place to roost and not to eat. Noted an abundance of aphids on pecan trees. Someone had checked this spot yesterday at 2pm and noted no butterflies at that time. A spot of Asclepias sp. a few miles away by the highway yielded 2 Monarch larvae about 1 week away from forming chrysalis. Our group included Mrs Joann Merritt, member NABA, who organizes the July 4th Butterfly Count for our county. |
