Previous Sightings - 2004 to 2008

[zelzah]

Hi I've hached and released 12 Monarchs, right now I have 18 cats and just orderd 50 tags so to tag them before release(hope the tags get here on time).

I'm located down here in Cooper City, FL just west of Fort Lauderdale. Anyone els this for south in Fl?

[Andrea]

Hey Zelzah,

I'm in Plant City. From what I've seen the past year on this forum is the Florida people are quieter (except for noisy me) during the summer and fall and get online during the late fall to late spring to discuss what's going on with raising cats. If you read the earlier thread (pages 2 and 3 above) you have Gayle in Ft Meyers, RealGoddess66 in Palm Beach area, and FlgFlower in Hudson.

It may be that there are Monarchs overwintering in Florida. Where the line crosses for those that go to Mexico and those that stay here is apparently a mystery (I won't be surprised if the line is where the milkweed survives during the cold season). I'm sure that the Monarch Watch people are happy anytime we monarch watchers in FL tag. I'm always curious when FL people get online to find out where they are and see if they are pulling their hair out raising tons of cats during the winter/spring season. In my area we also have the cold snaps that cause me heartburn due to worring about the milkweed dying.

I got 50 tags too. According to my latitude position I need to tag in the middle of October.

I'm gabbing too much! Sorry

Andrea

[zelzah]

Hi Andrea

Thanks for the info.

[flgflowers]

Finally, in the past 2 weeks I am finding Monarch eggs on my potted milkweed and have 2 - 3 adults flying around in my garden each day. I now have about 12 chrysalis hanging in my garage on a rack and have 4 young CATS munching on the potted milkweed plants in my garage. I have so many predators in my flower garden that the CATS would not survive if I left them on the potted plants in the garden.

We had a really good rain tonight so hopelfully the milkweed will start
leafing out more. The CATS have eaten alot of my best plants but I
have about 25 pots in various stages of growth so I think I can handle
more CATS.

Its hard finding MW plants in any garden shops around here this time of year.

[missingashley]

Hello Andrea and friends,

I'm in the Gainesville area, and delighted to report that I now have 29 perfectly lovely chrysalides hanging in all their shining glory. This is so much fun!

[Andrea]

Good morning missingashley and flgflowers,

I glad to hear that you all are doing well with the butterfly numbers. My milkweeds look awful...they and the eggs have mold. I'm pulling off the old moldy leaves hoping that new ones will come in soon. I have absolutely no flowers on any of them. Right now, I have 7 chrysalides of which 2 will be emerging latter today and 1 is hardening its wings right now. I finally started keeping the emergence numbers beginning in April 2007 and the numbers for August are way, way down. I have released total of 2 so far this month! I have no cats right now.

flgflowers, I saw some mw at HomeDepot in Lakeland but they looked pretty sad. I'm putting in a Monarch Waystation in my fiance's garden so I was checking out the plants at HD and Lowes last weekend. I ended up taking 40 stunted looking young mw growing under one of my overgrown pentas over to his garden. They are doing a lot better in his yard now!! Amazing what sunshine can do.

Freda is one of our snow birds that comes down from Canada each year. She is very interested in our busy winter and spring butterfly season. Her comments are in the Tagging Section. She likes to do a spreadsheet to see who is seeing butterflies in her area of Canada. I think she may be interested in seeing where the butterflies are in Florida during the cool season.

missingashley, you are right...it is fun! Do you have Monarchs in your garden during the winter and early spring season? You're about 2 1/2 hours north of me and I'm curious if they are in your neck of the woods during that time. I remember reading comments from the monarch watchers in CA last year that monarchs are fairly tolerant of the cold snaps ...it made my wonder where the butterflies hang out further north of me.

Andrea.

[Judy Molnar]

A summary of my monarch sightings this summer in my personal garden, Waystation #271. Weekday sightings were restricted to what I saw on my way out the door to work, or what I saw coming in from work. On weekends I could spend more time.

No monarchs were recorded in my garden journal until July 21;
no courtship seen until July 28, no egg laying seen until July 29
1-3 nectaring monarchs seen each day for most days through August.

Caterpillar, chrysalis & egg laying sightings:
August 2 2 small monarch caterpillars found on swamp milkweeds in back
August 5 7 monarch caterpillars on swamp milkweed: one is a 5th instar, the rest 3rd to 4th instars. One 5th instar monarch caterpillar found on butterflyweed in the back as well.
August 11 one 3rd instar caterpillar seen but did not do a diligent search out back. The heat or predators or going into chrysalis may have kept them out of sight.
August 15 Monarch laying eggs on butterflyweed, common milkweed and potted tropical milkweed in front yard. Swamp milkweed in back is getting stripped to stems
August 19 a female monarch lays eggs front and back. Counted 61 caterpillars on Swamp milkweeds in back. As day wore on, some moved to the climbing milkweed vine and to whorled milkweed nearby in desperation as the swamp milkweeds became completely stripped of leaves and flowers. Saw a milkweed bug eating a monarch caterpillar.
August 25 a weakly flying female monarch flutters from plant to plant, nectaring and laying eggs, most of the day up front. Would rather walk from zinnia bloom to bloom instead of fly. Leaves on swamp milkweeds in back begin to resprout. Tender leaves on climbing milkweed are gone, the tough bottom leaves are untouched. Found my first chrysalis today, placed under a passionvine leaf, and a second found on my fence. Holes begin to appear on the potted tropical milkweeds up front.
August 29 3 monarch fly in front yard, 2 court and one laying eggs. Found a 4th instar monarch caterpillar on the sidewalk and returned it to a nearby tropical milkweed before the heat fried it.
August 30 the monarch chrysalis on the fence emerged either late yesterday or early this morning. As of 7 am, the one on the passionvine is still green
August 31 the Chrysalis on the passionvine is dark and ready to emerge at 7:35 am, was out by end of day
September 1 I'm seeing everything from 2nd through 5th instar caterpillars on all milkweeds, and females are still flying around laying more eggs! The maximum number of adults seen at any one time was three. Found a 3rd empty chrysalis on black eyed susan plant.
September 4 [today] I watered the garden, we are 8 inches behind for the year. Two 5th instar monarch caterpillars are on the butterflyweed in the back, found 4 4th instar, 4 5th instar, & 6 3rd instar larvae on tropical milkweeds up front. ! 5th instar & 1 4th instar larvae on purple milkweed. 2 4th instar & 1 3rd instar larvae on common milkweed.

The climbing milkweed in back has new leaves already, the swamp milkweeds are trying to recover and have buds. They had better hurry for this last generation!

Judy Molnar

[TNTHUDFL]

i took a day off of the books an spent most of the day in the garden durning a six hour period of time i counted 19 monarchs i told my son keep an eye on the sky theres gotta be a brood migrating i think the weather that is going on in mexico has them discombogulated i found 5 eggs tuesday 3 eggs wensday an 3eggs thursday 3eggs friday
i got a treat yesterday morning i was out in my gardens trying to pick which milkweed i wanted to repot first
an here comes along a big female monarch
she was flyin pretty eratic hitting every milkweed there was
pushin here lil bottom up under each an every leaf she could find
she was laying what looked to be an entire load of eggs all over my milkweed
of course watching here i stopped dead in my tracks to watch her not miss a beat
which of course i didnt get my repotting done till oh about dinner time
when i checked my plants i only found 3 eggs
here i was thinking i was gonna find like 100
she was layin blanks lol
she got chased off by a male
so i know shell b back

THERESA HINKELMAN
http://tnthudfl.livemonarch.com
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FLORIDA

[jturk3]

I haven't seen a Monarch since just after Labor Day. Last year at the end of September they were coming in 5 at a time. I'm going south this weekend so maybe there is better tagging there. I have 49 more tags (out of 50) to use. . We have had the worst drought in a long time and the warmest weather this late. Grabbing at straws here in Springfield, VA (but not tagging).

[ButterflyLdy]

I've had quite a few monarchs flying around the past few days. I've been able to catch them and tag them in addition to the ones I've raised. It seems they are staying around longer this year - but my guess it is do to the warm fall we've been having.

We didn't spot any until the middle of July, which also seemed rather later than usual. I wonder if Jim has any insight into this. It just seems as though our MD population was down this year - although I think the overall population of Monarchs was on the increase.

Regardless - I've been having a wonderful time tagging the ones I'm catching with our butterfly net.

My high school kids love watching the caterpillars morph into the butterfly. Isn't it nice to know this isn't just for our elementary students? There's just something about the whole process of the butterfly that leaves one full of hope.

[sodaking]

I live in Atlanta Georgia, and I had 7 Monarchs my backyard yesterday (10/21/07). One of them was tagged, and that led me to this site!

[sodaking]

I live in Atlanta Georgia, and I had 7 Monarchs my backyard yesterday (10/21/07). One of them was tagged, and that led me to this site!

TAG: JNL 527

[sodaking]

I live in Atlanta Georgia, and I had 7 Monarchs my backyard yesterday (10/21/07). One of them was tagged, and that led me to this site!

TAG: JNL 527

[flgflowers]

I have had more caterpillars during this month than I have had in Sept or Oct. The two or three female monarchs I see about every day are laying alot of eggs. 20 cats I just raised have eaten most of the milkweek on the plants I have in pots. The MW plants in my garden did not do well at
all this summer and early fall - hardly any flowers or new leaves.
However, with this cooler weather they are really taking off and sprouting leaves. Thank goodness, cause I think I'm going to be seeing alot more cats. Also, with less predators this time of year more of the eggs are
able to hatch.

Seems to me that I'm seeing Monarchs around my area a little later this year - I suppose because we aren't having any really cold weather. Last year I didn't see any after mid-Nov.

If we have a really mild winter here in Central Fl (I live in Hudson) will I possibly be seeing some Monarchs still here in Dec & Jan??

[butterflypassion]

Hi everyone. My name is Hope and I am fairly new here. I am in the Orlando area and am still seeing Monarchs. There was one laying eggs yesterday and I've got 5 cats and 2 that should be hatching within a couple days. We have been having some awesome weather.

[Andrea]

Hey Hope,

I'm Andrea and I'm 60 miles west of you. You'll have Monarchs in your garden all winter long. I think they overwintering here and they will reproduce the entire time. My milkweeds get very chewed up by Feburary and I start having to move the cats around to portions of the garden with milkweeds with leaves still left on them.

I planted Tom's garden a few months ago with milkweed. porterweed, firebush, and lantana and I found about 8 ecloses on his fence without really looking too hard.

Andrea

[butterflypassion]

Hey Andrea, Thanks for the reply. I kind of thought the Monarchs were here year round. I guess the Gulf Fritillaries and Zebra Long Wings are too. I'm anxious for the big spring and summer releases. I know it's a lot of work but worth it. Going to start working on renewing my garden soon.

Hope

[Andrea]

I usually see 1 female laying eggs in the garden. This has been going on for the past 10 weeks. It was a disaster regarding diseased Monarchs this winter/early spring. I stopped bring the cats in about 6 months ago due to the disease. At my fiance's house (Tom) about 10 miles east of me...all the ecloses I found along the fence next to the milkweeds were diseased. Nothing emerged...they went black and started oozing.

I have very little milkweed due to the cats chopping down on them but at Tom's garden the milkweeds are huge and flowering. I see no Monarchs over there. I'm hoping for less diseases this year.

How are the other Floridian monarch gardens doing?? I'd like to know if you are all fairing better than me.

andrea

[Mona Miller]

My friend Thea reports that she saw a Monarch out at her brother's farm, which is near the Potomac River in Leesburg, Virginia last Saturday (5/3). She raises Monarchs each fall with her headstart class.

[Mona Miller]

Around 3 PM EST, May 14, my first Monarch for the year. She is very faded and tattered, perhaps she flew all the way from Mexico. She was laying on Common milkweed. Last year, my first Monarch was on May 23.

[Mona Miller]

I was out in the Leesburg area today at a 700 acre conservancy. No Monarchs other than the male and female that I released. Loads of beautiful common milkweed and thistle in bloom.

Also, no sign of caterpillar damage or caterpillars.

http://www.bansheereeks.org/

Matter of fact, not many butterflies flying at all during the 2 hour walk. This made me think of Rachel Carson's book called "Silent Spring".