Previous Sightings - 2004 to 2006

[Jim]

Monarch sightings for the East South Central region of the United States (AL, KY, MS, TN) - 2004 to 2006.

[Bfly Guy]

I saw my first Monarch Butterfly of 2004, Saturday July 24th at 2:00pm.
It was a single butterfly on my butterfly weed flowers. I've got 5 patches of butterfly weed plants around my yard. Plus I have native milkweeds blooming that are growing wild on my property here.
I have not seen any Monarch's since Saturday the 24th.

The Monarch's usually start showing up here about this time of year to start laying eggs on my butterfly weeds and on the native milkweeds.

[Bfly Guy]

Saw 1 monarch butterfly on a native butterfly weed on my property on
Wednesday afternoon, August 4, 2004.

Found my 1st monarch caterpillar on Wednesday afternoon, August 4, 2004 on a butterfly weed plant. This was the same plant that I saw my 1st monarch butterfly feeding on the flowers of on July 24th, 2004.

[Bfly Guy]

Saw 1 Monarch this morning.
The monarch caterpiller that I first found on 8-4-04 has moved off of the butterfly weed that it was feeding on, and is on a cigar plant to start the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

[Bfly Guy]

Saw 1 Monarch all afternoon today, August 19th.

It visited all 5 patches of my butterfly weed. It also went to my beds of lantanas, and tithonia (orange mexican sunflowers).

It may have been the monarch that hatched out of the chrysalis yesterday the 18th in my flower bed, from the lone monarch caterpillar that I had found. It had changed into a chrysalis on August 7th.

August 7th, was also the last time that I had seen a monarch.

[Bfly Guy]

Saw 2 Monarchs at the same time on Friday, 8-20-04. They stayed in all my butterfly weed patches.

Saw 3 Monarchs at the same time today, Saturday 8-20-04.
May have been more than the 3 butterflies. As I have butterfly weed patches on 3 sides of my house. And saw Monarchs in all patches all day long.

Found Monarch eggs this morning.

And watched as 2 Monarchs layed eggs on the butterfly weeds. Saw Single Monarchs lay eggs all day long on the butterfly weeds.

[Bfly Guy]

I found 39 eggs on my butterfly weeds this morning.
Saw 2 Monarchs this morning laying more eggs.
Saw a total of 3 different Monarchs today.

[Bfly Guy]

Yesterday I found 4 newly hatched monarch caterpillars.
Saw monarchs laying eggs again today.
This is the 5th day in a row that I've seen monarchs laying eggs.
Still seeing only 1 to 3 monarchs at a time in my yard.
Saw 1 monarch on the flying on the side of a highway today also.

[Biophilia]

On August 20 I saw my first Monarch of the season on Asclepias curassavica trying to lay eggs. Unfortunately, she was out of eggs! I haven't seen any since then. I live in the middle of a lot of farm land less than 20 miles north of the Gulf. I'm seven miles west of Pensacola, Florida. We're restoring native plants to our 20 acres. The only reason I planted A. curassavica is that I don't have much native milkweed growing yet. I do have A. perennis, A. incarnata and one baby A. humistrata. I would love to trade plants with someone who has native milkweeds for my area.

[Bfly Guy]

Saw 2 single monarchs today.
One had ragged edges on the rear of it's wings.
Did not observe any laying eggs today.
This afternoon counted 32 monarch caterpillars that were hatched in the past couple of days.
Also saw 6 eggs.

[Bfly Guy]

I'm still seeing Monarchs here every day, 2 or 3 at a time.
The last 2 days I've watched them lay eggs on the butterfly weeds in my flower beds.
Still finding eggs and tiny caterpillars.

[Bfly Guy]

Have a few caterpillars moving off of the tropical milkweeds, to a hiding spot to change to a chrysalis.
Still finding eggs and tiny caterpillars. Now have caterpillars of all ages.
They are starting to eat all the leaves, and parts of the stems on a few of the tropical milkweeds.
The few monarchs I'm seeing now have a tattered, and weathered look to them.
Only saw 1 monarch on my way to Birmingham, AL

[Bfly Guy]

Saw 1 Monarch come out of a chrysalis on morning of 9-13-04.
Finding monarch chrysalis (14 so far) all over plants in my flower pots on my porches, and in the flowerbeds.
Still seeing a few smaller caterpillars on the tropical milkweeds.
For the past 2 afternoons I've seen a monarch laying eggs on the tropical milkweeds.
Still seeing 1 to 3 monarchs a day. Some have ragged edges, and even holes in their wings. Some are new looking, but they might have hatched here in my yard.

[Bfly Guy]

Thursday afternoon, September 16, 2004 after Hurricane Ivan had passed through earlier that morning I had came home to see 4 monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalises. Saw plenty of other species of butterflies also, and we were still having wind gusts of 25 mph from hurricane Ivan. In the next few days after Ivan I saw other monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalises. They hung around for about a day, and then disappeared.
As of 9-25-04 I have not seen any Monarchs for the past few days. Still have 12 chrysalises I have found that are still green, not ready to emerge yet.

[Bfly Guy]

10-24-04 Saw 4-Monarchs
10-23-04 Saw 3-Monarchs
10-22-04 Saw 1-Monarch
10-21-04 Saw 1-Monarch
10-20-04 Saw 1-Monarch

[Bfly Guy]

10-29-04 Saw 10-Monarchs today at the same time. They were flying through out my yard, and through the woods surrounding my yard.
10-28-04 Saw 2-Monarchs
10-27-04 Saw 6-Monarchs
10-26-04 Saw 3-Monarchs
10-25-04 Saw 4-Monarchs

[Bfly Guy]

11-1-04 Saw 14-Monarchs. One was worn and tattered badly. Today was really windy, up to 10 mph.

10-31-04 Saw 12-Monarchs. This morning was damp and really foggy, and it a while for the monarchs to show up. Once the sun started to shine through the fog the monarchs started showing up.

10-30-04 Saw 16-Monarchs on flowers in my yard. Two were worn and tattered. With one that had three holes in its wings. The rest of them were bright and new looking.

[Bfly Guy]

11-3-04 Saw 5-Monarchs this morning in between the heavy rains.

11-2-04 Saw 11-Monarchs in the morning between the rain showers.

[Bfly Guy]

11-5-04 Saw 1-Monarch this morning. Saw 1-single Monarch 3 different times in the morning. Did not see any in the afternoon.

11-4-04 Saw 2-Monarchs this morning.

[Bfly Guy]

11-7-04 Saw 2-Monarchs today. Saw single Monarch butterflies all day. temperatures back in the mid 70's today.

11-6-04 Saw 2-Monarchs today. Saw single Monarch butterflies all day. Then in the afternoon saw 2-Monarchs.

[Bfly Guy]

Tues 11-23-04 Saw 1-Monarch this afternoon @ 3:42pm on some yellow lantana flowers after a rain shower. This is the first one I've seen since November 8th.


Mon 11-8-04 Saw 1-Monarch all day long.

[Bfly Guy]

11-29-04 Saw 1-Monarch today before noon in my flower beds.

11-30-04 Saw 1-Monarch this morning in my flower beds.

This was last one that I have seen.

[Bfly Guy]

I saw 1-monarch this morning. The first positive sighting of 2005.
A couple of weeks ago I thought that I had seen 2 in consecutive days, but could not positively id them from a distance, and they disappeared quickly into the woods that surround my yard. I was almost positive that they were both monarchs.
The native milkweeds on my property are coming up now, with some between 4 and 8 inches tall.

Bfly Guy
State Line, MS
100 miles north of the Gulf Coast

[G&B]

We had an unusual event this year. In early January we found 80 catepillars on our milkweed plants. They ate the leaves completely from our established plants. We had to buy 8 more plants just to have enough food for them to reach full growth They completely stripped those leaves also. Because of the number and scarcity of leaves on the plants at that time of year, we had to leave them outside to fend for themselves. We were able to verify that at least 20 eventually hatched. We have had monarchs in our yard on and off since then. Now we found and nutured 18 catepillars. All have made crysallis and should hatch the end of next week. G&B, Biloxi, MS

[G&B]

Had 5 monarchs hatch yesterday, 3 Female, 2 Male. Three more today hatched. 2 female, 1 male. G&B, Biloxi, MS

[G&B]

All Crysalis hatched from our previous batch. Yesterday, June 26th, we saw a male monarch in our yard. Unusual for this time of year. Thought they should all be up north by now.

G&B

[G&B]

We saw a couple of male monarchs several weeks ago. Well they must have found some mates because about two weeks ago we had a female hanging around for a few days. The result is that as of today we have 45 crysalis and 8 more cats in our brooding station just about ready to change. Will post their birthdays as they happen.

G&B

[G&B]

Of the 52 crysalis we had, 43 hatch (see our last entry). As of today, 8/14, we currently have 34 more cats eating and growing and about the same # of eggs. After the last hatching we had about three or four monarchs in the yard for a couple of weeks.

G&B, Biloxi, MS

[G&B]

As a follow-up to our last posting, we can report that all the remaining cats successfully hatched before Katrina hit. Our yard was decimated by the storm. Most of our flowers are gone for the year but of the plants that survived, the milkweed did as well as any. Two weeks after the storm, we had a couple offemales in the yard and found about 60 cats. We nutured them and as of today all but 3-4 are in the chrysalis stage. There will be monarchs in Biloxi after Katrina.

G&B, Biloxi, MS Waystation #121

[G&B]

WOW, our yard has come back better than we would of ever thought. The Lantana and Milkweed have done the best but the penta is trying hard. Of all the cats that we had, all hatched but three. Add another 80 to the world. The butterfly effect must be working here in Biloxi. We have the most in our yard in about ten years. From daylight to dusk there are constantly 4-6 flirting around the plants in our yard. Not seeing many eggs being laid though, most are just feeding on the flowers and the vast majority are males. Went to a wedding on the beach in Pass Christian at one of the few antebellum homes that survived the storm and Monarchs were everywhere. For almost an hour and a half there was a steady stream of three or four at a time flying by heading to the west.

Hanging in there in Biloxi, MS

G&B, Waystation # 121

[Sabra Wineteer]

First monarch sighting on August 7th, 2005

Seven on one day in October (sorry don't have date)

They *always* are flying from east to west, nearly due west.

[Paula]

Tag# GML 079 observed during September '05 migration while feeding on South American Milkweed. I identified tag # using close-up camera lens. I've been praying for this one all Winter. Does anyone know anything about Monarch GML 079 tagging or have you seen Monarch GML079 since September '05???

[Sabra Wineteer]

First on April 5th and today, April 6th. The sighting today the butterfly was very interested in the dandelion blooms.

[Paul Cherubini]

First on April 5th and today, April 6th. The sighting today the butterfly was very interested in the dandelion blooms.

Great sightings Sabra. Looks like this year might be one of those years when some of the overwintered monarchs from Mexico make it all the way up into the upper Midwest and lower Great Lake states by late April and early May.

[psi_chemie]

I was wondering about that, Paul. Last year I saw a pair of very tattered monarchs in the last week of MARCH near Kansas City. I was thinking they couldn't possibly be overwintered monarchs, but maybe they got lucky and caught some good air currents.

I thought I might be seeing things but I took pictures of them..

There was almost nothing for them to feed on, except some kind of tree with tiny yellow flowers which they were using. Then this area had a nasty cold snap that set the Spring bloom back a couple weeks. Oh well..

[Bfly Guy]

I saw a single monarch yesterday afternoon around 3:10pm,
6-11-06 flying around my yard.
Didn't see it go near my milkweed patch,
but there are several varieties blooming now around my property.
Also it was the first one that I have seen in a couple of months.

[wrightp001]

Just saw a monarch about 5 miles east of Tellico Plains, Tennessee. It was feeding on some sunflowers in the sun. the temperature was about 65. It looked like a new speciman. I didn't see any wear or tear. I have photos.

[Becky Gottsegen]

[quote="Jim"]Report monarch sightings for the East South Central region of the United States (AL, KY, MS, TN) here.[/quote]
I have been in Gulf Shores, Alabama since Thursday evening. On both Friday and Saturday we saw many, many butterflies which we now believe to be monarchs. Our home is down at the end of the beach road adjoining the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. I photographed a bush with yellow flowers that they were "feeding" from and they were hovering around my friends and me on our second floor deck even landing on us. Quite fascinating!