Pace of the 2011 migration mirrors the 1997 migration

[Paul Cherubini]

There's been alot of speculation that the monarchs this year are getting ahead of milkweed emergence for the first time ever, but it's happened before:
http://i959.photobucket.com/albums/ae78 ... looper.jpg

[Wyvern]

Yes a friend and I were just talking about this. I remember the egg dumping that happened back in 1997... cats stripped everything because there were too many of them and not enough food that early in the year.

Today, he saw a monarch laying eggs in a brand new milkweed patch I just planted in the fall down on his farm (he is on the VA eastern shore). The seeds only recently sprouted and are about an inch tall! There is no way the poor cats are gonna make it if those eggs end up being fertile. I am hoping that the garden center near him may have some potted swamp milkweed or butterfly weed available that is already well started that he can buy and set out by the patch to move cats to.