Roosting monarchs

[Howieh]

This is cropped from one of the pictures taken on Sept 12 about 1 kilometer from the entrance to the Leslie Street Spit. I didn't have my 50D with me so I used my wife's Canon SX210 at max (14X) zoom, which, considering how bad the light was at the time, performed admirably!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43629411@N ... /lightbox/

Incidentally, I'm trying to link directly to the jpg file but I can't find it on Flickr. If someone can tell me how to do it I'll change this post. Thanks.

[Moira]

Very cool.  I was thrilled last w/e to see maybe 20 in the area of a few shrubs.

[Brian Bailey]

Nice shot!  I'm thinking the weather might be right to find scenes like this tomorrow morning.

Flikr has changed a few things lately.  From the lightbox view, left-click on the image.  The right click on the image that appears and you will see a view available size option.  Left click on the size you want (I picked large).  Now you an right click on that image to get the options you used to get.  Pick the "copy image location" option and then use the usual image insertion technique (the Img button on top of the composition window.)


BB

[Howieh]

Thanks Brian. Someone reported seeing many monarchs roosting near the entrance Wed. afternoon so my son and I stopped at the spit for a few minutes this morning (hoping they wouldn't fly in yesterdays weather) on our way to the raptor watch at Rosetta Maclean Gardens, but not a single monarch was visible. Based on the numbers we saw at RMG and tomorrows weather forecast there should be clusters at the spit but you probably have to get there very early and the greatest numbers will probably be near the lighthouse. Good luck if you go - I'd love to be there but getting up before sunrise two days in a row is out of the question!

[Howieh]

My son and I hit the spit again late this afternoon and thanks to a very helpful shuttle driver we found about five hundred monarchs roosting in the same tree as last week. We actually observed and photographed them for more than an hour so we had to walk nearly two kilometers back to the entrance but it was well worth the trouble. Despite the overcast conditions we saw lots of monarchs feeding and on the move and I am willing to bet that there were hundreds or even thousands more roosting near the end of the spit. Sunday looks good weatherwise so if I can get down there early enough I'll try to get to the lighthouse in time to get the last shuttle back from the bridge. We also picked up a very large milkweed caterpillar, who is now happily munching away in my rearing cage and should be a chrysalis within a couple of days.

[Halton Hills]

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It's just amazing that such a small creature can find its way over such a vast distance and make it all the way to Mexico.

The real kicker is that none of them have actually made the trip before.......yet they will all end up in the same spot.

I had 2 caterpillars......one "hatched" out yesterday.......the second will emerge today.....  

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[Howieh]

We got to the spit at 5pm, rode the shuttle out to the bridge and back and left just after 6pm. There are still lots of monarchs entering the spit from the north; during the fifteen minutes that we waited before heading out to the bridge I saw more than 150 monarchs overfly the entrance and hundreds more flying and feeding all the way out to the bridge. We did not find any roosting but someone returning from the far end of the spit reported seeing huge numbers gathering there. With warm temperatures and strong SW winds forecast for Tuesday we could see another great show from Tuesday evening into early Wednesday because monarchs entering the park on Tuesday will stay over rather than fly into SW winds. What an incredible year this has turned out to be!

[Axeman]

There was a day, a about in early September, that I found 6 caterpillars together on 2 or 3 milkweed plant...and I have noticed many around over the later part of the summer...but in the last few days, I haven't seen a single one and i was wondering if they were now gone from mid-Ontario ?