One of the factors that affects migratory behavior is availability of food, which declines in cool weather. Cool weather generally has been arriving later in recent years.

Happy it showed up to cheer you. The simple pleasures can be so uplifting when we need a boost.

I had Monarchs way too late last year for my comfort, I believe even into October. I have seen less than 10% of the monarchs this year compared to last year, but I do have two green chrysali that have not hatched. Perhaps that will stop by your yard on the way down! Very happy you saw one today.

Saw her (or one of her clan) again this afternoon. I've saw a pretty good number of them this summer, which is encouraging. Also saw a lot of the eastern tiger swallowtails but only a couple of the black swallowtails.

i wasnt going to bother you on this post ... as my only thought was ... i hope i dont see it down here.. where i usually see them.. in the middle of the road when im doing 60 mph ...

soooo .. and hour later.. im off to the market.. over the hills and thru the woods.. and what is that i see 30 feet in front of my car.. crikey dude.. get the hell out of the way ...

and just as i thought of not bothering you ... it lifts up about 2 feet.. hits the slip stream.. and goes right over the hood and roof.. and in my mirror i see it fly off on its way ...

another near miss in tecumseh..

god speed my flutterbye ...

ken

We usually have scads of monarchs on the Heptacodium tree. when it blooms in September. This year the most we had was 4! A VERY bad monarch year here!

My observations echo woodyoak's - last September Monarchs were regular visitors on our Heptacodium (especially on September 14-15), and we were still seeing a few in the yard almost daily through the 1st week of October. But this year we only saw a few for the whole first half of September, and none since 9/17. It turned colder 9/18 with a hard frost 9/19 which probably had an impact, but it still seems odd that we've seen zero since then. I was expecting to see at least a couple on these recent warmer days, with highs in the mid to upper 70s.

Ken, I’m thankful for your car’s aerodynamics. I wonder if that is the butterfly equivalent of a roller coaster. Thanks for the great post!