That article was about the ones on the west side of the Rockies.... There were virtually no monarchs to be seen here this past fall - the heptacodium tree that can be covered in them when it blooms at their migration time only had a couple this year! It was a very sad monarch year here this year - nowhere even close to the 4900 percent that article talked about!

That is wonderful news -- thank you for sharing!

"There were virtually no monarchs to be seen here this past fall - the heptacodium tree that can be covered in them when it blooms at their migration time only had a couple this year!"

Was there a mis-timing this year between the bloom and the peak migration?

mxk3 - we didn’t see hardly any monarchs at all this summer, so I don’t think it was just due to mistiming re migration vs. blooming. Two neighbours have a shared milkweed bed for them and they had no caterpillars or butterflies…! That all is not normal for around here so I’m not sure what was going on here this past year, but it sure wasn’t what that article described!

Oh no, that is not good. I did see a decent amount of monarchs this past summer, though not an abundance. Tiger swallowtails, too. What I didn't see much of were black swallowtails.

My observations echo that of mxk3, that monarchs were around in decent numbers this year. Just a guess, but the fall migration may have been more spread out over time than usual. The peak numbers in my own yard this year were the first few days of September.

I saw Tiger and Giant STs on a fairly regular basis here. Also good numbers of Spicebush STs at one of the local Metroparks where there are a lot of spicebushes in the understory. Never have seen many Black STs at my location. One odd note was I don't recall seeing any Painted and/or American Ladies in my yard this year.

Apparently there were sightings of a Monarch on November 7 along the Detroit River (Lake Erie Metropark) and at Point Pelee.