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Jean's point about the monarchs emerging and warming up for flight in the cold, reminds me of a surprising observation many years ago on Brier Island, when I used to spend a lot of time as a volunteer at the banding stations tended by Ross Anderson and Peter Smith, among others. On those mornings I would arise out of bed much earlier than my norm at home! One of those frosty mornings, but clear, and before the rising Sun had any substantial height to it, I was in an open area between mist-nets when, much to my surprise, I saw a MONARCH flying strongly! Exactly where and how it had managed to find a way to warm itself, by perhaps just being where it could sit in that very low early-morning Sunlight, I really wanted to know. The exact date in the autumn remains buried, probably forever, in my journals. Cheers from Jim ---------- From: Jean Timpa <jtimpa@ns.sympatico.ca> Reply-To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:02:25 -0300 To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca Subject: [NatureNS] Monarch migration from Nova Scotia to??? I have seen Monarchs emerging from chrysalids as late as Thanksgiving Weekend in Bear River. The frost was heavy on the milkweed, and the butterflies were having a difficult time to warm up, but in the end they did warm up and sail off westward. To throw a monkey wrench in the picture, Dr. Urquhart from the University of Toronto, spent a lifetime studying the Monarchs and finally discovered that the ones he was tagging in Ontario and Quebec were going SW to Mexico. I don't know that he was ever successful in obtaining many or any volunteers from this area to determine where our Monarchs migrate in the fall. Recently I heard or have read that there is another wintering ground in Cuba, and our butterflies would be more likely to end up there, rather than make the extra long journey to Mexico. Wish I could get to Bear River as I expect there are a lot there this year. JET
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