Salisbury State Park Monarchs
Bo_Z
10/17/18 Salisbury
Salisbury State Park
10:00am – 1:30pm 55F Mostly Sunny
It was cool and very windy when I arrived at Salisbury State Park. I spent some time counting and photographing the Monarch roost. (Thank you Lucy Merrill-Hills.) They were spread out in small clumps over several trees. As I was so engaged, another photographer arrived, looked it over and said “not much left”. He explained that there were “hundreds” of Monarchs earlier in October in the same spot.
After I finished there, I slowly drove the campsite roads, pencil and pad in hand counting flying Monarchs.
Finally, on the road out, I stopped to walk into some stands of Aster. It was then that I discovered that they were full of Monarchs on the ground or very low. These were not flying at all and were not visible from the road, but once you walked in the ground was littered with them.
A few pictures:
http://www.pbase.com/bo_z/salisbury_sp_101718
Final tally:
18 Cabbage White
5 Clouded Sulfur
6 American Copper
1 Gray Hairstreak (worn)
2 American Lady
105 Monarch
Bo Zaremba
Newburyport, MA