I was surprised to visit the Norwich floodplain clover field that has been
very reliable for migrating Monarchs this fall and find the species almost
completely absent today.  I looked carefully from 12:30-1:30 pm and found
none.  Wondering if there might be a time-of-day effect (all my previous
visits have been in late afternoon), I returned at 5:00 pm, when it was
considerably cooler but still sunny and c. 50 degrees F, found and tagged a
single Monarch.  Plenty of red clover still in flower, so I wonder if
migration is wound down, or if I just hit an off day.  It seems like a very
dramatic fall-off, considering I had at least 200 Monarchs in this field 5
days earlier.

Other species;
Clouded Sulphur (15)
Orange Sulphur (3)
Cabbage White (1)
Variegated Fritillary (1, no question on ID this time)
Great Spangled Fritillary (1, very tattered, suspect the same individual
seen here on 9/18 and 9/25)

Chris


Chris Rimmer
Vermont Institute of Natural Science
27023 Church Hill Road
Woodstock, VT 05091
802-457-2779 ext. 120
<www.vinsweb.org>