We were at Fair Haven Beach State Park on Lake Ontario this week, camping. We estimated there were thousands of Monarchs migrating along the lake shore. We counted an average of 12 monarchs every 10 minutes, and those were only the ones we could see. They were at all elevations including soaring like a bird high above our heads and right down at ground level. We kayaked in Little Sodus Bay, and they were crossing the bay where it is narrow.
We surmised they were hugging the lakeshore in order to head south at some point, although the angle of the lake shore is SW anyway. It was magical. I've never seen anything like it. Nancy On Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 10:50 AM Marie P. Read <[email protected]> wrote: > On my walk up Mt Pleasant Rd just now, I greatly enjoyed a sizable > movement of Monarch butterflies. I counted 20 in about an hour, which might > not seem a lot but it’s more than I have seen on Mt Pleasant for years. > Often they seemed to appear in small groups, as if they had just taken > flight from the numerous clumps of goldenrod and aster in the fields and > along the road. Others, though, I noted flying up high, helped on their way > south by the NW breeze. > During the same walk I witnessed a behavior I hadn’t seen before: a small > flock of starlings fly-catching from a high dead tree, just like waxwings > do. It occurred during a period of sunshine, which presumably had > stimulated an upward flight of insects. (Didn’t see them chasing Monarchs, > though.) The starlings swooped around high in the sky, sometimes hovering, > then flying back to the tree to repeat. Once the clouds came over the > starlings left. > Ah…nature! > Marie > > Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef> > -- > *Cayugabirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> > BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> > *Please submit your observations to eBird > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>!* > -- > -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
