By Robert D. Woodward

Thursday, Sept 4.--The weather cooled down considerably this morning, and the monarch activity began picking up during the day as the cooler weather in Iowa and to the north seemed to give a warning to the monarchs that the time had come to step up the migration.

Friday, Sept. 5--The monarchs are stopping at the end of the day in our butterfly garden to roost in an oak tree, on a hackberry, and on the branches of the apples trees. The daily activity in the butterfly garden has picked up--with somewhere between 20 and 30 monarchs working on flowers in various parts of the garden during the day and more coming in at the end of the day.

Saturday, Sept. 6--Today I drove to southwestern Iowa to speak on "Attracting Butterflies" at the Henry A. Wallace Country Life Folk Festival. The festival was held on the grounds of the Henry A. Wallace birthplace in the countryside approximately 5 miles east of Greenfield, Iowa. The migrating monarchs were readily apparent all along Interstate 80 as I drove west of Des Moines; most of the monarchs were flying in a north-to-south pattern. I saw hundreds of them along the way, and during the five hours I was at the Wallace birthplace, there seemed to be monarchs in sight most of the time.

Sunday, Sept.7--The day was cloudy and cool. Monarch activity continued in the butterfly garden.

Tuesday, Sept. 9--At approximately 5 a.m. I saw what I thought was a large moth fluttering among the hundreds of moths around our powerful backyard light. Turns out the visitor was a monarch that was up early!!!

Wednesday, Sept 10--The native purple asters are a bit late in blooming this year, but they are finally starting to show their beautiful colors. We have extensive plantings of them across the front yard facing to the north, and it's a great sight to see the monarchs starting to drop quickly from the sky directly to the flowers. Other important atttractions for monarchs this time of the year are black-eyed Susans, phlox, Joe Pye weed, goldenrod, butterfly bushes and the milkweeds.

Thursday, Sept. 11--Every day these days, you can see numerous monarchs along the highways and byways of central Iowa. Friends have commented on what they think is a heavy migration of the butterflies this year.

Sunday, Sept. 14--An intense fog set overnight in central Iowa, and the fog was slow to burn off. But as the day warmed, the monarch activity along the roads was heavy, and in our butterfly garden during a one-hour period from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., approximately 20 monarchs stopped by to rest on the limbs of the oak trees or to get nourishment from the prairie asters.

Wednesday, Sept. 17--Plenty of monarch activity has been occurring throughout the week in central Iowa, and a special weather statement today from the National Weather Service tells of "a major push of cold Canadian air" headed for the Midwest this weekend. In years past, when such a dramatic shift took place in the autumn weather, the monarch migration picked up rapidly as cold weather moved in from the north. I keep a watch on the Internet for weather predictions to the north for cities such as Fargo, North Dakota, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Duluth and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Low temperatures are expected in those cities by this weekend, and the low in Des Moines in central Iowa is predicted to be 38 degrees on Sunday. All indications are that the monarch migration soon will be quite heavy across Iowa.

Thursday, Sept. 18--Monarch activity continued, but the movement was slowed by 20-to-25 mile per hour winds for much of the day.

Friday, Sept. 19--This Friday was a superb day for observing monarchs on the move. They were everywhere across central Iowa along the roadways and byways. The weather to the north was cooling down, a cold front was passing through, and the monarchs clearly were picking up the pace of their migration from the north. During a count of two hours at Chichaqua wildlife area in Polk County northeast of Des Moines, 840 monarchs were observed--passing by the site overhead at the rate of 420 an hour. The sky varied from cloudy to clearing during that time (from 10:45 a.m. CDT to 12:45 p.m.), and the shadows of the monarchs passing overhead were a sight to behold. Some of the monarchs were flying hurriedly; others were riding the drafts of wind for long distances. Some seemed to be traveling in pairs, some in clusters of 8 to 10, and some alone. If these numbers were projected over a larger portion of central Iowa or the entire state, one can easily get the idea of a mass migration taking place. The count was conducted with the naked eye and not with binoculars.

Saturday, Sept. 20--Up early on a chilly morning. The temperature in Des Moines at 6 a.m. was 50 degrees, the wind chill was 37, and winds were gusting up to more than 20 miles an hour. In past autumns, on days like today, I have observed--using binoculars--monarchs flying high and fast as the temperatures warmed up toward midday. The strong winds appeared to limit the monarch movement during this day. In early afternoon at Chichaqua wildlife area in Polk County, seven monarchs were seen in a half-hour--and then only with the use of binoculars.

Sunday, Sept. 21--In mirroring the same time frame as used on Friday (10:45 a.m. CDT to 12:45 p.m.), 20 monarchs were counted during the two-hour period--an average of 10 an hour--at Chichaqua wildlife area. Using binoculars, fifteen were seen in the first hour and five in the second. In retrospect, Friday appeared to have been the big day for monarch migration through Iowa--certainly with the push from the cold Canadian air passing through. Interestingly enough, on Friday after returning from seeing so many monarchs on the move, I did not see a single monarch in our butterfly garden. On Sunday when I returned, from 5 to 10 monarchs were keeping a presence in the front and back yards.

Monday, Sept. 22--At 5 a.m. the temperature was 57 degrees, and it was raining in Des Moines. Rain was falling across many parts of Iowa. Rain and damp weather throughout the day appeared to halt the monarch traffic. No monarchs were sighted during the day.

Tuesday, Sept. 23--Rain in the morning slowed monarch movement, but as the sky began to clear by midday, the monarchs started showing up again. In a brief count from 1:40 p.m. to 2 p.m., 14 monarchs were sighted in 20 minutes in the sky over our butterfly garden in Altoona. Numerous monarchs also could be seen crossing the roadways in central Iowa.

Wednesday, Sept. 24--The day was clear, and the monarchs were moving. Late in the afternoon, eight monarchs were resting and feeding on purple asters in our butterfly garden.

Thursday, Sept. 25--Another sunny day. In the late afternoon, more than 20 monarchs were in the butterfly garden. The purple asters definitely are a big hit with the migrating monarchs.

Friday, Sept. 26--The monarchs were passing over Chichaqua wildlife area northeast of Des Moines again this day but not at the rate they had a week earlier. In a two-hour count from 10 a.m. to noon, 28 monarchs were observed--21 in the first hour. The sky was clear to partly cloudy, and a light breeze was blowing most of the time. Back in the butterfly garden in Altoona, some five to 10 monarchs were feeding on the purple asters for most of the afternoon.

Sunday, Sept. 28--The wind from the west hit more than 20 miles an hour during the day, and the monarch movement was slowed. In the butterfly garden in the late afternoon, five or six monarchs were fighting the wind to fly from purple aster to purple aster.

Thursday, Oct. 2--At 1:30 p.m. today, a single monarch was on the purple asters in the butterfly garden. Earlier in the week, strong winds hampered the movement of monarchs, and in the last day or so, the weather has been great--but the monarchs have been few in number. By the end of the day today, three monarchs were feeding on the asters in the front yard.

Friday, Oct. 3--For the third successive Friday, I looked for monarchs at Chichaqua wildlife area northeast of Des Moines. Not a migrating monarch was in sight during the morning hours, but any possible movement would have been severely limited by a strong wind from the south. Late in the day in the butterfly garden in Altoona, five monarchs were flying around and feeding among the asters.

Thursday, Oct. 9--A cold front passed through Iowa late Wednesday bringing strong winds and rain. The weather had been unseasonably warm the first part of the week, and few monarchs were observed. But this morning it had cooled down considerably, and by midday monarchs were on the move again.

Friday, Oct. 17--Freezing weather in central Iowa earlier this week likely ended the season for monarch butterflies. Occasionally in past years, a single monarch has been spotted in the days of mid-October, but now the wait begins till spring when the monarchs come again.