After having had cool temperatures for several days, the temps climbed into the low 80?s last Tuesday and Wednesday,resulting in a large quantity of monarchs migrating through and stopping in our overgrown fields of blooming goldenrod to feed. Thursday it was cooler and rainy,but Friday the sun and warmer temps returned and it seemed like the migration floodgates had burst open,there were monarch butterflies everywhere! I have never seen so many at one time,as I walked down the trail between the fields,butterflies flew up from either side in large groups. Early in the evening,one of the hunters who knows I take a lot of photos stopped by the house,telling me that there were clusters of monarchs in some of our trees alongside the road. Sure enough,there were some in one of the maple trees,and some clinging to a grape vine that was hanging down from a branch nearby. Most were pretty far up among the leaves,others were coming in to join them,resulting in a fluttering of wings.I had never seen monarchs roosting before,so I was thrilled to witness this behavior,as well photograph it.The monarchs roosted for three nights in a row;today the goldenrod fields were only visited by a few monarchs,the vast majority of them had continued on their journey south. Exactly why monarchs roost is unknown,they migrate singly during the day,usually clustering in a protected area,a tree with a suitable microclimate around it. Usually the roosting site has protection from wind,has nearby nectar sources,and has a suitable structure that facilitates clustering. Roosting may also provide safety from predators. Image was not edited.