The migration to Mexico is underway! Here is the news from the migration trail:

• Highlights from the Migration Trail
  • Latest migration maps
  • Comments from observers
  • Migration rate math: Who saw the strongest migration this week?
• This Week: Too Cold to Fly Today?
• First Symbolic Monarchs Have Arrived!
• Teachers' Guide

Resting on Monday in Monroe City, MO >>

Latest Migration Maps

• Click for live maps and read the observer's comments.
• Make Your Own Map in the classroom! >>
• Also See: Week-by-week Migration Animation >>

Summer is over! A cold air mass swept across the continent last week, insisting that it's time for fall. People noted the "stop and go" nature of monarch migration during this dramatic change in weather. As these comments highlight, monarchs move during windows of opportunity and rest and refuel in between:

Central region:
Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and Kansas saw the most action:

9/20/06 Prairie City, IA
It was truly a surprise to see so many monarchs after days of rain and much colder weather. I suspect many had been delayed to the north by the bad weather.

9/18/06 Amana, IA
Sitting in the parking lot at work during lunch I counted 45 Monarchs in 25 minutes. All were trying to fly SW. They better hurry because the temperature is predicted to fall down to 30 F by Wednesday morning.

9/18/06 Kansas City, MO (39.10 N, -94.60 W)
I sat down and, for an hour, observed a wonderful flight - 175 monarchs. Most of them are sailing high above the rooftops and treetops, but a few have dropped down to feed on the flowers. As I write this at 11:10 am, I can see 5 in my yard now!

9/16/06 Monroe City, MO
I first noticed the monarchs on Saturday the 16th. The weather turned cooler late on the 18th and, the next day, the monarchs were gone!

Migration Rate Math

As the monarchs funnel toward Mexico their numbers overhead become greater and greater.

Here are observations we collected this week. Who will see the record flight for fall 2006? Let's see!

• Who saw the strongest migration this week?

"We counted 37 butterflies in 15 minutes going over our playground at school."
Memorial Primary
Bluefield, WV

"Our class went outside at 1:10 and observed for 10 minutes..."
Atchison Elementary
Atchison, Kansas

Eastern region:
When a northwest wind hits the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains the air lifts upward. Monarchs can fly along the ridges effortlessly toward the southwest. Under such conditions came this...

9/15/06 Waynesboro, VA (38.03 N, -78.86 W)
It's difficult to adequately describe the most impressive flight I have ever witnessed. Not a single one here and one there, but clusters filled the sky, quickly moving through by the brisk NW winds, a continuous flow.

And from the Monarch's winter home in Mexico:

9/21/06 Angangueo, Michoacan, MX (19 N, -100 W) No monarch butterflies in sight yet... (Estela Romero has the whole community watching! >>)