Eastern
region:
A spectacular migration is moving down the Atlantic Coast
right now. During the past week, monarchs appeared on the coast
in large numbers from Maine to Virginia. On Monday, over 13,000
rested on the Massachusetts Coast. On Wednesday, a clear wave traveled
over New York City and delighted those who saw butterflies fill
the sky. Reports continue to arrive as I write. Listen to these:
9/27/06
New York, New York
- I
walked out of school at 3:00 pm and there they were! I observed
approximately 100 monarchs traveling south. I was so excited since
I had just read to second graders about monarch migration. I was
pointing the monarchs out to anyone who would listen.”
- "While
sitting in an outdoor cafe downtown I observed over 170 Monarchs
from 2:50 pm until aprox 4:00 pm. Amazingly, they seemed to stay
all along the Avenue and many appeared as high as the 5 story
buildings."
9/26/06
Ventnor, New Jersey
As I sat on the Ventnor Boardwalk, I counted butterflies coming
along the beach and the rooftops of the beach homes. I tallied butterflies
for one hour beginning at 4:50 pm and totaled 272 butterflies!
9/25/06
Misquamicut, Rhode Island
We decided to have lunch on the beach. Hundreds, possibly thousands
of beautiful monarch butterflies were following the coastline south.
None of us could believe that these fragile insects could fly so
far!
9/28/06
Cape May, New Jersey
“SOME BIG NUMBERS!” wrote Dick Walton of the Monarch
Monitoring Project. Is this week a record? Take a look. >> |
Migration
Rate Math
Here
is
this week's collection of quantifiable monarch observations,
and background
materials:
|
Central
region:
Monarchs continued to come down from the north and converge on the
states of Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas. The peak appears to have
reached 37 N, and the monarchs are poised to pour into Oklahoma
and Texas next. Some highlights:
9/28/2006
Summit, AR (36.28 N, -92.67 W)
Between 3:45 and 4 PM this afternoon we counted 309 monarchs within
our limited field of vision. We counted what we could see coming
over the top of our house and through a group of trees to the east.
The seemed to come in spurts. All were headed to the southwest
09/27/2006
Imperial, MO (38.38 N, -90.44 W)
Between the approximate time of 3:15 pm and 3:45 pm we sighted well
over 1,000 monarch butterflies cross the north horizon, heading
south.
09/25/2006
Baxter Springs, KS (37.06 N, -94.77 W)
How amazing! We saw what must have been thousands of Monarchs flying
south over Highway 400. |
And
from the Monarch's winter home in Mexico:
No
sight of them yet...>>
Angangueo,
Michoacan (19 N, -100 W)
|