People
reported migrating monarchs from points across the monarch’s
range this week! In the north, observers are surprised to see so
many monarchs so late; people as far south as Texas say numbers
are beginning to build; and the first sightings are starting to
arrive from northern Mexico! Here are some of the week’s highlights:
>>
9/28/06
Rule, TX (33. 19 N, -99.90 W)
"At our house we counted 63 monarchs. I was so excited. We
had been watching for a whole month and only seeing 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, and 9,” said the 2nd grade scientist.
9/29/06
Sweetwater, TX (32.50 N, -100.30 W)
The first spectacular roost was reported in Sweetwater, TX and estimated
to include as many as 40,000 butterflies. “I checked for their
arrival last night (9/28/06) at 7:00 pm, and saw about 300 early
arrivals. By 5:00 pm today, the trees and grass were literally filled.”
9/30/06
Arlington, TX (32.64 N, -97.17 W)
"Large numbers have not shown up yet, but the front runners
are here,” reports Julie Burgen.
9/29/06
Pottsville, AR (35.21 N, -93.05 W)
A clear wave of monarchs moved into northern Arkansas last Friday
and Mr. Roberts Earth Science students documented its arrival. Where
they had been seeing only 3-8 per hour all week they suddenly saw
138!
10/2/06
Harrisburg, AR (35.57 N, -90.71 W)
Around 9:00 am, my class counted 6 Monarchs flying past our weather
station during our weather observations. Later in the afternoon,
I received a report from my mother in Wynne, AR (about 20 miles
south) that her pecan tree limbs were loaded with hundreds of Monarchs
around 11:00 am.
Eastern
region:
Let's
check in with the two monitoring sites on the Atlantic Coast:
10/5/06
Cape May, New Jersey
The Monarch Monitoring Project counted an average of 624 monarchs/hour
during the past week. Are numbers up or down from the week before?
Take a look. >>
10/2/06
Assateague Island, Virginia
The biggest day yet, reported Denise Gibbs of the Chincoteague Monarch
Monitoring Project: “Monarchs migrated down the island by
about 1,300 per hour for most of today. It was quite a show!"
>>
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Migration
Rate Math
Here
is
this week's collection of quantifiable monarch observations,
and background
materials:
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