October 22, 2010

Dear Journey North Friends,
Today my brother, Fernando, and I drove to El Cerrito around two o´clock. We were speaking about how easy it was to confuse Monarchs with a similar species flying around, orange as well, dotted, but much smaller.

Suddenly, Fernando shouted to me, "There is the first one, Estela!"

That it was. The first Monarch was flying along the road beside some trees for a few seconds, but absolutely long enough for us to recognize it. It disappeared for a about five minutes and then appeared again flying slowly away into the woods.

Next we drove to a different side of El Cerrito and saw two more flying as well, one not so far, and the other far away only passing by.

Bienvenido a Angangueo, Monarcas! (Welcome to Angangueo, monarchs!!!)

October 23

I drove again to El Cerrito today to see the extent to which the butterflies had increased from one day to the next.

Once into the woods I could immediately see there were dozens of monarchs scattered and flying in the area. I estimate there were more than 300. In the tip of some branches there were small groups of four to six of them, as you can see in one of the photos attached.

Look at the chart now!!!

We'll continue to monitor the monarchs' arrival and report to you next week,

Estela and Fernando Romero
Angangueo, Michoacan, Mexico

Estela Romero records the arrival of her first 3 monarchs on her monitoring chart.

Some of the first monarchs to reach the overwintering region in Mexico.

Ameyaltzin (age 3) and friend look at the monitoring chart.

El Cerrito, the hillside above Angangueo where the monarchs traditionally appear first each year.

Look at the chart now!!!

Photos by Estela Romero