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Field Report From the Mexican Over-wintering Sites To: Journey North From: Greg Munson February 28, 1998 Principal Monarch Over-wintering Sites in Mexico News from Mexico. Our group of nine from Rochester had an opportunity to visit El Rosario on Monday the 23rd and Sierra Chinqua on both the 24th and 25th of February. Weather was excellent with cloudless days and temps in the 70's. The monarchs at El Rosario (El Camanario) were flying around in small numbers near the parking lot and sanctuary entrance but could not be found in large clusters until we reached the very top of the sanctuary. There we were treated to hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of monarch both flying and clustered in the trees. I don't know if there were many more in other areas of the sanctuary as the locals had us blocked off from going any further. The numbers of monarchs seen by myself was somewhere between 10 and 20% of what I had seen last year and in 1995 at both El Rosario and Sierra Chinqua. I'm not sure how to explain this as it had recently been quite cool and therefore I would think not too many had left yet. Sierra Chinqua is more developed this year with more guides and the possibility of going on horseback or in a pickup truck, rather than walking the steep hills. There were also a few of the local who had set up trinket and food stands there. At both sanctuaries we saw quite a few mating monarchs although not as many, even proportionately, as we had seen on previous trips. Although we looked carefully, we were unable to find any monarch tags such as the ones we, along with others across the country, put on by the hundred each August and September. One of the highlight for me was to stay in Room 14 at Quinta Mitzis, a small motel in Tuxpan, where the Urquharts stayed during many of their trips to study the sanctuaries. Mitzi has been a gracious host and often shares stories about Dr. Urquhart, as well as Dr. Linclon Brower, who also frequented her motel. On the way to Valle de Bravo, a tourist town a couple hours south of El Rosario and Sierra Chinqua, we saw quite a few monarchs crossing the road, more than likely coming down from La Herrada, another of the sanctuaries not frequently visited. Since we took two eighth graders and De Cansler, a local middle school teacher and monarch enthusiast, arrangements were made for them to visit the school in Angangeuo. They found their visit interesting and very enlightening and probably felt pretty good about how well equipped their school is in Rochester. Although this was my third trip to Mexico to see the monarchs I look forward to taking other interested monarch enthusiasts for what one member of our group called a "trip of a lifetime". For me this gathering of millions of monarchs is the most spectacular natural event which I have ever witnessed. Dr. Greg Munson Reporting from Angangueo, Michoacan, Mexico