All Flights Cross Through Texas
Monarchs
moving down from northern latitudes are all bound for Texas. Texas is
the only state on the migration pathway that all monarchs must cross.
In Texas, the migration narrows and becomes more concentrated before
it enters Mexico
"Before
crossing into Mexico, the butterflies move through Texas on a pathway
that angles slightly to the southwest," says Dr. Bill Calvert.
"It does not move straight south. The center of this central pathway
could be considered to move down from Wichita Falls,
to Abilene, San Angelo, and then to
Del Rio, Texas.
“Of
course, the pathway is different from year to year, just as you can
never really consider weather to be 'typical,'” he added.
"At
the latitude of the southern tip of Texas, the monarchs' flight path
is only about 8% as wide as it was when they started from their breeding
grounds in the north."
In other
words, the monarchs are 12 times more concentrated as move through Texas.
The state of Texas is like a funnel through which the monarchs pour. No
wonder the migration can be such a spectacle in Texas.
Here is one
example where the observer saw 6,000 monarchs per hour!
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