To: Journey North
From: Benigno Salazar
Date: March 13, 1996
Dear Students,
Greetings from Angangueo. In the Rosario sanctuary the weather has been very good, except for the 11th and 12th of this month, which were cloudy and somewhat rainy. However the rest of the days have been warm with winds from the south at 70 km per hour. This good weather has resulted in many butterflies coming out of their state of sexual diapause and today a massive mating was observed among the butterfies. However, large concentrations of butterflies roosting on the Oyamel trees have not yet reached their state of sexual maturation, especially those who are not receiving the direct rays of the sun during the day.
In Rosario many of the butterflies have moved down about 400 meters to roost on the Oyamel fir trees along the stream banks. Their rust orange color can be seen up to 4 km away. We are beginning to see Butterflies down within the town of Angangueo during the day, after which at about five or six in the afternoon, they fly the 8 km back up to the sanctuary.
Further up the mountain in the Chincua reserve, as of the first days of January the butterflies began mating. During the month of February, mating activity continued on a more and more frequent basis. During the month of March, the weather has been excellent. Up in the monarch colonies the winds have been blowing from the south at 60 km an hour. The days have been hot but in the mornings there is usually frost on the ground.
The butterflies have been moving up and down the ravines between 3000 and 2700 meters above sea level. They continue to roost in the Oyamel fir, pine, and oak trees. During early March thousands of mating pairs of butterflies could be seen roosting in these areas. We have witnessed a decline in the numbers of trees with butterflies, which we take to mean that some of the butterflies in the Chincua reserve have departed to begin their return to the U.S.
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