This Week's Update Includes:

• News: La Primera Monarca!
• Article: Explore Possible Pathways in Mexico
• The Migration: Maps and Journal

"Today we saw our first monarch butterfly of the season," reports Felipe Martinez Meza, Assistant Director, Reserva de la Biósfera Mariposa Monarca (RBMM).

Still Waiting in Angangueo
Estela Romero writes in this week's report:

"We are absolutely certain the monarchs are silently creeping towards us! They will appear any day now!"

Slow in Northern Mexico
Northern Mexico's Sierra Madres Mountains funnel the migration and can produce dramatic flights. So far this season, Rocio Trevino's network of observers reports:

"Muy pocas mariposas (very few butterflies)," in the states of Coahuila and Nuevo León.

• Identify and label the Mexican states on this map.

Low Numbers
Where Texans typically report thousands of monarchs they are seeing hundreds, where hundreds they are seeing tens. Are we witnessing the impact of the drought? Could this year's population be an order of magnitude smaller than in a good year? This unusual season is raising a lot of questions.

Two Texas Flyways
The migration moves through Texas on two primary pathways. Peak migration occurs first in the Central Flyway, but this year reports have been lackluster there. The Coastal Flyway typically peaks later, about the last week of October.

Still Hope for Texas Coast
Keep your eye on the weather map. After a week of south winds, a north wind is finally predicted for Friday. People in the Coastal Flyway have been reporting some movement:

"They are definitely flying through today. They are a ragged-tagged group flying toward their destination, coming through 2-3 at a time..."
Oct. 24, 2012: Houston, TX

Surprising Sighting
Twenty miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico, a shrimp boat captain made a discovery.

• Read about a surprising sighting.

Which Mexican states do the monarchs cross as they travel to their winter home? Why don't the monarchs travel straight south?

• Read Dr. Calvert's article.
• Plot the possible migration pathway on this map.