Date: 09/29/2001

Number: 1

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Denise Gibbs, of the
Chincoteague Monarch Monitoring Project
reports September 29th as the strongest migration to date, with an average rate of 880 monarchs per hour, and 350/hour the previous day! (Prior to this, September 19th was the strongest migration to date, with an average rate of 70 monarchs per hour.)

Here are her comments:

The first big wave of monarchs arrived here
on Assateague Island on Friday, Sept 28.
The migration was constant all day Friday
and most of Saturday the 29th. Thousands of
monarchs clustered in the bayberry thickets
at dusk on Saturday and have remained there
since then. A storm caused temperatures to
drop and the north wind increased to 25mph
with higher gusts. This morning (Monday) the
conditions are: heavy rain, wind north at 15mph
and 50 degrees F. Monarchs still cling to the
bayberry, Groundsel-tree, and goldenrod. Here's
what worries me now: The combination of a waxing
moon (full tomorrow night) and coastal flooding
from the storm is creating a high tide that
is breaching the primary dune and has already
washed out part of the beach road. The beach
area along Tom's Cove is gone. Waves are
spreading up into the beach grasses and
seaside goldenrod. This is the site where
several thousand monarchs are clustered on the
goldenrod flowers. The ground is flat here
and I fear that if the flooding continues,
they will drown on the incoming tide.

Interesting Migration Pattern Noted by Denise

During 3 seasons of monitoring on the East Coast we noticed this pattern: About 150 miles to our north, Dick Walton would report big "waves" of monarchs coming through Cape May, NJ. It would take 2 days for these waves to reach me at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in VA.

I would report big waves to Mark Garland at Kiptopeke (which is about 70 miles south of me) and he would receive them one day later.

Although I have no data in the form of recovered tagged monarchs, this was not a one-time event. It happened time after time over the 3 seasons. Usually, but not always, the winds were from the north, northwest, or west-northwest with full sun.

Annual Monarch Migration Monitoring Site
Daily monitoring began Saturday, September 15, 2001.

Assateague Island, VA

Latitude: 38.1 Longitude: -75.2

Observed by:
Contact Observer

The observer's e-mail address will not be disclosed.
Contact will be made through a web-based form.