Date: 10/10/2004

Number: 1

A river of Monarchs passed over today. This was mostly observed from our
place 5 km NE of Utopia in SW Bandera Co.., but we ranged southeast as
noted.

By noon I had seen a few Monarchs in the yard, passing south (S) to
southsouthwest (SSW). By 1 it was about 6-8.
At 1:30 I saw 5 at once, and grabbed my binocs and started scanning.
1:32 to 1:37 standing at one end of my porch I was counting 100 per
minute.
All going S to SSW. They were everywhere. Up high 100', groups
thermalling.
I walked around trying to get a vantage point from the bowl we're in, and
for a half hour, anywhere you looked you saw a hundred as fast as you
could
count them. A minute. I would look east, and count a hundred within one
binoc field of view, within a quarter mile, and it was the same to the
west behind
me.

Between 2:10 & 2:30 it seemed to slow to 50 per minute in every
direction.
It seemed to me that ten thousand passed at minimum in the hour, and it
was
likely twice that, or more. This was a slice of a kilometer or so width,
of
a mass of unknown width. So we headed to town (Utopia) 5 km SW. All along
the way the river continued in density as fast as you could count them
(100/min.
approx). The town was full of them, but shortly after getting north of
town
they decreased rapidly. There were only small numbers of them at Lost
Maples SNA
later in the afternoon.

However back here at the adobe, at 6:30 p.m. they
were still
going over to the SSW at the rate of 10 per minute. This leads me to
believe
they continued in high numbers here (after I left), for some time. They
were not
further north in the valley, and were clearly coming into the Sabinal
River Valley from
the NE, mid valley or so..... anyway, some settled in and are roosting,
so there
should be a liftoff tomorrow. It was some moving movent moments. The
passage lasted probably 5 hours, with a 2-3 hour peak, and it was at least
a couple
kilometers wide, with therefore thousands per hour. Considering most were
early in the afternoon, I would expect they made if off the escarpment
already, only 10
miles south. I wouldn't be surprised if there were 100,000 that passed
.....

Contributed by href="http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/monarch">Texas Monarch Watch

Utopia, TX

Latitude: 29.6 Longitude: -99.6

Observed by:
Contact Observer

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