Our family ranch has served as a roost for Monarch Butteflies each of the last 4 years on 1 or 2 days either side of October 1st.

The past 2 years the numbers were lower than 3 years ago, but this year was so incredible the numbers were hard to even estimate. My conservative estimate would be 10,000. It was easy to count 200 in such a small area, and then figure 50 times that is 10,000. Could easily have been 20,000-30,000!

They actually filled the willow trees and the tall grass that lined a 1/4 to 1/2 mile section of Chyna Creek. We have some incredible digital pictures where you can easily see several hundred in flight, and a short video clip that could easily show 1,000. It is one of the events we most look forward to on our ranch each year.

A strong cold front blew through Wednesday evening and most of the Monarchs were gone Thursday morning when we visited the area.

Would be willing to submit a few photos for posting on the web sight if you are interested! --mike--

Sweetwater, TX

Latitude: 32.5 Longitude: -100.3

Observed by: Mike
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