Date: 10/13/2005

Number: 2000

Friday morning, Oct. 14

I knew the roosting monarchs were in trouble when I awoke at sunrise and looked out my window. The back and side yards of my rental house on Chincoteague Island were already under several inches of water.

Concerned that I might be stranded, I left before the incoming tide could
flood the driveway. I raced to the beach road on Assateague Island to access
an interdune area where thousands of monarchs had roosted Thursday night in
the seaside goldenrod along the shore of Tom's Cove.

To my horror, there was no longer a beach road. The hard-packed oyster shell
lane that paralleled the ocean's edge had been washed out during the night
in what the NPS naturalists called "a nor-easter with a tide higher than
anyone on the staff had ever seen in all their years of working there".

Contributing factors were:
the continued raging ocean from the stalled storm
in the northeast Atlantic,
5" of rainfall the previous week, and ,
the
approaching full moon and accompanying higher-than-normal tides.

I parked my
car at the causeway and trekked the mile over quicksand-like conditions
where the road used to be.
Several deep gullies were still awash with ocean water making it's way over
the sand, through the salt marsh and into Tom's Cove. My heart sank when I
came to the first small patch of seaside goldenrod-- it was flattened and
choked with sand. I searched for dead monarchs but, thankfully, found none.

Finally at the south end of the "road", I approached the area where most of
the monarchs had been clustered late Thursday evening. They were still
there! They had crawled up to the tips of the goldenrod flowers, some within
a few inches of the flooding tide.
I stayed until the tide ebbed to make sure they would make it. They could
not take flight; the winds were NNW at 20-25 mph with higher gusts. Any
monarch that relinquished hold on the flowers was immediately caught in the
wind and blown out to sea. They will be trapped on the goldenrod flowers all
day if the winds continue, and will have to survive the next two high tides,
which are predicted to be even higher than this past one. I looked with
binoculars to see if the monarchs were just perched or if they were taking
advantage of their situation. Most monarchs had their tongues extended and
were nectaring on the peak-bloom flowers. I allowed myself a moment without
worry to admire their beauty.
These I believe to be the Mid-Atlantic monarchs; they are pristine, with no
wear or scars on their wings. Their wings are huge and their abdomens fat.
They have not traveled far to arrive here.

I wonder if they sense how perilous the next 24 hours could be . . .

Excerpt from Denise Gibbs' field journal of the Chincoteague Monarch
Monitoring Project at Chincoteague NWR on Assateague Island, Virginia.
Contributed to Monarch Watch.

Editor’s Note: We are estimating a minimum of 2000 monarchs based on observer’s estimate of “thousands.” This report is dated October 13, the evening the roost had formed.

Assateague Island, VA

Latitude: 38 Longitude: -75.3

Observed by:
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