By Dr. Chip Taylor, Monarch Watch:

The Jeffers had discovered a field of goldenrods that was covered with monarchs. It was not just a field but 1000 acres of CRP land (Conservation set-aside) in which the monarchs numbered in the thousands. In the email the text read ""hundreds of thousands" monarchs on a 10 acre field of goldenrods. The density is at least 100 monarchs per square meter." Given the email statement about 10 acres, I asked V three times about the size of the area and she assured me each time that it was a thousand acres. When I asked about the estimate of the number of monarchs, V told me that their best guess is that 40-50 thousand monarchs were using the area at one time.

The monarchs arrived on Saturday the 7th and V and Carl have been making trips to the location each morning and evening since then. V gave this description of the exodus from the field each evening.

About 6:15 the monarchs begin to leave the flowers and head for the hedgerows to the north and east of the field. They do not appear to be using the hedgerow to the south (there are no trees to the west). Movement of the butterflies toward the trees accelerates by 6:30 and by 6:45 there is a virtual cloud of monarchs seeking places to roost in the trees - so much so that to observers they look like flocks of birds coming to roost. By 7PM all but a few of the monarchs are at rest in the trees.

This spectacle will probably end as a cold front moves through the area. The weather for tomorrow is expected to be in the low 60s with showers so the butterflies may not be able to leave the area until the skies clear and the temperature hit the low 60s on Friday.

The Jeffers informed me that Jim Edson is on his way to the location so maybe Jim will be able to provide some clarifications and additional details.

There are two fields consists of about 1,000 acres of goldenrod, asters and a few other wildflowers. A drainage ditch with a tree line divided the fields. The monarchs were moving out of the fields to the trees by the
thousands. I don't know how to estimate the numbers, but the tree line is
about 0.5 miles long and all of the trees were full of monarchs. I haven't
seen anything like it except in Mexico. There could have been anywhere from
10K to 100K butterflies.
This is the largest aggregation of migrating monarchs I've heard of in several years.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Wilmot, AR

Latitude: 33.1 Longitude: -91.6

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