Date: 04/20/2007

Number: 1

Altus and I took her four 4th graders to the lane north of Cuero in DeWitt County on Friday. It was cloudy, then PC, and the flora was wet until about 11:00 am, but we were seeing spicebush Swallowtails and Monarchs all over the place earlier than that.
There were times when the students would call out "Monarchs"
and we would check around the Astro van to see four different Monarchs flying right up to the windows. We were seldom moving more than 5 mph and stopping often ... didn't meet another vehicle in the two days on the ~5 mi lane. All of the Monarchs are faded and moving from south to north! The amount of fade was obvious to the students. I did hand catch a large female (fade about
5) that I think had made it as far as she could. I am preparing her for mounting and will try to photo today or tomorrow. I would estimate that around noon there were at least fifty an hour crossing the east-west lane and on Thursday when the sun was out all day at least a hundred an hour ... and that is probably a low estimate. In the afternoon we traveled to the west of Cuero and continued to see a few faded Monarchs crossing the road or necataring on the wildflower, but only a fifth of what we had seen in the morning north of Cuero.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Cuero, TX

Latitude: 29.1 Longitude: -97.2

Observed by:
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