Date: 10/25/2007

Number: 1

I had trouble at getting to the hawk watch today.

The real migration today was the monarch butterflies. I thought that I had seen lots of monarchs west of Cameron La and near Sabine but those were amateur shows compared to the point today. I would think that the westerly winds held the butterflies back and now the north wind moved them to the point when they got going. Once it warmed up a river of monarchs flowed from east to west past the tower along the bay and in the scrub between the parking lot and the dropoff. They continued out the point until the got near the road that goes left instead of going straight to the Spoonbill. They all stopped in these trees.

Hundred and thousand of monarchs were passing constantly with clouds rising whenever there was a disturbance. In mid afternoon there was a short term change in wind direction and the migrants started moving away from the bay and past the tower. After a bit the wind went back to the north and they

Smith Point Hawk Watch, TX

Latitude: 29.5 Longitude: -94.8

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