Date: 10/10/2008

Number: 1

I've been working as a Hawk-watcher at Hornsby Bend, in Austin, so I've had the opportunity to watch the Monarchs coming through over the past few days.
Yesterday, I counted over 171, with a peak of 37 between 10 and 11 AM.

Today,(10/10) I counted 544, with the peak occurring again between 10 and 11, when I counted 275 Monarchs. Please note, I am supposed to be watching for migrating hawks, so I'm scanning the sky with binoculars. What I did was to count Monarchs as I scanned for birds, as well as those I saw passing closer (non-magnified). Since I was looking for birds much of the time, I know I missed many butterflies.

What was interesting was the pattern of flight abundance: both days, Monarchs were most abundant in the morning, and the flight tapered off as the afternoon progressed. I haven't seen anything about the migration this year, so I'm not sure if I should expect these numbers to continue, or not. Either way, it's been very nice to see all these critters!

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Austin, TX

Latitude: 30.2 Longitude: -97.7

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