Date: 09/20/2009

Number: 5000

We are about 3 miles north of a little town called Sagerton, TX. We are right on the double mt. fork of the Brazos River. Not only do the butterflies pass thru, there are so many birds that it is truly amazing!

I believe the monarchs started roosting the evening of the 20th or the 21st. Low in numbers to begin with. Then progressively larger in numbers thru the 27th.

The 27th there was thousands of thousands, today (9/28) there is only a few we have a very strong north east wind and a lot cooler temp. than the 27th. We have noticed over the years that they are here one day or two or three then they are gone.

September 29
They are still flying through as we speak. We will walk down to their roosting spot and look. Might get another photo today...I just got back from the bottom..Wow! they are coming in very steady and hanging on our trees,i will be taking some pictures today and late this evening and as far as a count is, well, i stopped at a hundred and just took a guess as to a couple of hundred at the moment. as we sit and look out our window they are steadily coming by.

September 30
We did not see too many monarch's yesterday evening, but some are still flying through and roosting. There is another type of butterfly that we have failed to identify. They are flying through with the monarch's but probably double in numbers. We believe they roost, but not in a congregation like the monarch. (Editor's note: Photos of Tawny Emperors identified by Mike Quinn)

Editor’s Note: We are estimating a minimum of 5,000 monarchs based on observer’s description of “thousands of thousands” and are marking this record as a JN staff estimate.

Sagerton, TX

Latitude: 33.1 Longitude: -100

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