Date: 10/18/2009

Number: 1

Sunday, Oct. 18th, around 6:30 p.m. sitting out back in the shade. Looked up. The sky seemed to be full of glitter. Between 50 and 100 feet above our house, there were thousands of butterflies on the move. The wind currents were moving them from the southeast to the northwest. They were between 50 and 100 feet in the air. Most were riding the currents and not moving their wings. There were so many we couldn't count them. Only saw 1 monarch on the bottlebrush. These were not Queens, they were huge Monarchs. We sat there for the better part of an hour in amazement. I have never seen anything like this before...totally spellbinding. We have looked other evenings but have not had a repeat performance. Will continue to watch for them. My observation time: I was watching for 1 hour.

I am a Lindheimer Master Naturalist and a Comal Master Gardener. Yes, we do have Hackberry Snouts hatching and they are everywhere. These butterflies WERE NOT Queens either.
The butterflies I observed were LARGE and could be readily seen with the naked eye. These were NOT snouts. We got the binoculars and definitely identified them as Monarchs.

New Braunfels, TX

Latitude: 29.7 Longitude: -98.1

Observed by: Melissa
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