Date: 10/11/2012

Number: 450

I've heard and read all the talk about the small migration thru central Texas this year and wanted to chime in on my experiences. We have a place along the San Saba River in Menard County, Texas where we have tagged thousands of monarchs over the last 15 years as they come down to roost in the trees at night. Last year, when Texas experienced the worst drought on record the river quit flowing along our land for 6 months. We had no butterflies roosting in our trees, but further up the river where there was still water in the river, we were able to observe and tag hundreds.

This year, the river is flowing and the monarchs were there. Not as great We tagged 450 over 3 days last weekend (Oct 11-13). There was a strong SW wind all week which kept the little guys in the trees for 4 days and made it easy for us to observe and tag. After a big rainstorm Saturday (10/20) night, they left the river bottom and were gone on Sunday.

At my friends ranch, also in Menard county, Texas and along a spring fed creek that never goes dry, she has had wonderful numbers of monarchs last year and this year. We tagged 125 in her giant pecan trees during and one hour time period in the middle of the day. All seemed to be roosting, very few were nectaring. However, there were hundreds of Queens nectaring in the abundant frost weed, blue mist, and maximillian sunflowers. She reports they were still there in large numbers on Wednesday (the 17th).
So, I guess it just depends on where you are.

Courtesy of Monarch Watch

Menard County, TX

Latitude: 30.9 Longitude: -99.8

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