Date: 03/12/2015

Number: 1

The remigration through Maverick County, Tx, should arrive March 13th at the earliest. But the earliest monarch I've ever seen here is the 16th. The densest count ever was only 5 in one day. That is all assuming that the monarchs leave the Reserva on Feb. 28-Mar. 2 or so. It's 649 miles in a straight line to here at the rate of 50 miles a day, so the arrival time varies and relies upon many factors.


Any monarchs we see prior to March 13th will be arriving here from the Parque de Cielo down just south of Cuidad Victora OR even Brownsville down along the Gulf Coast. We also have to bear in mind that the colonies could have formed on Popocateptl this winter, also.

Here's the other major factor: it appears that the return flight/ remigration does not take the same path as the fall. Rather than becoming an aggregate pulling-together by the time the central Flyway reaches here in the fall, it is the opposite diaspora FROM the Reservation in the spring, resulting in the sighting of FAR fewer spring remigrants here in SWTx and FAR more over south of San Antonio and around Cuero where Harlen and Altus are.

One of my most interesting encounters with a spring monarch is when some 10 years or so years ago, my friend Kay Cunningham and I went out to check the oenotheroides in their lower pastures right beside the Rio Grande, where we had a 30 acre area we monitored for eggs and larvae. It was very early in March and we checked ALL the plants across the pasture. ONE monarch female had passed, laying eggs on each plant she encountered. Her trek would have plotted on a map as a perfect zigzag across the field to the NE! One narrow line of eggs was all we found. We never saw her.

I have 7 huge pots of curassavica on the SW back patio. They were cut back the last of December and immediately resprouted[We had no killing frost this winter.] So we have lots of Tropical milkweed available in town and the winter rains put oenotheroides [our main native food source here] in all the millions of acres of Texas prairies, ranches and open lands, so there's absolutely no reason for monarchs to concentrate their flight.

Last spring I saw 3 monarchs in my back patio, but only observed one laying eggs, and found almost 100 eggs, so I expect more sneaked by me. I also suspected it could have been the SAME monarch just hanging out here for 3 days doing her thing.

Eagle Pass, TX

Latitude: 28.5 Longitude: -100.5

Observed by: Carol
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