Date: 11/15/2015

Number: 1000

There have been many many more monarchs visible along the roads and in the villages that border Cerro Pelon this year than in recent memory. The monarchs are slowly settling into their mountaintop colony this year; so far their nighttime roosts have been spread out, and forest rangers have been keeping their locations secret. It's clear though that the butterflies have shifted sites since last year. The last two seasons the monarch chose stands of trees at Carditos, on the west side of Cerro Pelon. This year there are many to be seen flying about the mountaintop meadow known as El Llano de Tres Gobernadores, which they have not visited since early 2012. Yesterday as we were watching them fly over El Llano the clouds rolled in and suddenly the butterflies picked the tallest oyamel tree in sight, right along the border of the clearing, and turned the lower top part of the tree orange. Attached photo was taken by intrepid traveler Maria Fritzmann of Hamburg, Germany.

Macheros, MEX

Latitude: 19.4 Longitude: -100.3

Observed by: Ellen
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