Date: 09/26/2000

Number: 1

I have been making a count for the past 2 hours here in Columbia, and am up to 310 for the
period! From about noon to 12:30 over 100 came through in that one half hour
alone. They have slowed down a bit now from that though, but 155 per hour
seems like a good rate. When I went out for lunch they were flying all over
town. Almost all of them are flying to the southwest today. We had our first big migratory push on Sept. 21st. There were fairly large numbers moving in directed flight. In two hours of observation I saw exactly 200 Monarchs. The rate slowed somewhat during the past half hour as the winds have picked up and became more variable. We had a cold front move through the previous two days. It rained for part of the day on the 20th and then cooled off. It was warmer with a north wind on the 21st though, and they began to move through in numbers.

Since last Thursday (9/21), we had a cold front move through over the weekend
that brought rain to Columbia. Yesterday, the front moved on through and the
temperatures are rebounding this morning. As a consequence, the Monarchs are
on the move again. I saw a dozen moving through in less than five minutes
this morning (9/26) so it looks like this may be another major day of migration.

Columbia, MO

Latitude: 38.6 Longitude: -92.2

Observed by:
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