At Cape May Point, on 9 October they reported -
Ref: Monarch Monitoring Project (click to read more) We enjoyed another day with lots of monarchs in Cape May Point, with many of those monarchs now sporting new tags. We also had a great day of educational outreach, with 40 people coming to our casual 11 am drop-in program at the Triangle Garden and more than 80 at our 2 pm tagging demo, including two outstanding school groups. The 11 am programs continue every day through Oct. 18, but we have just 3 more scheduled tagging demos, Oct. 10, 11, and 17. If monarch numbers continue to be good, however, we will add some impromptu extra programs. There's a cold front with rain showers passing through Cape May right now (late Friday evening), and tomorrow we expect northerly winds and a high temperature just in the lower 60s. Our best guess is that the weekend will continue to see many monarchs around Cape May Point, but that's just a guess, the insects sometimes fool us. All we can do is plan to get up early and head out there to check, and that's exactly what our team will do. Stay tuned for a status update on Saturday. Ref: Monarch Monitoring Project (click to read more) |
Ref: Journey North (click to read more)
Monarchs Funneling into Texas With a gentle push from the north wind, the migration began to flow into Texas this week. "We estimated 1,000 butterflies over a 4-hour period. We would get waves of about 10 at a time over our house but could see them in the distance, too. We turned a on sprinkler and put it in the sun." Beverly Prichard, Robert Lee, Texas Oct 5, 2015 The average roost-size in Texas has been 1,000 monarchs so far, and numbers should build to peak over the coming week. All Are Texas-bound Monarchs moving down from northern latitudes are all headed for Texas. It's the only state that all monarchs must cross. The migration pathway is narrowing now and the butterflies are becoming more concentrated. Blown Westward Unusually large numbers of monarchs were reported from Colorado again this week. One roost contained 3,000 butterflies and another was as far west as Colorado Springs (-104°W). Persistent east winds appear to have blown the monarchs westward this fall and south winds have prevented their travels toward Texas. Atlantic Winds Mark Garland of the Cape May Monarch Monitoring program sums up the status of the Atlantic Coast migration in a word: Wind! During what's usually peak migration, almost 2 weeks of easterly winds (from the ocean) have not been driving monarchs to the Coast. Add to that the strong winds associated with Hurricane Joaquin last week and migration along the Atlantic has been only a trickle. Looking Ahead The next cold front should sweep the monarchs southward across the Great Plains as early as Friday. Keep your eyes on Texas! The traditional arrival at the overwintering sites in Mexico is November 1st, about 3 weeks from now. Use the peak migration map to predict when they'll arrive. Ref: Journey North (click to read more) |