Spectacular eastern monarch fall migration this year

[Paul Cherubini]

Mark Berman wrote:

> Empirically, it seems as if the
> numbers of Monarchs flying in the New England area have declined in recent
> years.

Mark, there is alot of good news coming out of the northeastern USA and southeastern 
Canada on the dplex-l discussion list right now. Check out these recent posts:

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 09:14:21 -0400

I also was in Cape May, NJ on Saturday.  Wow, that was the most Monarchs I have
seen outside of Mexico.  I spoke with a Naturalist in the New Jersey Audubon
Center.  She has lived on the Cape for 40 years, and believes that this is
the best migration she has seen.

Gary Stell
gary.d.stell at lmco.com

Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 10:40:49 -0500

I live in New Jersey (and I have loved monarch butterflies all of my life)  and
in the past few days I have noticed more monarchs migrating than I ever have
noticed before.  I just wanted to ask you if this is an unusual event, and if
there are more monarchs migrating this year than in the past.

Gene Espinosa

Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 22:26:06 -0400

This weekend I was in Cape May and NEVER saw anything like the numbers.  They were 
EVERYWHERE on Saturday following a stiff wind on Friday.  That turned to a light breeze 
on Saturday with bright sun and temperatures in the 80's.  It was incredible, and I wondered 
if you've had any reports on whether or not that was unusual or if I just happened to be 
lucky enough to be there for it.

Mimi Brauch

Subject: Re: estimate 20 to 25 thousand
Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1999 09:16:53 -0400

YESTERDAY,my brother and I spotted an alfalfa field in bloom,Some swing of the net 
gave up to 8 monarchs at a time,the farmer told us he had 5 fields in bloom to be cut in 2 
weeks.I estimated conservativrly in the 3 fields we surveyed easily 20 to 25 thousand 
monarchs nectaring
under a covered sky with drizzle. WE are 20 miles south of MONTREAL in QUEBEC

I find it very peculiar that none of the protectionist or even
alarmist on this list are not jumping and communicating their joy at
reading this post of thousands of monarchs per alfalfa field (cowfeed
up here in dairyland)

Rene Boutin

Subject: Eastern PA update
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 20:30:57 +0000

Today (Sunday, the 26th) and yesterday (Saturday, the 25th) were banner
days for monarchs in the Lehigh Valley (Bethlehem, Allentown, Easton
areas) of Pennsylvania.

Monarchs were seen flying virtually anywhere you traveled, and there
were large congregations of them at favorite nectaring sites.

Dennis Scholl

Subject: Re: Eastern PA update
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 23:52:12 -0500

Yes, the 26th also in South Jersey was the very best day for tagging yet.
Sometimes the sky was so crowded with Monarch's, they were fighting between some of 
them. At any given time between 11:00-3:30 there were at least 36 on all kinds of plants 
mostly 30+ Buddleas, Asters, Lantanas, Verbena. In 12 years I've never seen this many 
Monarch's here. Out of all going over head it seemed only 5% of them were stopping. 
UNBELIEVABLE!!! 

Karen Taylor