"My face was awash in tears."

[Paul Cherubini]

On Oct. 21 Mike Quinn, Bob Pyle and company 
observed such massive numbers of fall migrant
monarchs in the hills above Monterrey, Mexico that it 
brought Mike to tears:

Here's how Mike described the spectacle today on dplex-l

snipped:

Date:	Fri, 01 Nov 2002 17:30:52 -0600
From:	"Mike Quinn" <Mike.Quinn at tpwd.state.tx.us> 
To:	"'DPLEX-L at KU.EDU'" <DPLEX-L at KU.EDU>

Subject:	"a sight that stirred my very soul"

After the Texas Butterfly Festival, Bob Pyle, Steve Cary,
Hank & Pricilla Brodkin, a few other butterfly enthusiasts
and I toured Northeastern Mexico. We arrived at Parque Ecologico 
Chipinque in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon on Monday, October 21. 

As we walked up the side of the mountain the Monarchs began
to pour through. They were coming through at a rate of several 
100 per minute. I usually get just a little choked up when I 
see thousands of Monarchs but this sight was so incredibly 
profound that that my face was awash in tears. 

Before leaving Texas, I hadn't heard that Charlie Sassine had seen 
10-20,000 along the Rio Grande. I was only aware of a few Texas
reports in the thousands. Chip seemed to be right in his prediction 
very low numbers this winter. Then we were standing on that 
mountain side with the Monarch floodgates wide open. It was so 
incredibly moving in part because it was so unexpected. 

In that moment, it was as if nothing else existed save the
Monarchs and us. I could have lived in that moment forever... 
The low storm clouds enveloping the ridges of the Sierra
Madres only added to the drama. 

Mike Quinn
Austin, TX

Recall it was just 8 months ago the public was flooded
with "monarch crisis" type articles in the press sensationalizing the
purported 75-80% storm related kill of monarchs at the overwintering 
sites in Mexico
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/Jnorth75%2525.JPG
http://www.saber.net/~monarch/deep.jpg

Paul Cherubini

 
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