"My face was awash in tears."

[Roger Kuhlman]

Anecdotal reports of Monarch sightings do not provide much evidence one way 
or another how well eastern Monarch populations are doing. I thought that 
people claiming scientific expertise with regards to this issue would know 
this and carefully qualify the statements they make. Is it possible that 
something other than the careful discussion of a scientific question is 
going on here?

Roger Kuhlman
Ann Arbor, Michigan

>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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