'Endangered' migrant monarchs wildly abundant in Texas this past week. a.

[Paul Cherubini]

Am I exaggerating? Judge for yourself:  On Oct. 13 & 14 I took a drive 
out to west-central Texas and found Monarchs were so abundant that 
even single trees in residential yards were covered with monarchs.

Here is a single pecan nut tree in a residential backyard in Eola, TX
covered with monarchs:

Distant view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/eola3.jpg
Closer view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/eola4.jpg
Close up view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/eola5.jpg

Here is another single tree in a residential front yard in Eola, TX

Distant view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/eola1.jpg
Close up view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/eola2.jpg

Even small trees in the yards of homes in Vick, TX were covered:

Distant view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/vick1.jpg
Close up view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/vick2.jpg

Same situation at Wall, Texas:

Distant view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/wall1.jpg
Close up view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/wall2.jpg
Another view: http://www.saber.net/~monarch/wall3.jpg

The cities and towns in this part of Texas (near San Angelo, TX) were 
surrounded by row crops, chiefly cotton.  Many homes adjacent
to these cotton fields had landscape trees (actually pecan nut trees)
that contained thousands of monarchs:

Distant view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/sanangelo7.jpg
Close up view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/sanangelo5.jpg

The take home lesson for me is that monarchs find adequate cluster habitat 
even when the entire landscape has been completely altered from its natural
state with row crop agriculture and residential / urban developement.  

Even urban developement you may ask? Yes, example:  here is a single 
pecan nut tree growing in  a city park in San Angelo, TX (a fairly sizable city) 
that contained large monarch clusters:

Distant view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/sanangelo6.jpg
Close up view:  http://www.saber.net/~monarch/sanangelo3.jpg
Another view: :http://www.saber.net/~monarch/sanangelo2.jpg

Paul Cherubini
Placerville, Calif.

 
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