Monarch Scientists on a Media Blitz this fall

Paul Cherubini monarch at saber.net
Sun Oct 17 16:43:51 EDT 2004


To deliver their usual frightening, worrisome "we have our finger's
crossed" subliminal messages to the public that the monarch migration
phenomenon might be in trouble.

The past 3 weeks in western and central Texas there
has been a highly unusual weather phenomenon: the winds
have been blowing from northerly or easterly directions almost every 
day whereas normally they blow predominately from the south
at this time of the year.

Late Sept. to mid-Oct. is also the time period when large numbers 
of fall migrant monarchs pass through Oklahoma and Texas on their
way to Mexico.  However, this fall the northerly winds and associated 
cool temperatures have kept the migrant monarchs widely dispersed over
the vast west and central Texas landscape whereas the more typical
southerly winds and associated warm temperatures tend to keep the
butterflies more concentrated in enormous afternoon and evening
clusters inside the shaded and wind sheltered canopies of predominately
pecan and oak trees.

So, due to the absense of southerly winds the past 3 weeks in
western & central Texas, monarch enthusiasts have not seeing
and reporting the usual big monarch clusters in the usual cluster sites.

So have the monarch scientists been acknowledging this unusual
weather phenomen in Texas and explaining to the public and reporters
that the lack of large buildups of monarchs in the usual cluster sites is
just what they would expect and is nothing to be concerned and worried 
about?

Nope, they have been doing just the opposite:

KXAN-TV Texas Item:
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=2427644&nav=0s3dRyW3

Excerpts:

"In Texas, we have colorful monarch butterflies by the thousands making
their way to Mexico for the winter. But this fall, a lot of the butterflies didn't
show up.  No one knows how low the numbers can go and still recover."

Odessa, Texas article:
http://www.oaoa.com/news/nw101404e.htm

Monarch butterfly a rare sight this year

By Julie Breaux
Odessa American

The monarch is proving to be an elusive butterfly this fall.
Texas is a flyway for the monarch Ð a place where the regal, tropical
creature can catch its breath during its migration from the northern
United States to the central Mexican highlands, where it nests in the
winter, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department entomologist Mike
Quinn said. Typically, millions of monarch butterflies from east of the
Rocky Mountains reach Texas in the fall, but not this year, Quinn said.
And he thinks he knows why.

An unusually cold, wet winter in central Mexico this year wiped out
large numbers of monarchs, he said. So, any sighting of the butterfly
anywhere in Texas including West Texas - which lies on the western
edge of the insect1s central flyway - would be a memorable event,
Quinn said "If they see a number of them or even if they only see a few,
it would be special," he said. So far, monarchs have been sighted east of
Amarillo, north of Dallas, near Belton and Abilene and especially along
the Concho River near San Angelo, Quinn said. Most observers report
low numbers compared to previous years.

"A lot of people from Dallas have called and said, "I've seen two,"
Quinn said. "So, it1s just a down year, and we're keeping our fingers
and toes crossed when they return from Mexico this spring."

 
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