I noticed on Oct. 18th around lunch time that there were many butterflies passing by the platform. The platform sits out of the water about 110 FT. so I was able to see them at this high level. When I say many, I mean that the monarchs were flying by the platform in numbers up to 3 or 4 every 30 seconds to 1 min. Most of the time is was just one or two every 45 seconds. This lasted all day until evening. The next day the wind calmed down and I only saw a few that were hanging around the platform.

On Oct. 22, I noticed a few more that were following the wind. There were not many and the wind was not strong. The day that I saw most of them, I would say that the wind was blowing 15-20 knots-steady.

I hope this was helpful. I was visiting Brazos Bend State Park's website which led me to the TPWD website. That is how I heard you guy's were looking for help from observers. Two days later I experienced it. I was lucky to know that this was what I was experiencing.

The monarch flight direction was Southwest. I am 99.9% sure because we carry out satellites to communicate and for this reason we had a compass.

The wind was blowing more of a WSW and the monarchs were following the strong steady wind.(Approx. 15-20 knots.) The next day the wind was gone and the stragglers impressed me with their ability to fly at the level we were at. (approx. 120 ft. above the water.) Then they would just coast down to the water and [flap fly] back up again. I don't know much about monarchs but they must have a lot of stored energy to be able to do this for most of the day. Migration Highlight