Across my dreams with nets of wonder
I chase the bright elusive butterfly of love
Jan. 11, 2002 started a bad weekend for monarch butterflies. Late that night, an unusually powerful storm invaded the butterflies' overwintering grounds in the Oyamel fir forests west of Mexico City, which are normally dry at that time of the year. According to Monarch Watch at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the butterflies "form dense clusters on the trees, with densities of 10 million or more butterflies per hectare," distributed over several different colonies. That can add up to 100-500 million butterflies south of the US border. As cold rain changed to snow and the temperature dropped into the 20s that night, the inactive, hibernating monarchs dropped from the trees by the bushelful.
Monarch Watch director Orly 'Chip' Taylor, who visited the forest shortly afterward, reported that at one location, "the entire area was ...
