Assateague Island, where the monarch was tagged on October 5th. The butterfly was found near Charleston, South Carolina on October 18th. Why did it take nearly two weeks for the monarch to travel the 400 miles from Virginia to South Carolina? Denise Gibbs, who tagged the butterfly, made these observations:

"In my field notes, I had indicated that the butterfly (MEG 672) had an extremely lean abdomen. In fact, most of the monarchs I netted that day were very lean. There had been several days with strong west and/or northwest winds which blow monarchs out to sea. They have to flap their way back to land when the winds decrease later in the day. I think they had used their fat reserves doing this and were taking every opportunity to nectar to rebuild fats. So I am guessing that MEG 672 spent a lot of time nectaring on the way to Charleston; that's why it took him so long."