Date: 09/11/2016
Number: 3
During the past week, we have witnessed several Monarch butterflies coming by the University Park Airport (SCE) where I work. Most are headed WSW (roughly paralleling our primary runway). It appears that they are flying over the ramp, near the southeast side of the terminal, which may allow them to avoid our usual breezes from the west, at least for the length of the terminal. Over a 90-minute period today (1:00 PM to 2:30 PM) we saw Monarch butterflies several times. I believe that while some observations were of the same butterfly, there were likely at least 3 different Monarchs that flew by in that interval. In all cases they were eventually headed WSW while trying to deal with a westerly headwind of at least 3 mph under mostly sunny skies with a temperature of about 76ºF.
State College, PA
Latitude: 40.9 Longitude: -77.9
Observed by: R. Timothy
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