Date: 09/10/2017
Number: 1
At about 1:18 PM today (9/10/17) I briefly spotted a Monarch butterfly zipping westward above the ramp here at University Park Airport (SCE) in State College, PA.
I say "zipping" because, for a butterfly, it was really making good headway, aided by a 7 mph tailwind from 50 degrees east of north.
The sky was mostly sunny with:
This parallels some of the observations I reported at the end of last summer (between 9/4/16 and 9/25/16) when we spotted several Monarch butterflies at the airport as they were winging their way generally westward. This is the first such observation I've been able to confirm so far this summer.
I've recently learned that about a mile east of the airport there is an undeveloped field with a good number of healthy common milkweed plants on which I've observed a few Monarch caterpillars. Maybe today's flyby came from there.
Unfortunately, the property has recently been sold and significant development is planned for it. On the plus side, the new owner has agreed to wait a couple of weeks before clearing it to allow any caterpillars that may still be there to mature and depart as butterflies.
State College, PA
Latitude: 40.9 Longitude: -77.9
Observed by: R. Timothy
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