Date: 09/29/2017

Number: 2

At about 4:30 PM this afternoon I headed out to collect some common milkweed seeds from a nearby field along Jacksonville Road in Spring Township, PA, where three weeks ago I had spotted several Monarch caterpillars.   As a pleasant surprise while collecting seeds, I spotted at least two Monarch butterflies flying about the field, occasionally stopping to nectar on some of the thistle flowers.   I am sure that there were at least two Monarchs because I could occasionally see two of them at the same time.   I watched for about 20 minutes, often losing sight of one or both of the butterflies as they flew about, so I’m not sure if I was always seeing the same two butterflies or if there were more than that present.   They appeared to spend a lot more time flying around than nectaring.   And often disappeared when flying into some nearby trees.   I was close enough to one at one point to see that it was a female.   Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me at the time, so no photos of the butterflies.

At this time, the sky was mostly cloudy, with:

• Temperature   68F
• Dewpoint   44F
• Humidity   43%
• Air Pressure   30.01 inches
• Wind from the WSW at about 8 mph

 

The photo I am including was taken later and shows the field, the locations of three clumps of common milkweeds (with at least two dozen plants per clump), and an inset of the type of thistle on which the butterflies were nectaring.   I’m no botanist; my best guess is that it’s a Cirsium vulgare or a Cardus natans.   There were a lot more crown vetch flowers than thistle flowers in bloom, but the butterflies never visited the crown vetch.

Bellefonte, PA

Latitude: 40.9 Longitude: -77.7

Observed by: R. Timothy
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