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Practice Report (Any Species)

Date: 09/12/2021

Number: 1

As I've noted in past years (e.g., 7/30/2017), I work at the University Park Airport (SCE) in State College, PA.   Come the end of summer we occasionaly observe an adult Monarch butterfly, typically heading southwest (give or take a few tens of degrees), not pausing along the way.   Given the time of year, I assume they are most often on their way to Mexico.

Today, at about 8:50 AM while prepping the ramp for our next departure, I saw a Monarch butterfly come up over the airport terminal and head across the ramp, definitely headed southwest.   It was at least 30 feet above ground as it passed from the terminal and slowly dropped to about 4 feet above ground as it came to the far edge of the ramp.   After that, I lost sight of it as it continued on over the grassy field beyond.

Later, at about 9:30 AM, while waiting for flight 6061 to depart for ORD, I briefly spotted a second adult Monarch butterfly repeatedly bouncing off the chain link fence that extends west from the terminal.   Eventually, as it continued trying while drifting west, it got high enough to get over the fence.   From there it headed northwest over the airport parking lot.

Weather conditions for this interval were obtained from the Weather Underground for the University Park Airport.

TIMEAIR TEMPDEW POINTHUMIDITYWIND DIRWIND SPEEDAIR PRESSKY
8:53 AM70°F59°F68%SW13 mph28.73"Fair
9:53 AM72°F61°F69%WSW15 mph28.74"Partly Cloudy

                          -  Tim

State College, PA

Latitude: 40.8 Longitude: -77.9

Observed by: R. Timothy
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