> My window at work is panoramic, I can see 120+ degrees across the = treetops of Richfield straight north at the water tower from Best Buy's = HQ. The elevation of my spot is fourth floor, approximately 50 feet = high. Butterflies wend their way up and over this structure all day = long. Today, the numbers were so high, I took 30 minutes at lunch and = concentrated my observations. I Spotted 47 Butterflies in 30 minutes, = 44 Monarchs, 2 Black Swallowtails and one smaller reddish butterfly not = ID'd. The monarchs came across the treetops and lazily circled to gain = height and pass out of sight. I saw three Monarchs drop straight down = from a higher elevation. I did not see them until they were dropping, = but they were not flapping, but with their wings fixed, dropping slowly = and controlledly out of the sky. I could not determine if they dropped = to the ground or if they continued on at a low level. Do Monarch's = travel at altitude when they migrate? Are they coming to a rest? Are = they coming for water or food? I can see out of a 40 foot wide bank of = windows that are 8 foot high from my desk. To extrapolate this, if you = figure it is 40 miles across the Twin Cities, and this represents a = random sampling of the migration along a fixed line, then there were = 232,000 Butterflies that crossed an East West transect today between = 12:30 and 1 pm . There may be many millions of these butterflies in = our city right now! This is a SWAG, I know, but suffice it to say there = are an awful lot of these fluttering beauties out there today! Try it = and see how many you find. Have a good day. >=20 >=20 > Mark Alt > Brooklyn Center, MN > [email protected] >=20 > "Birds and their songs are important to me, they add to my enjoyment = of life"=20 >=20 >=20
