[mou] FW: Windows and Butterflies -Millions!

[Alt, Mark]

> 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.
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> Mark Alt
> Brooklyn Center, MN
> mark.alt@bestbuy.com
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> "Birds and their songs are important to me, they add to my enjoyment =
of life"=20
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