Butterflies in SoCal

Yes, it’s amazing. We are all watching them fly past the office windows today.

Fav butterfly thread, for reference.

We’re going to Joshua Tree to see the flowers this weekend—not yet in full swing I guess but plenty of color.

That's nice to hear. The last article I read about monarch butterflies was depressing as hell, so nice to hear some good news for once.

I used to see a lot more butterflies in Socal. I think there been a huge die off no one's noticed.

Yes! Huge swarm came through my neighborhood today. Heaviest concentration from 10-10:30 am, but saw stragglers for hours afterward.

This morning, I heard a student say, "When I reincarnate as a butterfly, I will only live 5 days!"

Huge swarms out here in the desert. Unreal.

Yes, saw a bunch yesterday and today in BH.

I saw a large blueish-purple butterfly in the Central Valley and a Rose Ring Parakeet snatched her. Why are these tropical birds such assholes?

Last night I saw a firefly for the first time in years. Mother nature is finally rewarding us for putting us through the ringer for so long.

Yes, thousands have been swarming the freeways all day... sadly, think about how many of them have had their migrations ended because of that.

Painted Lady Butterflies are the WHORES of the Butterfly world.

I take this to be a good Omen. California is going to see better days. Right? RIGHT????

How do you interpret that parrot eating one, r13?

[quote]How do you interpret that parrot eating one, [R13]?

California is going to snatch the presidency ????

It was a bit stagey but Goldie Hawn was funny and Eileen Heckart got a supporting actress award back when those meant something.

I was in the Carrizo Plain yesterday to see the spring Superbloom, and the butterflies were there! Many butterflies, all Painted Ladies as far as I could tell, and all madly flying north against the wind. This was about 150 miles north of the LA Basin, so the butterfly migration has reached that far,

Not to Northern California, though, so far the only butterfly I've seen near home was a single Cabbage White. But then Spring may have arrived over the last few days but she's barely awake, still in her nightgown and desperate for coffee, so to speak.

OP, they're so flighty-- just SoCal butterflies.

In the desert surrounding Palm Springs it is a butterfly festival. Thousands are flying around. They come in waves and are all headed in the same direction, Northwest. All the same kind, medium sized, orange and black. I am out supervising a project overlooking PS in the native desert and it's wonderful. The desert is blooming like crazy and the butterflys are amazing!

On Tuesday here in the San Gabriel Valley there was a steady stream of them going through the parking lot for several hours. It was like a butterfly superhighway.

Sounds lovely, OP

I was in Denver at the end of September, 2017, and I noticed that all the butterflies were Painted Ladies. I photograph butterflies as a hobby, and while I saw hundreds of thousands of painted ladies, even dozens on a single bush, they were the only species I saw. It was like there was only one kind of butterfly in the world!

Some time later, I found that I had been in the middle of a painted lady migration so huge, that clouds of butterflies had shown up on military radar and puzzled the hell out of everyone on the monitors. They wondered if it was a new kind of terrorist activity, but it was just billions of butterflies!

And the same excellent website has an article on this year's butterfly "irruption".

I hope the butterfly invasion comes through my town, when I'm able to get out and enjoy it.