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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Painted Lady Migration

You may have noticed a fair number of medium sized orange butterflies passing through your area (that is, if you live in California) recently. I saw my first wave of the 2009 painted lady migration around noon on March 24 as I was driving through the streets of Mission Viejo. The butterflies travel about human head height in a northwesterly direction, narrowly dodging and sometimes colliding with pedestrians. I'd say there were about 10 to 20 per minute crossing La Paz road at Chrisanta as the high school students migrated over to the Taco Bell.

I continued to see smaller numbers through the weekend in the afternoon here in Tustin, but haven't seen much action since Monday. Go Vanessa cardui!

5 comments:

Barbara said...

I was in the Pauma Valley on Sunday and saw the migrating painted ladies there. Lots of them. Some, unfortunately met their death on the windshield of the Yamaha.

Kolby said...

I saw a migration of Vanessa cardui in the Colorado Desert near the town of Desert Center, CA on March 21st. It was a beautiful moment.

AYDIN Ă–RSTAN said...

It's the 1st of April & I still haven't seen a butterfly yet this year.

StayAtHomeKat said...

So Glad you caught some of that Painted Lady flight!

vanessa cardui said...

I've been longing to go out to Anza Borrego, Death Valley, even Joshua Tree since spring kicked in. Wish I would have been out in the desert for the ladies, but I'm glad they graced our sky here in the city, too.