Bazillions of buterflies.

[monkey]

Has everyone else noticed the number of butterflies around? I first saw them yesterday and now today they are EVERYWHERE. I've also seen lots of happy birds that will go to bed tonight with a full stomach. It must be like a Vegas buffet for them. http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/laugh.gif

[BGW]

They are thick here at my place too! It must be a migration moment.

[rimalicious]

My place too! I've never seen it like this here before! Beautiful!

[John @ 3300ft.]

What kind of Butterflies?

[rimalicious]

Monarchs I believe. The orange and black ones.

[cak]

If they're monarchs, the birdies will be smart enough not to eat them (monarchs will make them sick...)

[monkey]

I don't think the are Monarchs, they are too small and not quite the right markings. Less of them today, but still lots more than usual.

[BGW]

Tee Hee! I got several close-up views of their insides while driving to work yesterday!! I think they were the little brown flutterbies with the orange and blue spots. Hard to tell from the inside out though!! http://oakhurstonline.com/icon/rofl5.gif

[Dodgergirl]

What's the last thing that goes thru a Butterfly's mind before it hits the windshield?

[BGW]

it's a$$-ho\e! (groan)

[SheilaMae]

I sure wish some of you photography oriented folk woulda gotten some pics of the abundance of flutterbys for us folk who didn't get to witness it. <SIGH> (or did you and you're saving them for the photography contest??????????)

[Nascar8Fan]

WOW! We saw them today all over by El Cid's. There where everywhere!! The sad thing is there were 100's of them smashed on the highway. Poor little things. They should have stayed in the bushes!!!!

[cak]

We've been away, so we hadn't seen these guys - but we just spent the last hour with our morning coffee watching what must be thousands flying around our lot. There's one wall that they seem to like to sit on, so it was easy to drag the laptop over and compare pictures...

I'm pretty sure that these are California Tortoiseshell (http://www.laspilitas.com/butterflies/Butterflies_and_Moths/California_tortoise_shell/California_tortoise_shell.html) - they like to get the nectar from manzanita, which we certainly have plenty of!

We saw a few California Sisters (http://mamba.bio.uci.edu/%7Epjbryant/biodiv/lepidopt/nymph/csister.htm) mixed in, but they are few and far between...

[monkey]

I've been sprinkling my lawn and driveway and they seem to love having the water, it really attracts them.

[Parvo Pup]

They are Sierra Painted Lady butterflies.

[cak]

The ones at our cabin in Cedar Valley aren't painted ladies (http://www.ivyhall.district96.k12.il.us/4TH/KKHP/1INSECTS/paintedlady.html) - they don't have the any spots on the hind wing (or eyespots on the underside). They're definitely the California tortoiseshell.

But I can easily imagine that it's just butterfly season and that the painted ladies are showing up elsewhere!

[John @ 3300ft.]

I thought they were Painted Ladies too. I was wrong.

[electroman]

Originally posted by cak:
...They're definitely the California tortoiseshell.
...

yes - I foud them on a USGS.GOV site. We had thousands of caterpillars the week before... had to tip-toe around the house to avoid making big squishy messes everywhere.