Painted Lady Migration
As we approached Inspiration Point, I stopped to get a picture,
a striking bush in the foreground, with a San Gabriel vista backdrop. I noticed butterflies, going by, and tried to get a pic with them in it.
Then, stopped for lunch at the point, I noticed a steady
stream of the small orange butterflies, smaller and duller than monarchs, all going
in the same direction.
The stream went on for the entire time we were at Inspiration
Point, between one and two hours. I'd say 100 per minute could have been counted
at Inspiration Point and at the trail junction down toward Mt. Lowe. Steady, fast,
uphill stream of butterflies.
The next day I called the Eaton Canyon Nature Center and
spoke to Judy. She told me that it was indeed a butterfly migration, the Painted
Lady. It's a semi-regular migration. Some years, but not every year. Possibly correlated
with rainfall. They seem to winter in Northern Baja California and over in Northern
Sonora, and then sometimes spread out north and west.
Judy said that this migration had been going on for two weeks,
but it has been sporadic and we were lucky.
PAINTED LADY MIGRATION VIDEO:
Low res | High
res (8 MB) |
