I attended college at UC Santa Barbara, and my very first apartment was just outside of campus in Goleta, CA. My neighborhood there butted up against a chunk of undeveloped land peppered with trails that led all through and eventually down to the beaches there. I felt very fortunate to live so close to such a place and spent a lot of time exploring and running on those trails, always taking different directions and footpaths to see where they would take me. One afternoon, I was doing just this, running a trail, and all of a sudden, I stumbled into a eucalyptus grove that was alive with monarch butterflies. Stunned and all alone, it was just I and the butterflies, the flipping of their wings dripping from every leaf, every branch, and ‘puddling’ in various spots on the grove floor. It was magic, and I have never ever forgotten it.
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Really stunning experience. Definitely love to walk into that wall of butterflies.
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Rita
These butterflies are all over the place in the tropics, I see that these as shown are from California ( a bit more tropical than the Virginias).
I have seen them also in Sydney and out west in NSW.
Thankfully the rain still continues – much more is needed in outback areas to really break the drought.
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I would love to see them. I can’t imagine that many at one time. I’m amazed when I see 10 or 12 at one time and that’s different species.
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Actually to be perfectly honest – butterfles that were 30 years ago here in profusion numbers are a rarity these days in Brisbane.
Reason: The mongrel Indian Mynah birds have killed them all off.
Don’t ever let one of these birds appear on the US radar scene.
Google them and see what they look like and if any appear, then IMMEDIATELY inform the appropriate authorities. You have been warned and I do so for your sake.
They “dive bomb” aka the German Stukkas of WW2,actually had Hermann Goering known of these birds, his “stukkas” and their methods might have been far more devastating and work as a team, (God forbid that), people walking on the streets and air straight at your eyes.
One person or more has taken to poisoning them in my area and whoever they are, I applaud them. The street next to my Rail Station is infested with them and at nesting time they become even more belligerent with their “dive bombing”. I have been bitten on quite a number of occasions. No matter what the climatic situation is, you wear glasses to protect your eyes. I wear sunglasses and even those have been knocked off! The Council workers want the trees chopped down to get rid of them, the Council and the idiots in senior positions won’t listen – may upset the “greenie bird lovers” – what utter crap.
The trees in question are also non-Australian and the leaves clutter the drains etc. so when it rains it is a case of shoes off to walk through the water that can’t escape. Now, the situation, – useless and horrible trees and Indian Mynahs win!
Sorry for being so blunt on this terrible subject.
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What a stunning experience. Something to stay with you forever!
❤⊱彡 Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
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Wouldn’t you love to walk into that wall of butterflies. They’re amazing!!
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