Monday, March 30, 2009

Butterfly migration


It is finally spring, getting hotter, no more rain. The first of the new roses are blooming, all the glorious shades of green are in my garden. Even the grass is green (this month, it won't last). And for the past few weeks the butterflys are migrating. Little whirly tans insects flying north, as fast as a human can run, fluttering about 10 feet off the ground, undulating up and over the wall and the trees, north. At any given time in the warm afternoon, I can see a dozen or two, fluttering north. They don't fly in the cool morning, or in the windy late afternoon, maybe about 6 hours a day, flying north, not landing, not sipping water, just flying. What are these? They are painted ladies, relatives of the monarch butterflies that also migrate.

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