Painted Lady butterfly
Mar 13, 2019 01:08:49 #
Max Bottomtime
Loc: Torrance, California
Painted Lady butterflies, Vanessa cardui were at record low numbers last year. The long Winter of rain this year has produced a huge number. The small relatives of Monarch butterflies are migrating from the deserts of Mexico to Oregon to mate. Yesterday the swarm was spotted all over Southern California. With dive conditions as bad as they are, I took some time for a little topside photography today.
Mar 13, 2019 01:40:55 #
My wife drove through a swarm on the freeway yesterday, she said at first she thought it was a swarm of large bees, the some got close enough she could see they were butterflies.
Then today for several hours we had a constant stream of them coming from the south and splitting so half went around the house to the west and half to the east. They say they can do 20 mph, well these were doing that. In my yard and those of the houses around us I did not see even one stop off on any of the flowers. I did see a few birds dive right through the stream looking for a quick snack.
I tried the old trick of a fixed focus and snap off a burst of shots when they went past but I haven't downloaded to see if I got any because LR did an upgrade and created a new catalog with none of my pictures showing. They are still on my disk and I am waiting for Adobe support to get back to me before I try to do anything or download any new images.
Mar 13, 2019 02:54:59 #
Mar 13, 2019 05:27:08 #
Mar 13, 2019 11:23:20 #
Mar 13, 2019 22:08:18 #
Mar 14, 2019 10:44:02 #
Mar 14, 2019 11:14:40 #
Mar 14, 2019 12:14:05 #
Mar 14, 2019 17:04:33 #
Mar 14, 2019 21:07:14 #
Max Bottomtime
Loc: Torrance, California
It was fun watching the bee chase the butterfly each time it lit on a flower. The bee didn't like the butterfly stopping to smell the flowers during its migration.
Mar 14, 2019 21:23:16 #
Max Bottomtime wrote:
Painted Lady butterflies, Vanessa cardui were at record low numbers last year. The long Winter of rain this year has produced a huge number. The small relatives of Monarch butterflies are migrating from the deserts of Mexico to Oregon to mate. Yesterday the swarm was spotted all over Southern California. With dive conditions as bad as they are, I took some time for a little topside photography today.
I love painted ladies . your shots are lovely! enjoyed the info too.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.