Witnessed waves of butterflies flitting through the farm yesterday, ~50 over 2 acres at any given moment.
Tried to capture on camera but they were riding the winds downhill and my skills were no match to their ungraceful (but safe from predators) flight.
They were light yellow/white. I've seen them before in much greater numbers and managed to photograph then. #iNaturalist community says it's the Common Albatross.
Earlier this spring I purchased a milkweed plant for the front #garden and it’s done well, though to my knowledge it had so far failed to attract any Monarch #butterflies. But yesterday was the day, a single Monarch appeared. Then this morning I read that due to habitat destruction and other causes the overwintering population in Mexico was down by 22% this year, so there will be far fewer of them migrating through here, a real tragedy.
Small wildlife seen on a hike near a stream. The main trail mostly ran along the chaparral-covered hillside just outside the riparian zone, but a few branches went down through the trees to the stream.
The lizard was well-camouflaged as it skittered around the tree trunk, in contrast to the two #dragonflies (a vivid blue dancer and a flame skimmer -- you can probably guess which is which!) There were quite a few small blue dancers (like half this length!) flying around the trail uphill from the stream bed. This one was resting on a wooden beam placed across the stream as a bridge. Finally, a checkered white #butterfly in front of the invasive mustard plants that were all over the lower parts of the chaparral.
Today’s hike was a cavalcade of photo errors or missed opportunities. There was a good variety of #butterflies and my first real chance to get shots of Blues. They refused to hold still though, and these two are my best clips of a video. Blues can be hard to ID. I think this is an Edward’s Blue male.
Ben Goldfarb's latest piece in High Country News on the desperate struggle to keep a northern California butterfly species alive is a great read. Species recovery is a hard and thankless enough job with the most charismatic mammal - for insects, it's the same work, backwards and in heels, for less money. The people who do it deserve more features like this. https://www.hcn.org/issues/55.5/south-endangered-species-inside-the-fight-to-save-a-beleaguered-butterfly
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