Painted Lady Migration?

[Mike Soukup]

I was in the California Desert last Sunday, March 8, collecting butterflies and
saw, literally, millions of painted ladies heading west.  Where I was (NEAR
Anzo-Borreao state park), there were more like 20-50 per minute.  I have never
seen so many painted ladies at one time.  Of course, since I was looking for
anything BUT painted ladies, they were more of a distracton and nuisance than
anything else.  But, when I took the time to relax, it was neat to see so many at
once (Painted ladies are not the most common butterfly where I live - in
Maryland).  When I returned to the same site on Monday, the migration had
slowed....perhaps to about half the volume as the previous day.  People on the
West coast better protect their "mallows"!!!

Chuck Vaughn wrote:

> I spent a couple of hours today at friend's house in Walnut Creek, California.
> It was a nice sunny 70 F day and I noticed a sparse but steady stream of
> Painted Ladies headed from south to north. The rate was about one every
> 5 minutes. They all seemed to be on a mission to fly as far as possible in one
> day. This reminded me of the big migration back in the 1980's.
>
> Has anyone else noticed a migration underway?
>
> Chuck Vaughn  <aa6g at aa6g.org>