July 24th, 2006
monarchs and swallowtails
Today was extraordinary for the butterfly activity here the farm. Since our arrival home a couple of days ago, I’ve been seeing many Monarchs (Danaus plexippus plexippus) — more than I’ve seen in any year in recent memory. I probably can’t walk more than 200 feet without seeing at least one flitting over the trail or fields.
This morning, I could see several Monarchs feeding on the last of the milkweed flowers in the stand outside the bedroom window. I went out with my camera and photographed a few, one being this very worn-looking individual perched on a bull thistle head (click on image to see larger view). I’d love to know where it’s been all summer before turning up in the garden.
This afternoon, I went for the first of two insect walks through the fields. Monarch were flitting everywhere. I accidentally disturbed a mating pair that went sailing off together, one hanging upside down below while the other carried it away on the breeze. I regretted not having noticed the pair, but within seconds, I spotted a second pair perched nearby (see photo at left). I photographed them and then continued on my way, now spotting other pairs flying overhead. What a sight.
Later in the afternoon, on my second insect walk, my feet led me into the back pasture which is now wildly overgrown with vegetation. Monarchs were soaring in every direction. I gazed around, looking for mating pairs, and soon spotted the pair in the top photo on this post (click on image for larger view). Moving on, I saw Monarchs resting atop plants, slowly fanning their wings — obviously a form of display for the benefit of other Monarchs. Many times, I saw one of the soaring Monarchs drop down to check out one of the resting Monarchs. Sometimes they would both fly together, whirling about before separating to check out other butterflies.
I soon came upon a pair of Viceroys (Limenitis archippus archippus) perched right beside the trail. One, the male, I suppose, was putting on quite a performance as it flitted around the plant, turning this way and that while fanning its wings. I shot a little movie of their activity. It’s about 50 seconds long. As an experiment, I made two versions and uploaded them. The first is the usual QuickTime version (approx. 2.4mb), while the second is an mp4 version (approx. 1.4mb). Neither has sound. I made them both available in case anyone has trouble playing QT movies. [edit: sorry for some temporary confusion on the file name and text here – it’s all corrected now, but was probably haywire for a few minutes after I posted this piece]
At the end of the movie, you’ll see one of the butterflies zooming up and out of the picture. It tore off to chase away a Black Swallowtail (Papilo polyxenes asterias) butterfly that had dived down to check out the pair of Viceroys. There seemed to be a lot of inter-species interest and activity over the fields today. I noticed a Monarch flying up to a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele cybele), and the two whirling around together for a few moments before going their separate ways. The “energy” in the field was palpable today — and all rather exciting, even for a non-Lepidoptera such as myself.
Later this afternoon, Don noticed a Black Swallowtail butterfly sitting on the clover beside the front porch. I picked up my camera and headed out the door, but by the time I reached the bottom porch step, the butterfly was heading down the lane and out through the front gates. I rarely get a chance to photograph that species, but as mentioned before, I never bother chasing butterflies, so I shrugged off my disappointment and let it go. My best shots have always been pure serendipity, and that certainly proved to be the case about a half hour later. While I was in the midst of photographing a Flower Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) hiding among the flowers of a Milkweed plant, a Black Swallowtail flew up and landed on another flower cluster on the same plant, so I shot three photos before it flitted away. And so ended my day of butterfly watching here at the farm. It will have to be a pretty good day to top this one.
Tags: Monarch, Danaus plexippus plexippus, Black Swallowtail, Papilo polyxenes asterias, Great Spangled Fritillary, Speyeria cybele cybele, Viceroys, Limenitis archippus archippus
July 24th, 2006 at 6:32 am
I saw a very lost Monarch in Wales once. Which was exciting.
July 24th, 2006 at 8:16 am
Monarchs found their way to Australia, Bev, they feed on the “Swan Plant” which many people grow to attract them. Don’t know what’s happened though, haven’t seen any for about three years now.
Enjoyed reading the account of your trip. :-)
July 24th, 2006 at 9:50 am
We haven’t seen any monarchs this year, but then again, we’ve been virtually butterfly-less for the last month. Have you checked over your phenology to see if this recent influx matches anything in past years? (I’m hoping the recent rain will hatch out some eggs that must have been laid earlier in the spring.)
I did a little searching here to see if I could find the type of camera you’re using – I know you detailed it in comments somewhere but couldn’t locate. My sister is looking for a camera and I was going to send her the name of the one you’re using – could you recall that for me, please?
July 24th, 2006 at 11:18 am
Harry – I’m sure they must occasionally end up in unexpected places as they are such strong fliers and must also be carried far on the winds sometimes. Up here, they make some amazing flights over large bodies of water. A few years ago, I was out on a big lake and saw dozens of them migrating south and flying against a strong headwind. Quite surprising to see how quickly they flew in those conditions. Not quite what one would expect from such a “fragile” insect!
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Duncan – I wonder what happens to the Australian Monarchs as far as migration is concerned? Here in North America, Monarch populations seem very cyclical. For example, three years ago, we saw many, then last year there were very few. This year there are so many that I can’t recall a year with this number (and also of so many other species as well). A lot of this must be weather and vegetation related. I’m sure that the cycles must also depend on conditions along the migration routes, which would account for “bad years” even when vegetation seems pretty good locally.
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Wayne – I can’t really see anything in my own records that would match up with past years, but I’ll be posting some notes about the Monarchs to the local nature listserv and someone else in my area might be able to comment on their own records from past years. Sounds like you might have a bad year for butterflies this year. That happened two years in a row around here (2004 and 2005 were very poor for butterflies here at the farm due to several weeks of hot, dry weather that baked all of the usual food plants).
The camera that I use for larger insects such as butterflies and dragonflies is the Nikon CoolPix 8800. You can use it for small stuff as well, but that does require quite a bit of cropping as the lens is large and takes in a lot of background. I’ve actually returned to using the CP4500 for really small stuff this summer — just enjoying using both. The CP8800 is a pretty large camera as digitals go, but I really like it. It’s very adaptable as far as how you use it — can be set to being almost automatic, through to being as complicated as you wish to make it. I use it in a variety of modes and settings depending on what kind of shooting I’m doing. I took to it very quickly as it works a lot like the CP4500 — I sort of took it out of the box, charged the batteries and started using it right away without looking at the manual too much (may have looked at the manual for a total of 30 minutes over the past 15 months). Might be a bit confusing to operate without having used a similar Nikon, but I find it pretty intuitive, so perhaps it would feel that way to others as well. Not sure. The LCD screen is of good size and swivels all around into many positions, which makes it so ideal for insect photography. I like the movie modes setting — very quick to put it in that mode and you can set the focus for macro for movies of insects. I’ve been doing a bit of that in the past couple of weeks and will probably post some of those soon. All in all, I really like this camera. I haven’t checked availability recently, but the price looked relatively reasonable to me last time I checked (about 60% of what I originally paid for it in April 2005). Haven’t been following the new models, so there may even be something more appropriate available now.
July 24th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
When we lived in Santa Cruz, we always saw Monarchs. They arrived in October and stayed until March. There were a few choice places to observe them, where they would all congregate by the thousands. They would land on a tree and literally cover the entire bark, like a moving colorful painting. I remember being on a road in the central valley of California and driving through “flocks” of them. It was an incredible sight. Typically we don’t have Monarchs in Washington, so I do miss them. But we do have Swallowtails and Viceroys here, and they are also quite beautiful. It’s really a pleasure, though, to see your Monarch photographs.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Just a quick thing, I prefer the mp4 over the quicktime, gives me more option on how I view it, which turned out better for me then some of the QT videos posted in the past.
I enjoy and view them either way… but you know.
July 25th, 2006 at 12:02 am
Robin – About ten years ago, while visiting some friends in SF, they took me down to see the monarchs in a little park in Pacific Grove. I was blown away by the sight of them hanging from the drooping tree branches like garlands of butterflies. Unfortunately, it was a cool, foggy morning, so very few butterflies were flying, but that must be an incredible sight!
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Peter – Thanks for commenting on the mp4 vs. quicktime for movie clips. I’ll try posting mp4 files for the next while and see if anyone has a problem with them. If not, I’ll probably go with them as, to my eye, the quality looks similar, but the mp4 files are smaller.
July 25th, 2006 at 10:35 am
We’ve many more Monarchs flitting about our area this year as well as other butterflies and moths. We too have larger and more flowers than other years. The White Sweet Clover is looking to take over all of our trails. (I may have to learn how to use a chain saw yet to keep the trails open.)
July 25th, 2006 at 11:49 am
OW – Interesting to hear that you’re seeing more butterflies too — and that the flowers are more and larger. I find it a little odd that I’m still seeing many milkweed flowers (quite fresh ones), while other plants have got quite large pods. Must have something to do with all of the rain we’ve had. Looks like we’re in for more rain and hot, humid weather this weeks, so the season may be extended even further. I can’t believe the size of some of the grasshoppers already… and as I posted last night, the Argiope spiders are much larger than usual for this date. Interesting year.
May 25th, 2007 at 9:53 am
WOW this is SO cool! I once raised 2 monarch caterpillars from their larval stage until full grown adults! haha. but I am having some trouble finding them. it is the middle of May here in NY and I just don’t know when to start looking for larva again. I know WHERE to look, but I don’t know if eggs are out yet, or if the butterflies have even started laying their eggs on the milkweed. so can someone please tell me when I should start looking on the host plants for the caterpillars? thanks for your time.
-Johnny
May 25th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Jon – I’m not sure about when you would see eggs and larvae in NY state as I’m up in Ontario. As yet, the milkweed is barely up, and I wouldn’t expect to see eggs on the leaves for awhile yet.