kitty pi

It's raining butterflies

NPR : Painted Lady Butterflies Take Flight in Rare Migration

Despite my deep, deep funk, I have been able to smile about at least one thing this week (besides the gorgeousity and sweetness of my husband). On Saturday, TQ (teenage quilty) and I went shopping (tragically, not for me) and we saw hundreds and hundreds of butterflies. There were swarms (or is it rabbles?) of butterflies. They loook like small monarch butterflies but I discovered that they are called Painted Ladies. It was, and is, quite spectacular. I just went outside and they are fluttering by in the most beautiful way. I don't know where they are going (Seattle, perhaps), but they seem to be going somewhere and in a hurry. They seem to be single-mindedly determined to travel away from the place where they were born. I am sure there is something symbolic there.

The migration is particularly large this year because of the copious amounts of rain we've received and the blooming of extra plants that they need to reproduce in vast numbers. According to the report I heard on NPR, a migration of this magnitude only happens about once or twice per decade.

I can't get a good picture because they fly really fast but hopefully, if you are in the area of Southern California, you can step outside and witness the coolness that is flying all around. I think it is so amazing that something so small and delicate looking could fly over 1000 miles. If we adjusted for size, wouldn't that be like a million miles for us. I know some won't make it, but isn't nature amazing? If a little butterfly can fly that far, imagine what we can do.

posted by Anita at 11:37 AM