I'm working in San Francisco for a couple of weeks and managed to spend today in Santa Cruz at the park at Lighthouse Field State Beach - one of the Californian overwintering sites for Monarchs. Despite the weather reports, and the fact that the Monarchs are dispersing, I decided to make the 2 hour trek to visit the site - and I'm so glad I did! As soon as I arrived I could already see butterflies flying around the eucalyptus grove where they roost. I was also lucky enough to bump into the local transect walker/warden who gave me some fantastic insights - such as where the remaining clusters were! Apparently, around 5,000 have been roosting there this year - with around 1,500 remaining. In 1989 he estimated that there were over 100,000 !!! In the very warm sunshine, I think I saw everything I could possibly ever want to see; clusters, masses of butterfies, dozens of mating pairs, butterflies in flight, the very strange courtship etc. etc. An absolutely brilliant day and a "life first" for me - and a spectacle I've wanted to see since I was 8 years old. Some photos below - the last being the "West Coast Lady" (Vanessa annabella).
And my thanks to fellow Lepidopterists at
http://www.monarchwatch.org/ who helped me narrow the search!
Cheers,
- Pete
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