Monday, October 1, 2012

A Monarch Butterfly, Just Passing Through

 

A Monarch Butterfly!
 

What a beauty, the wings are like stained glass. You do know about the Monarch butterfly, don't you?  On the West coast, they migrate to the Southern coast of California and on the East Coast, they fly all the way to Mexico, up to 3000 miles!  One decided to stop at Arabia Mountain late in the day on Saturday, Richard and I took photos of this beautiful butterfly just before dark.  It made me think: How late have you ever seen a butterfly?  I can't think how late in the day I have seen them but certainly not at dusk! If you were flying over all these beautiful yellow daisies, wouldn't you want to stop too?  Richard and I were so happy to see this butterfly, we have only seen pictures of it, we have never seen one in Georgia!  We stalked it for quite a while trying to take photos, but all were blurry but this last one was one that I took and it turned out to be the clearest of them all. (This is a very FAST flying butterfly, trust me!) The monarch butterfly larvae only eat milkweed and I have read that there are folks who are trying to grow milkweed in Georgia so as to have monarch butterflies in this state.  If you would like to read more about the monarch butterfly you may read about them here. And also, here.
The Monarch butterfly knew a good meal when she saw one! And Richard and I think it might be a female from the photos that we have studied.   If anyone knows for sure, we would love to know if we are correct.
I was most excited to see some wonderful photos of a Monarch butterfly from Jim's blog from Nova Scotia.  Please have a look at his photos at his blog: Ocean Breezes  It was a cooler day in Canada and I think the Monarch didn't move quite as much as the one that we saw in hot Georgia!  We still have our hummingbirds, we even saw them today during a very rainy day in Georgia, we think we must have gotten at least 2 inches of rain, so no Arabia Mountain for us today.  Never mind, we saw a Monarch on top of the mountain on Saturday, and she was quite majestic!

28 comments:

  1. What a Beauty! I have no idea how to distinguish the sex, but my goodness that is a large mariposa!

    How interesting that they travel over 3,000 miles. I knew they migrated, but I didn't realize how far, that is impressive.

    Hope you are well.
    e

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    1. Hello Elizabeth!
      Hope you are doing well too!
      Ha, Richard and I are SUCH butterfly experts, we just looked at the photos of the Monarch butterfly and we thought that was correct but of course, like our bird identification, we only know what we can make out from photos and from the descriptions.
      This butterfly was a beauty and much appreciated by us. Now you know our secret, we are butterfly stalkers!

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  2. How very, very beautiful. I've always been impressed by their trans-Atlantic crossings. I am going to go check out Jim's blog now!

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    1. Oh yes, he has such good photos. Nova Scotia is a beautiful place.

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  3. Yes, Kay, she's a girl. The male has thinner webbing and a black spot on its hindwings.
    You certainly beat Richard with this photo, well done. He'll have to take a beauty of a photo next time you visit to catch up again! :-)
    Take care,
    John

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    1. YAY! So happy this was correct, it looks so different from the male! And since Richard is the main photographer, I will never be able to catch up with him! But thanks for saying that anyway!
      I have read that Monarchs can get over to Southwest England by stopping over in Bermuda on the way! Isn't that something?

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  4. I didn't realize you guys don't have monarchs. I see them here quite often. Hmmm. Well done with guessing the gender! Beautiful photo, by the way. One of your sentences reminded me of one of Alain's favorite songs ~ Rainy Night in Georgia. Ha! One of my all-time favorites is Midnight Train to Georgia. Guess we're both some Georgia lovin' fools!!!

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    1. Hey Audrey!
      I like both those songs too! When it is raining very hard, I always sing "Looks like it's raining all over this man's world", and try to sound just like the singer. I drive Richard crazy I am sure. And hey, I can do a pretty good Gladys Knight impression too! Trust me.

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  5. I'm glad you were able to take pictures of this beautiful monarch, and I hope she'll find many more such good resting places on her long journey.
    Last Saturday evening when I went out for a run across the fields with a friend, it was near sunset and there were still some butterflies about.

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    1. Hmmm, maybe at dusk I am usually swatting the mosquitoes away and so I just don't notice any butterflies! :-)
      Also, I am always looking out for the deer, you can almost always see them just at sunset.

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  6. Fantastic story of the fragile beastie flying thousands of miles. They do this by the thousand also!
    Well done in getting a shot, very diffilcult that.

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    1. It IS an amazing story, isn't it? I would love to see them in California, when they are in the thousands.
      And Richard had given up on the butterfly photos, but I said, "Let's just try one more shot..." And I got it!

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  7. I had no idea you didn't have monarch butterflies in your area. That's quite amazing. That is a fantastic photo! And that is one beautiful little critter. I have planted many of the plants they enjoy, so monarchs visit my garden regularly. They're all gone now, of course, as they head south (where I'd love to be for the winter!). Their journey is quite remarkable. A tiny little thing like that covering so much distance. It truly boggles the mind.

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    1. Lucky you, to see this butterfly with wings like stained glass so often!
      I like to think that this one that we saw could have been in your garden too, it is possible, isn't it? :-)
      Sending me your love by butterfly!

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  8. How wonderful that you were able to capture a photo of this beauty! We used to have at least a hundred monarchs visit our yard, but the past two or three years I think I have only seen four or five each year. We would often see them migrating while we were driving across the Dakotas and they fly so low they usually did not survive the collision with vehicles.

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    1. Wow, at least a hundred Monarchs? What a sight! I wonder why their numbers have dwindled so? I remember seeing birds migrating in large numbers over Georgia when I was a little girl but I never see that many now.

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  9. How beautiful. It is difficult to imagine something that tiny travelling all those miles.

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    1. Thanks, Tracey! And we were so thrilled to see it!

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  10. Great shot! I love butterflies too but it's been getting colder here and the hummingbirds are gone too.

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    1. We usually have ours until October but they will be leaving soon. I will miss them. That is one of the best things about summer, our little hummers.

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  11. No monarchs here either - no milkweed. Thanks for sharing yours.

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    1. Thanks, Terry. I have only seen photos of them, so very happy to see this lone Monarch.

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  12. Just gorgeeous Kay. Your photos and posts always brighten my day. Love your butterfly shot. This one was well worth waiting for, and suffering through all those blurry shots.

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    1. Thanks so much, Mairead! We were very late getting home because of the time over this butterfly, but it was worth it!

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  13. We have plenty of milkweed in Wisconsin, and I saw monarchs this summer (on some vivid orange milkweed - a gorgeous combo).

    Wonderful photo!

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    1. Thanks, Sue! Who knows, maybe we will have milkweed here soon and then, more monarchs, YAY! I hope so! xx

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  14. Hi Kay

    I have been catching up on your past blogs. The photographs are just lovely - butterflies are not easy to capture on film - when I am taking them, they always just "flit" as I am clicking. The flowers are just beautiful too. I am sure you have said in your blog before but where is Arabia Mountain in relation to Stone Mountain? Have a happy day. Pat

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    1. Hey Pat!
      Thanks! And our butterflies are super fast, so hot in Georgia! I have read that it is easier to photograph them on on cooler, overcast days.
      Arabia Mountain is about 10 or 12 miles from Stone Mountain, both of them wonderful to see for different reasons. Stone Mountain is bigger and it is younger. Arabia is 400 million years old and Stone Mountain is 300 million!

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