Butterfly Migration

This year’s rainy season has been good to California. Our hills and mountains are greener than they've been in years. Groves of poppies make long highways drives feel like you’re driving through a dense orange ocean. California has even pulled herself out of a drought for the first time in over a decade.

One event nobody expected from all this rain, though, is the swarm of Painted Lady butterflies that have been making their way over Southern California from Mexico. Over the last month or so, millions of Painted Ladies have made their way up to Northern California, and have left locals in awe while doing so.

These tiny butterflies are decorated with splashes of orange, black and white, which strongly resembles the wings of a Monarch butterfly. These sweet butterflies are more convenient than the well known Monarch butterfly though, because they are not toxic to humans. So if one lands on your shoulder, you're okay.

The people of LA paid special attention to these butterflies and openly embraced them. Since the city has faced a massive butterfly shortage in recent years, seeing just one would have been a blessing, but experiencing groups of these flying alongside you out of nowhere is something out of a Disney movie.

The butterflies popped out of nowhere, all at once. My first run in with them was at softball practice. We were warming up our arms when all of a sudden so many butterflies appeared that we had to stop throwing. That day, social media became abuzz with the appearance of the swarms of butterflies.

By now most of the Painted Ladies have completed their journey north, but if you pay attention you'll find one or two stragglers slowly but surely making their way on up. If California can manage to maintain her current rain patterns we can hope to see more migrations like this in years to come.