A good stretch of rainy weather and the resulting explosion of flowers brought hoards of visitors into Southern California. I'm not referring to the humans streaming into our desert areas to see the
"super bloom" wildflower displays, although that's still going on. Unlike that event, the visitors I'm talking about didn't cause traffic jams or crush plants growing in delicate desert ecosystems. The visitors I'm referring to swarmed across the border from Mexico unencumbered by walls or border patrol agents. And, according to most reports, they numbered as many as one billion. The migration in question was that of the painted ladies, a species of butterflies,
Vanessa cardui, that took advantage of favorable environmental conditions to disperse far and wide in search of food and mates. I noticed them in my garden before I heard anything about their mass migration on the news. They grabbed the attention of the media and that of almost everyone I spoke with last week as we watched them flutter along roadways, in parking lots, and
just about everywhere.
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| This shot was taken in my backyard |
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| and this one was taken in one of my front garden borders. I saw what looked like a funnel cloud of them at my local botanic garden but didn't have a camera on hand. |
That good news story was followed by another, one that hasn't received any news coverage that I'm aware of. Last weekend, I noticed what I initially thought were tiny hummingbirds flitting through my garden and even buzzing our living room windows. On closer examination, I realized that they were representatives of one of the so-called hummingbird moth species. I've seen these featured in the posts of bloggers in other states but this is the first time I've seen any of them in my own area.
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| This hummingbird moth is also known as a hawk moth and as the white-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata). Like the painted lady, its wingspan is 2-3 inches and it hails from Mexico. |
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| It flaps its wings so rapidly, even when siphoning nectar from flowers, it was hard to get a good photo. I saw a lizard leap in an attempt to capture this particular moth when it was hovering mere inches above the ground but he failed in his attempt. |
My last winged visitor is a regular returnee. Like the butterflies and the moths, he was particularly attracted to the blue flowers of
Echium handiense.
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| This is the common bumblebee (Bombus), not known as a big honey producer but one of the best pollinators we have |
My coverage of these wonderful winged visitors is my Wednesday Vignette. For more,
visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.
All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
