Queen Butterfly at Agua Caliente

Out in the desert in late April I noted many orange butterflies with black lines in the wing. I'm sure these veins have some special name, but I haven't really studied butterflies. I do, though, photograph them when I get the chance.

I was told they were Viceroy butterflies, and I knew that Viceroy and Monarch butterflies were very similar. However, later I learned that they were Queen Butterflies (Danaus gilippus)--a name I'd never heard before. Sure enough, the many white spots amid wing identify this species.

Queen Butterfly. April 28, 2019. Agua Caliente, California.

Painted Lady Butterfly in Borrego Springs

I'm not a butterfly watcher, but that doesn't mean I won't try to get a photo if I encounter one. I always try to identify all living things when I encounter them. This is a Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, a widespread species around the world.

Painted Lady Butterfly Anza-Borrego Desert, California. February 18, 2019.

This butterfly became quite abundant in early March in the San Diego region. Many people commented on the hundreds of small butterflies--especially in the hills along the I-15 freeway, where the California Poppies were blooming.

Mid-month, when Marlene and I went to see all the wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert they were unavoidable. Literally. We couldn't drive anywhere without a thwack! on the windshield and a yellow-green streak. "Oops. Sorry!" Thwack! "Oh, there's another one--sorry!" (I'm pretty sure they didn't accept our apologies.)

Even after going through the car wash and a couple of rainy days, the ghosts of butterflies past are still imbedded in the windshield.

Chasing the Indigo Bunting: Bees, moths, and butterflies

The reports of a rare Indigo Bunting had been on the local bird list for a week. An atypical patch of white feathers on the belly, however, prompted a spirited discussion causing some to use the dreaded h-word. That's right--hybrid. Others disagreed. Well, for good measure, someone went out and found a no-doubt-about-it, honest-to-goodness, all-blue Indigo Bunting only a quarter of mile farther down the trail.

So, when another weekend rolled around and they were still being reported, I made my plans to visit Paso Picacho Campground in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.

Flowers were in bloom and accompanied by pollinators. So I took several photos of these flying insects. I'm not very practiced at identification of butterflies, not to mention moths and bees. But I've done my best. Let me know if I'm off.

I start off with a rather large, shiny black bee on a flowering shrub at the parking lot.

This is one large bee! Do you see the three tiny ants on the flowers?

Down the trail a ways I encountered a couple of Park workers out with their cameras. They were photographing hummingbird moths. I don't see them. Wait! That little thing? The ones I've noted in the past were almost 3 inches long, not one inch. No one would mistake these for hummingbirds!

These hummingbird moths were quite small at barely an inch in length. I think the bee was bigger.

Oh, by the way. The plant above with the hummingbird moth is Poodle Dog Bush. Many people have reactions to this plant similar or worse than poison oak. These dense bushes were 5 feet high and equally broad.

Funeral Duskywing

California Sister

Acmon Blue

I used this website to help identify the butterflies: Butterflies and Moths of North America.

Oh, I actually did find the all-blue Indigo Bunting. It was singing away in the oaks. My documentation photo is not all that good. But it is my first Indigo Bunting in California.

Eye candy

Here are some assorted photos from a recent trip to Kit Carson Park in Escondido. The photos are unrelated except for being taken on the same day at the same place,... and they are quite colorful!

Here is the first photo. The plant is about 5 feet tall and the big yellow flower is 3-1/2 inches across. My attempts at identifying it online based only on this picture has failed.

Next is a brown butterfly seen flitting about. It has a pale yellow rear border and trailing series of blue spots. Looking it up online revealed the name to be Mourning Cloak--no doubt for the dark funerary colors.

I also tried to figure this second flower out, but don't know whether the flowers were on the bush as it first appeared, or whether a vine grew up through the shrub. If the latter, then perhaps a periwinkle. If it really is a shrub, then perhaps plumbago. Either way, it doesn't seem to be a native plant.

Finally, I end with a bright male Hooded Oriole, found April through September in southern California. It is in a sycamore tree. Birds. Trees. Those I'm pretty good at. Flowers? Not so much.

Hooded Oriole. Escondido, California. May 8, 2016. Greg Gillson.

Pacific Orangetip on Fiddleneck at San Dieguito River Park

What's that little white butterfly flitting about?

Well, in this case (assuming my identification is correct), it's a Pacific Orangetip. Butterflies have great names!

The plant is a fiddleneck of some kind. It was the flower my first San Diego County Lawrence's Goldfinches were feeding on in Poway, last March.

Pacific Orangetip on Fiddleneck at San Dieguito River Park. April 3, 2016. Greg Gillson.

UFO's near Julian

Birding often slows down in the heat of summer. That's when I tend to notice other colorful unidentified flying objects.

I appreciate all forms of life, but my identification skills have concentrated primarily on birds, whales, western pines, and edible plants. My knowledge of butterflies is quite limited. I think I regularly see swallowtails, monarchs, admirals, sulfurs, and whites. But getting more specific than that has not been a priority for me.

So I offer these photos and tentative ID's to butterflies I photographed in early July near Julian, California at about 4000-4600 feet elevation. Oh, and one very interesting flower, too.

Mylitta Crescent. Julian, California. July 4, 2015. Greg Gillson.

Checkered White. Lake Cuyamaca, California. July 4, 2015. Greg Gillson.

Lupine Blue. Lake Cuyamaca, California. July 4, 2015. Greg Gillson.

Humboldt Lily. William Heise County Park, Julian, California. July 3, 2015. Greg Gillson.