Seems likely they are more "flighty" in the spring and early summer when the flowers are a bit sparser. But if you're patient you'll eventually come across one feeding calmly.
(06/03/24)
Back to Daley Ranch and adjacent Dixon Lake. Good sun, and the #butterflies were flying. Still not getting the specie variation I hoped for. Not pictured: Any Whites. They were out, of course.
Visitors to the prairie garden: An eastern pondhawk dragonfly, an American snout butterfly, a question mark butterfly and an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly. #butterflies#dragonflies#Lepidoptera#Odonata
There were sooooo many Skipper #butterflies today. Hundreds easily. I could have made a video of my entire descent down the Equine Incline Trail and there would always be at least 2 in the camera field. Often 4 or 5 would cluster together. It was wild!
At Mission Trails today #butterflying. Don’t ever try this, thinking you’re going to just zoom back up to north county in the afternoon. 🙄
Anyway the Blues showed up out there. Multiple species. All of them terrbly camera-shy today, so my pix are atrocious and not very definitive. That said, I’ve narrowed the field somewhat. The first two pix are I believe to be either Western Tailed Blue or Reakirt’s Blue. The final two are of a Marine Blue. That one I know. #butterflies
Headed out to a new location for #butterflies today. A place called Daley Ranch, in northeast Escondido. It was an interesting day: Relatively few species, but tons of individuals. Lots of Metalmarks, lots of Cabbage Whites, and multiple Swallowtails, and even two probable Sisters. But the real story was Buckeyes, dozens of them. They were so common they were fighting each other in groups of three or four. I stopped playing attention to them after a while.
#butterflies Did not get pix of the Sisters unfortunately, but predictable in that they were in their element: the tops of Oak trees. I also saw what I believe to be a Pale Swallowtail, but way too far away to photograph. Oh yeah, a Mourning Cloak, that I was able to snag a shot from farish, since he was stationed in a patch of Poison Oak.
Hit the trail again today at Elfin Forest and I didn’t see a single rattlesnake. However I did see #butterflies, which is what I came for. Finally the spring butterbirds came out!