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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Butterfly Roost

Butterfly Roost

Well, I found them. I'd started out looking in the usual haunt (where the last photo was taken), at Natural Bridges State Park, but the weather was way too warm for them to be sheltering there. The grove in the park is in a canyon and offers a warm climate throughout the winter, but this one has been very mild and the ranger I spoke to said they were long gone. Fortunately I had a tip that there was still a colony nearby so I drove to that location (the ranger asked me not to disclose the location publicly).

Sure enough, the air was orange with Monarchs and there were huge orange sheets of them on the trees. Take a look at the set on Flickr to get an idea of the beauty of it all. If you're going to be in Santa Cruz in the next week or so and you want to know how to find them, e-mail me and we'll see what can be arranged. As a hint, I was able to walk on after these photos and shoot some great shots of a surfing contest.

posted at 7:03 AM (UK) | |