Butterflies. (and birds). Douglas

[Hugh Kingery]

This morning Urling & I saw at least 40 (forty) Painted Lady butterflies, gorging on our bright blooming rabbit brush. I have never seen such a stunning butterfly show.

We also have some fall bird visitors: 5 Steller's Jays (occasional during the summer), a Red-breasted Nuthatch (a September arrival), 2 Vesper Sparrows. Our winter Blue Jays arrived in July (early).

A Black-capped Chickadee banded in our yard in June we see off and on, about once a week; we have to examine all the chickadees that come in (daily) to pick out its red leg band.

Two species have entertained us with fall-echo singing. We still hear a Western Meadowlark singing, and up until two days ago heard a Plumbeous Vireo singing. House Finches, of course continue their song mastery.

Hugh Kingery
Franktown, CO

[Bart Deferme]

Hugh, 

The Painted Lady irruption you mention is incredible right now. I ran around Quincy Reservoir this morning, and I saw - no exaggeration - thousands. There is quite a bit of Rabbitbrush around the reservoir, and some bushes were just covered in them, turning them solid orange rather than yellow from a distance. I ran through clouds of butterflies. I've never seen anything like it.

The Red-breasted Nuthatches continue at Quincy Reservoir as well. Two or three visit my feeders in the mornings, and I heard several other ones throughout the neighborhood. The Woodhouse's Scrub-jays are back here regularly too, along with the families of Blue Jays that have been hanging around all summer.

Bart Deferme

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[Joe Roller]

There are articles about the Painted Ladies from Nebraska this week too.

Some would call this a dispersal instead of a migration. In either case

some folks on my block are opening their eyes to "nature," and that's a good thing.

Joe Roller, Denver

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[Art Hudak]

Extreme migration/dispersal. On 9/16 I observed 100,000+ combined at Centennial park, Harriman lake park and Belmar park. At one point at Centennial in a field of 10,000+ 50+ were on me, all clothing covered, boots, pants, shirt, arms, hat...

[SeEttaM .]

This was posted on Arthropods Colorado facebook group tonight regarding the Painted Ladies:

"Kate Hogan

A note about the Painted Lady phenomenon - I am colleagues with Dr. Mike Weissmann who consults on butterfly houses all over the world and started the Butterfly Pavilion - he shared this with me today: "This is an unusual population burst that really has more to do with their success locally and I don't believe is related to any migration. Painted Lady butterflies in our area are originally from the Sonoran region of northern Mexico and southern Arizona/New Mexico/California. There they live year-round, and their population grows during our winter. In the spring, they migrate north as the weather warms and their food resources in the Sonora become depleted. This is a one-way migration, and they repopulate the USA each spring this way. If they had a mild/moist winter with lots of host plant growth and a low parasite load, we see a massive migration moving north in the spring, around the time that the lilac bushes are in bloom. If we have a good spring with lots of nectar and hostplants (they like thistle around here, but their normal hostplant is mallow and related species), then they are able to reproduce in fairly large numbers here. What we are seeing now is the result of a mild local summer with lots of early-season moisture and a low parasite load creating the right conditions for their population to explode here, even though their numbers in the spring during the northbound migration weren't record-setting. Also, the rabbitbrush is in full bloom, so they have a lot of nectar to keep them going, as well as a great spot to congregate where we can see a lot of them feeding all at once. However, this is not like the monarchs heading south - painted lady butterflies have a one-way migration. Those you see flying around and any eggs/larvae they produce will die when the frosts come. Meanwhile, the home population in the Sonoran region will continue on, and next spring more will migrate north to temporarily repopulate our area again."

SeEtta Moss

Canon City

http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com

On Mon, Sep 18, 2017 at 8:57 PM, Art Hudak <donotbe...@comcast.net> wrote:

Extreme migration/dispersal. On 9/16 I observed 100,000+ combined at Centennial park, Harriman lake park and Belmar park. At one point at Centennial in a field of 10,000+ 50+ were on me, all clothing covered, boots, pants, shirt, arms, hat...

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[Meredith...@birdconservancy.org]

Same story at the Arsenal on Monday.  I was birding with out of town visitors and we were transfixed........

On Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at 1:35:19 AM UTC-6, SeEtta wrote:

This was posted on Arthropods Colorado facebook group tonight regarding the Painted Ladies:

"Kate Hogan

A note about the Painted Lady phenomenon - I am colleagues with Dr. Mike Weissmann who consults on butterfly houses all over the world and started the Butterfly Pavilion - he shared this with me today: "This is an unusual population burst that really has more to do with their success locally and I don't believe is related to any migration. Painted Lady butterflies in our area are originally from the Sonoran region of northern Mexico and southern Arizona/New Mexico/California. There they live year-round, and their population grows during our winter. In the spring, they migrate north as the weather warms and their food resources in the Sonora become depleted. This is a one-way migration, and they repopulate the USA each spring this way. If they had a mild/moist winter with lots of host plant growth and a low parasite load, we see a massive migration moving north in the spring, around the time that the lilac bushes are in bloom. If we have a good spring with lots of nectar and hostplants (they like thistle around here, but their normal hostplant is mallow and related species), then they are able to reproduce in fairly large numbers here. What we are seeing now is the result of a mild local summer with lots of early-season moisture and a low parasite load creating the right conditions for their population to explode here, even though their numbers in the spring during the northbound migration weren't record-setting. Also, the rabbitbrush is in full bloom, so they have a lot of nectar to keep them going, as well as a great spot to congregate where we can see a lot of them feeding all at once. However, this is not like the monarchs heading south - painted lady butterflies have a one-way migration. Those you see flying around and any eggs/larvae they produce will die when the frosts come. Meanwhile, the home population in the Sonoran region will continue on, and next spring more will migrate north to temporarily repopulate our area again."

SeEtta Moss

Canon City

http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com

On Mon, Sep 18, 2017 at 8:57 PM, Art Hudak <donotbe...@comcast.net> wrote:

Extreme migration/dispersal. On 9/16 I observed 100,000+ combined at Centennial park, Harriman lake park and Belmar park. At one point at Centennial in a field of 10,000+ 50+ were on me, all clothing covered, boots, pants, shirt, arms, hat...

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