Journey North Monarch Butterfly Spring 2005

Mass Migration in California--But Are They Monarchs?

03/15/05 Garden Grove, CA (33.78 N, -117.93 W)
I observed a massive swarm of Monarchs flying in a northwest direction at my office in Garden Grove, CA. It lasted approximately 30-40 minutes. They had to be in the thousands, they were as far as the eye could see. It was a truly wonderful sight.

03/15/05 Tustin, CA (33.73 N, -117.79 W)
I have been watching for about 15 minutes as hundreds of monarchs flew through my school toward the northwest (Tustin High School). We have had Santa Ana winds for the last two days, and we also saw a swarm of termites this morning.

03/15/05 San Diego, CA (32.72 N, -117.16 W)
Monarch Butterflies were streaming north over Torrey Pines, just south of Del Mar and North of San Diego all morning yesterday, Tuesday, March 15th. What a wonderful sight! Only a few stragglers are around this morning! They were often smaller than I would have expected Monarchs to be and, reading your information, this would suggest Painted Ladies. I did read that population explosions in Mexico can trigger large northward migrations, and this would fit.

03/15/05 Lakewood, CA (33.84 N, -118.14 W)
We have butterflies in group from 2-6 flying over our school. What a sight. They seem to be noticed every 10 or so seconds.

03/15/05 Lake Forest, CA (33.64 N, -117.68 W)
My son and I were doing our homeschool work when we spotted hundreds of Monarch Butterflies and some moths flying by our window. They were all following a similar path and traveling in a northern direction. We had never seen anything like this! It was really neat!

03/15/05 Garden Grove, CA (33.78 N, -117.93 W)
Large migration of Monarchs for approximately 45 minutes, traveling northeast.

03/15/05 Alta Loma, CA (34.13 N, -117.60 W)
The monarchs are flying through my neck of the woods. As I was driving south on Interstate 15, just south of the Cajon Pass, I noticed a large number of butterflies flying over the 8-lane freeway! A bunch have been flying by my back patio this afternoon as well…It must be spring!

03/15/05 San Bernardino, CA (34.10 N, -117.29 W)
I have never seen a Monarch migration but they are traveling right through the university that I work at (California State University, San Bernardino). They are traveling from south to north. I noticed it this morning when I arrived to work at 9:00. Editor's Note: After a requests for more information, this was provided: After I sent the information to you, someone from our campus (from Biology) put out on the bulletin board that they were Painted Ladies. I really could not get a good look at them as they seemed in a hurry to get where they were going. It sure was a neat experience though. I had never seen it in person.

03/15/05 Pomona, CA (34.04 N, -117.75 W)
I saw thousands of butterflies today heading north-westerly direction from noon to about 4 pm in the Pomona-Claremont area. It was really a beautiful sight.

03/15/05 La Verne, CA (34.12 N, -117.76 W)
I was at school(Goddard Middle School, Glendora, CA) and it was lunch time. There is a hill that my friends and I go to all the time. All of a sudden, a whole bunch of butterflies were all over the place. About ten butterflies bumped into me. My friends and I were trying to count them but there were so many I was thinking there must be about thousand of them.

03/15/05 Ontario, CA (34.03 N, -117.59 W)
This all came about as we dismissed school today and saw hundreds of little butterflies flying across and around our playground. I immediately thought about the Monarch Butterfly and the spring migration so we went on line and you know the rest. It's so exciting to see all of these little guys fluttering and flying in the beautiful blue sky.

03/15/05 Garden Grove, CA (33.78 N, -117.93 W)
Steady stream of butterflies, 1 butterfly per 10 seconds on average Tuesday morning. Continued to come until about noon. The numbers kept increasing and then suddenly the numbers declined rapidly. By 1:00 PM only an occasional straggler was observed. The winds were blowing hard. The butterflies seemed to be heading due north.

03/10/05 Oceanside, CA (33.21 N, -117.35 W)
There was a swarm of adult butterflies at a Shell station near the Mission San Luis Rey. It was night and they were being attracted to the lights of the service station. I had several land on my black sweater. In all there were maybe 75 butterflies.