Date: 03/15/2005

Number: 1

I had what I call a "privileged occurrence" today. On
nice and warm sunny
days, and today was all that and more, I like to go
out back and sit on the
glider swing with the Chis (Chihuahuas) and watch the
world go by. Some
might call it "watching the grass grow" or "watching
paint dry", or some
such description based upon silliness. My wife and
daughter were out
running errands, perhaps enriching WalMart in their
concerns for
consumerism, and I was out back from a bit after Noon
to well beyond one
P.M.

Normally at a time such as this I might feel
contentment in watching the
Chis as they play and chase June bugs, barking to the
sky with their joy.
At times my eye would catch the airliners that can be
seen in the far
distance to the South, as they fly down the glide
slope on their way to
LAX. At the busiest time there can be seen about one
airliner per minute
making the glide in. Occasionally, one can see
contrails high in the sky
indicating perhaps a military jet. I saw three today,
all flying toward the
Northwest.

But fate had something else in store for me today,
something that just
totally captivated me. I discovered that I was in the
very middle of the
Monarch butterfly migration path of those beautiful
insects returning to our
area from perhaps Mexico, where they supposedly
winter.

Initially I thought that it was just a few butterflies
that had emerged
from their cocoons, testing their new wings in the
warm sun. However,
after about fifty or so went over me I realized that I
was in the middle of
a miracle; something that I had never witnessed
before. In one good minute
I counted in excess of sixty of them, and they were
flying directly over me
but within a corridor of perhaps twenty feet or so.
They were just clearing
the roof of our house, so I could see them plainly,
not that there is
anything plain about a Monarch butterfly. They flew
over in singles, duos,
triplets and bunches of seven or so. What do you call
a group of
butterflies? A flock? No, that's for birds, and I'm
also for the birds I
like to say. Perhaps a "cube of butterflies"? Maybe a
"tub of butterflies"?
I'll have to look it up later. Just believe me that
there were hundreds and
hundreds of butterflies that flew over me on this
gracious day. One in
particular must have been hungry, or perhaps just
tired, as I assumed that
the scent of the beautiful orange blossoms of my dwarf
orange tree caught
its attention, for it circled down and stopped for a
few moments, visiting
several blossoms before it resumed its flight. While
sipping nectar, it
spread its wings gracefully back and forth, and from
perhaps ten feet away
I was able to see all the indications of it being of
the Monarch variety,
although a mid-sized one.

When my wife and daughter returned I called them out
to see this miracle,
and they too were awed with the sheer numbers of
winged beauties flying over
us. Another caught the scent of orange blossoms and
for a moment circled
the tree. Perhaps scared off by the two or three
honeybees harvesting
pollen, it circled back up and returned to its flight,
to where I do not
know.

Nature has obviously given them some sort of
navigation sense, as they all
were flying from the Southeast toward the Northwest.
At times there would
be a gap of no butterflies, and then suddenly one
would fly over, not
following any but heading surely in the proper
direction. After a while,
the oddity of it wore off and simple amazement at the
sheer numbers took
over.

Even a miracle can become tiring in its redundancy,
and I led the Chis back
into the house. I went out again by myself after
four, and I noted that a
strong breeze had sprung up from the Southwest,
something I generally call a
"sea breeze". At this late hour, with shadows draped
across my patio
instead of warm sunlight, an occasional butterfly
would go over, fighting
the breeze but still on a dead reckoning for the
target area, wherever that
might be. I only saw five butterflies fly over from
about four fifteen
until almost five. Perhaps the flight had set down
for the night somewhere
to the Southeast. I will go out again tomorrow and
see if they continue.
My wife suggested that I get out the video camcorder
and try to catch them
on tape. I will certainly try that. You don't often
get the opportunity to
tape a miracle.

Covina, CA

Latitude: 34.1 Longitude: -117.9

Observed by: Charles
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