butterfly bonanza

it all started two weekends ago, actually. i was on my way to Yucca Valley with my dad, and while going up Highway 62, after Painted Hills and before the Morongo grade, the attack began. a multitude of butterflies were attempting to cross the highway, heading west. that stretch of highway is divided (2-lane each way), so the butterflies, if they made it without getting clobbered, got a little break of about 40 ft. in the middle of traffic. by the time we got to the grade we probably had hit more than 100 butterflies. i figure there was an average of about 50 cars every ten minutes, so about 5,000 butterflies may have not been fit enough to survive every ten minutes (good ol' Darwin). we didn't see any coming back through the same area around 5pm (after a beautiful day in the desert!), so the butterflies may have already stopped traveling for the day.

up 'til then, i had only seen such a horde of butterflies one other time in my life. i think it was about 15 years ago, so i must have been around 7 or 8 years old. my family still was living up in Yucca, and it had to have been either the summer or a weekend, because me, my older brother, and my older sister were home the whole day. it was a hot day, too, since i remember coming indoors every once in a while for a glass of lemonade or sun-steeped tea. anyway, the occasion of tons of butterflies going across our backyard gave my brother the idea (who i followed faithfully) of getting a tennis racquet to swat the flies for hours. of course, when i tell most people i did this, they usually get a pained look on their face, feeling sorry for the butterflies: kids don't only say the darndest things, Bill.

but that brings me to two days ago, when the butterflies came in a swarm to La Jolla (coming from the south), and were constant companions all the day on campus. my friend, Jen Chen, posted about it, and it reminded me to write about it, since ever since i saw the butterflies two weeks ago, it's been jogging my memory of when the last time butterflies swarmed in my life. for those who are in the LA area, you might get the same experience, but i don't know how the butterflies will manage in so urban an area.

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