Chuck wrote: ↑Wed May 01, 2024 5:16 pm
Last week, before it snowed, there was an unusual number of V. atlanta around.
It warmed up a bit three days ago, albeit with rain. Today it's 64F and sunny. There are hundreds of atlanta, everywhere. Most are flying fast, I've only observed one alight. They are absolutely beat.
So either there was a local population explosion late last year followed by a high winter survival rate, or they have migrated. Given the condition of them, I'd say they migrated en masse. I've never seen anything like this before.
Here in North TX, for weeks now, I've been seeing more V. atalanta than ever before - absolute
swarms of them. Of course, TX has always been a great place to see
swarms of things, but the butterfly numbers here this spring are really outstanding. Not just atalanta, but also cardui and virginiensis are quite abundant. Many Polygonia interrogationis and Battus philenor as well, among others such as Danaus gilippus, D. plexippus, Anaea andria, and numerous Pieridae.