Warming up

  

Quick shot of a Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) butterfly, high up in a tree catching the last warm rays of the sun.  Photographed in Cotati on 23 March 2025.

Signs of spring

 

We took a short walk around our neighborhood this afternoon.  It was pretty warm today, and a few butterflies were taking advantage of the afternoon sun.

Above, a Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) basking on the ground among the leaves and needles.

Below, a Common Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis) on a bare patch along a trail:

 

I hear we might see some rain on Monday/Tuesday.  Although I'm guessing the butterflies would prefer more sun, it would be nice to increase our rainfall season total beyond ~13.5 inches!

And the answer is...

Tortoiseshells!

Last night I mentioned butterflies zipping by, and that I wasn't sure if they were Satyr Anglewings (Polygonia satyrus) or California Tortoiseshells (Nymphalis californica).  There were even more butterflies today, and I finally got a few photos.

The first photo was one for documentation, but I like it because the butterfly was perched on a seine net:

 

Then I managed to get a few more photos — here's one from above:

 

Compared to Satyr Anglewings (see last night's post), note that California Tortoiseshells have fewer dark spots on the hind wings, pretty blue spots along the trailing edge, and relatively smoother wing margins (anglewing is an appropriate name for the other species).

Here's the view from below.  I love the coppery tones and the bark-like appearance:

 

You can see how well camouflaged California Tortoiseshells are against background vegetation when their wings are closed:

 

So this is the first time I've seen California Tortoiseshells on Bodega Head.  It was so much fun to see them flying in off the water (most were flying west to east), and to wonder where they were coming from and where they were going!  This species is known to undertake long-distance movements, so it's not necessarily surprising to see large numbers of tortoiseshells flying by.  However, in my experience here during the last 12 years, it's uncommon (rare?) to see this species, and large movements of this species, along the coast.  (Large movements are more common in the mountains.)

I'd love to hear about other tortoiseshell sightings in this area, so let me know if you see them!

Cloaked in mystery

Well, sometimes I just can't help it.  I'm from the Boston area, and the Bruins made me proud tonight (although I did feel bad for the Penguins; that was a tough loss!).  So I tried to think of the last photograph I took that had black and gold highlights.  This is what I came up with:

 

I photographed this Mourning Cloak butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa) on San Juan Island in Washington on 25 May 2013.

Mourning Cloaks are often associated with willows, and sure enough, we found several of them basking in the sun near a willow thicket.  A few were also sipping sap from the bark (next image).

 

Note that the undersides of their wings are very different than the uppersides — predominantly black and charcoal gray with a golden border.

 

There are quite a few willow thickets on Bodega Head and I've often thought those sites would be good places to find Mourning Cloaks.  I haven't found one yet, and it's actually been a bit of a mystery why I haven't seen Mourning Cloaks locally.  Are they just not common along the Sonoma Coast?  

But recently, in A Field Guide to Butterflies of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley Regions, I read a reference to Mourning Cloaks undergoing a "catastrophic regional population collapse, disappearing from many places and becoming very rare in others."  And it sounds like this may have happened in the early 2000s.  So now I'm wondering if I arrived in this area at a time when Mourning Cloaks are harder to find...or if they've always been rare (or unrecorded) on Bodega Head?  If you are familiar with their status in this area, I'd love to hear more!

 

Warming up

At the end of the day on 23 November 2012, there were some warm, sunny spots in our backyard in Sebastopol.  This butterfly found one of them!

Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta) overwinter as adults in this area, so occasionally may be seen basking in the sun on mild days in fall or winter.  This a medium-sized butterfly, ~5 cm (2 inches) across.

Here's a view from above (next photo).  Note the dark brown background with a broad orange stripe in the middle of each forewing.  The trailing edge of each hindwing is also orange.

 

With a slightly closer view, you can see the subtle hints of coppery iridescence and the bright blue accents on the inside corners of the hindwings.

 

The white spots at the tips of the forewings might remind you of the butterflies known as ladies.  Red Admirals are in the same genus, but they're more boldy and simply patterned (at least on the upper surface of the wings).  If you'd like to compare, review previous posts on American Ladies, Painted Ladies, and West Coast Ladies.