We spent almost a week at Leo Carillo State Park, late in December 2001. It is on the beach west of Los Angeles - just beyond Malibu. We saw comorants, pelicans and other shore birds. Here is a curlew running ahead of an incoming wave - trying to keep its feet from getting wet?
We saw hummingbirds flitting around and enjoying some flowering bushes. They tantalyzed the photographer with dreams of closeups of birds catching the sun for beautiful colors - but these two are the best we managed.
We were amazed to see a group of parrots, flying among the tree-tops. Since parrots are not naturally found in California they must have been escaped domestic birds that had gone feral. Another treat was a multitude of Monarch butterflies. They migrate to California early each winter from all over the western USA and Canada.
They seem to favor eucalyptus trees, in spots along the coast south from Monterey. We found clusters twice as big as a basketball, with evidently dormant butterflies hanging from branches, twigs and each other in tight groups. With their wings folded up against each other their bright colors could not be seen and the drab undersides of the wing made the cluster appear to be a group of dead leaves.
The butterflies we saw were not hibernating for the winter. As we looked at them in the late morning of a day that was already becoming warm, we would see individuals begin to open their wings and become active - eventually flying around. A few hours later we found no trace of the "sleeping" cluster.
