Butterfly Migration
Nancy July 15th, 2004
We witnessed an amazing natural occurence on Sunday. We were sitting up on our roof deck, enjoying a leisurely brunch with our friend Elma. All of a sudden we realized that hundreds of pale yellow butterflies were passing by. For the next few hours, we watched this incredible passage of Sulphur Butterflies.
They came out of the forest to the south of the house and were all flying to the north. Many stopped briefly to feed on the bougainvillea flowers surrounding the house. They seemed to prefer the dark purple bougainvilleas and pretty much ignored the red and peach colours.
We looked down the road toward the coconut grove and there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, more butterflies in that area as well. There are many species of Sulpur Butterfly and it is quite common in this area. Even so, this was indeed a rare and thrilling experience for us.
While we were watching, we came up with several names for this “flock”, including a “cloud” of butterflies, a “flutter” and a “gathering”.
The North American Butterfly Association is trying to come up with an “official” name for a flock of butterflies and has several wonderful suggestions including:
- brilliance of butterflies
- bouquet of butterflies
- cascade of butterflies
- flourish of butterflies
- kaleidoscope of butterflies
- prize of butterflies
- reunion of butterflies
- spectrum of butterflies
- splendor of butterflies
- symphony of butterflies
- waltz of butterflies
- woodstock of butterflies