Favoritos de julie8

Melanistic juvenile (likely male based on size relative to the Great-tailed Grackle it was feeding upon). Verified by William Clark, and Lance and Jill Morrow. First observed by M. Silvas with me, and I shouted "melanistic Cooper's Hawk, OMG" as I identified the bird preliminarily, before submitting it to experts for review.
N31.070728 W-97.369269
JPK-2925

We were climbing Diamond Peak in the Oregon Cascades, from the Vivian Lake Trailhead, north approach. We began to encounter large numbers of Painted Lady butterflies once we reached about 8,000' elevation on the mountain, above tree line. We did not see any butterflies below this level. As we traversed the mountain, thousands and thousands of the butterflies swept by us, going uphill. At the peak, we were surrounded by 10's of thousands of the butterflies, sweeping up the east and north sides of the mountain, streaming over to the west and south sides. They were not landing, and there was no obvious flowers for feeding (Diamond Peak in July is very dry and rocky, mostly devoid of vegetation). They streamed over us in uncounted numbers for the entire time we were above the treeline. While I have seen these butterflies before on mountains, this was by far the greatest number I've encountered. It is no exaggeration to say there must have been 100's of thousands of them. In spite of their numbers, they never ran into us and seemed in complete control of their flight. The day was sunny, warm with very modest wind.

I have videos which show the number and direction better than the photos, but can't upload them. Contact me if you want them.