Observation date: March 15, 2025
Submitted by: MAKI
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: Lone monarch
Status: Resident
Verified by: Ken Davenport
Verified date: March 16, 2025
Coordinator notes: I have yet to see a butterfly in the city of Bakersfield this year...it remains cold and breezy and very few butterflies up the Kern River last Tuesday other than Sara Orange-tips, a few Silvery Blues and a California Ringlet. I have not checked the Bakersfield Monarch Preserve on Panorama Heights. Two week before up the Kern River there were 14 species: Sonora Blues, California and Milbert's Tortoiseshells, Zephyr Commas and some likely Desert Orange-tips. But things are greening up nicely on the Sierra west slope, but dry as a bone on the east side of the Sierra in Kern and extreme Inyo Counties. I did not go north of Nine Mile Canyon where I saw nothing, but Yucca Giant Skippers should start flying at lower levels in Nine Mile Canyon in a week or so....they will fly even in very dry years!...Ken
