366 Theme 281: Royal

The royalty of the butterfly world, the monarch. This particular butterfly was imaged along the California coast in September and was probably migrating to its winter home. 

Monarchs have an incredible life cycle. They leave their wintering grounds in Mexico or in southern California in the spring and over several generations they migrate throughout the US and into southern Canada. Each generation pushing a bit farther north. Then in the fall the last generation migrates all the way back to the wintering grounds, a place they've never been and was last seen by their great great great great great grandparents.

They can be seen in large numbers in the fall in Cape May, NJ as they pass through heading south. Imagine, these fragile creates, some starting out as far north Maine, traveling down the east coast as they fly on to Mexico, congregating in the millions in a remote fifty acres in the Transverse Neovolcanic Mountains in Mexico.

The butterfly in the image wasn't heading to those mountains, as only butterflies living east of the rockies wind up there. Southern California or Baja Mexico was the more likely destination. 

366 Theme 149: Sinking

The sun sinking into ...

... a cloud / fog bank ...

... out over the pacific ocean.

This set of shots was taken at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. And the idea of using a sequence of sunset images for the theme was stolen inspired by LawGirl (see Other Challengers list on the right).

366 Theme 354: Beach

When you emerge from the tunnel on the ocean side you're greeted with this view of a pocket beach and waterfall. 

366 Theme 10: Underground

My friend and colleague Rob is shooting the last rays of the sunset from a tunnel under the Pacific Coast Highway at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, in the Big Sur region.

366 Theme 194: Opening 

The pacific ocean from the Pacific Coast Highway south of Monterey and north of Big Sur. Most of the time the view of the ocean was shrouded in fog. Here the fog lifted, literally, off the ground to become low clouds. Apparently this is not uncommon. At Point Reyes National Seashore you need to go down 30 stories of stairs to get to the lighthouse, because this allows the light to be seen under the fog. Contrast this with lighthouses on the east coast of the US, where I live, which are often set at the high points along the coast. 

So there are two openings here, the lifting of the fog to open the view and the openings in the clouds, which are the obvious theme of the image.

We Interrupt This Challenge ...

Hummingbird Garden

Leaves and Branches

Foggy Meadow

Chicory Flower

Northern Cardinal

The NJ Audubon Society's Rancocas Nature Center is a mere eight miles from my home and over the years I've wandered the trails and taken my share of images. This month they are having a photo exhibition and they asked their visitors to submit up to five images. These are the five I chose.

NJ is the most densely populated state in the US. Most people are familiar with the industrial corridor of the NJ Turnpike, which connects Philadelphia and New York City. But if you cross the state in the other direction, from the Delaware Water Gap in the highlands, through the Pinelands and on down to Cape May, you'll learn why NJ is called the Garden State.

But there are many pressures on these undeveloped spaces. The NJ Audubon Society is one of a number of groups dedicated to preserving what is left of the wilderness in NJ. And I am glad to support them with both as a volunteer and as a member.

366 Theme 42: Fences

This fence is at one of the retired ranches at Point Reyes, which has now been turned into a historic site. There were over a hundred meters of this fence, all of it covered with lichens. This was the normal state of the wood fences throughout the park.