I am fascinated by large-scale animal migrations. I’ve seen the wildebeest in east Africa and the the elephant seals on the central coast of California. And now the ladybugs!
I spent the last couple days camping on Mount Graham, the tallest of our corner of Arizona’s sky Islands. (This is about 2 hours from our house, plus another hour or so up the mountain on a very windy road.) I spent most of my time on the bottom half of the mountain, since the top half is gravel roads and I didn’t bring the truck. There was lots of great camping and hiking here, and the temperature was a good 20° cooler than at the bottom.
I extended by trip by a half day to stop at an amazing 100-year-old u-pick fruit orchard that is right in the middle of the forest. I picked a peck of the best peaches I’ve had in a long while. Yum!
Do you think the ladybugs were preparing for departure? Are they commonly breeding in your area?
A peck of peaches? Half a bushel of fun with them.
Okay, okay. So a peck is only 1/4 of a bushel, but I could not have had the wordplay work if I’d been slavishly accurate.
It “speaks volumes” that I even took time to explain myself to yourself…
I have researched why the ladybugs are there, but haven’t found much except that it is apparently a thing going back many years. Interesting. I’ll ask around more with some of our local entomologists.
The peaches have been fantastic! We’ve enjoyed them plain, in pie, on waffles, on salads, and more. Also freezing some for this winter. Yum!