This November, I will be holding a photography exhibition at the Dunedin Botanic Gardens gallery space. I’ve called it Wings (like my calendar) and it will feature larger-than-life portraits of butterflies from around my district.
I have a few photos collected now to choose from, covering the southern blue, kahukura, kahukōwhai, copper (plus the day-flying magpie moth, which will be the topic for my newsletter this week – click here to read more and subscribe). However, I realised that I am missing a good photo of the monarch butterfly!
Last year when I exhibited in Ōtautahi/Christchurch with Artemis Jones, I took some time to visit one of the known over-wintering sites for monarch butterflies. I’d never seen monarchs in diapause (a sort of semi-hibernation) before and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was fascinating to see them all clustered in the foliage of the tall eucalyptus trees, and when I returned there on a sunnier day I was able to take some great images.
For the Wings exhibition, I’ve decided to ‘niche down’ and focus on butterflies from my rohe (region): The Waitaki District. Before moving here, I didn’t even know the region existed, and since moving here I’ve found it’s actually got a lot of geologically interesting places (like the Elephant Rocks and Moeraki Boulders) and a diverse range of wildlife. I thought the exhibition could be a chance for me, in a small way, to show off the Waitaki.
As we don’t get monarch butterflies in our garden very often, I sought out butterflies at the Ōamaru Public Gardens, where I had seen them before. I hoped that, like Ōtautahi/Christchurch, there’d be some starting to overwinter. If I timed it right I could probably get a good close up portrait as they flew down to feed.
Monarchs choose evergreen trees that face the sun to overwinter, so I knew I needed to look at trees facing Northwest; they would only come down from their perches to feed or to bask, so checking the gardens map I chose areas that seemed to have more flowers. I also checked in earlier with the Windy forecasting website to see when there’d be the least cloud cover. It reckoned there was lighter cloud from 10-11am, so I got to the gardens a little earlier to star the search.
They are fantastically camoflauged with the autumnal foliage right now, and there were a few times I saw a leaf falling off a tree thinking it might be a monarch! After a couple of loops of the park I finally saw one fly between two large trees… and then saw another, and another! Trying not to lose sight of them, I walked along as they flew, and stopped by a planting of jasmine and dahlias.
I stood back, hoping one would come down – they are not easy to photograph at the top of a tree! Eventually one came down to the jasmine bush and I carefully started photographing. I gave it some space after a few photos, and walked further along. There was a hebe bush still flowering and I would’ve loved to get a photo of the monarch on a hebe! Unfortunately this didn’t eventuate, though I did get a classic shot of one on a pink dahlia.
After photographing I just sat down and watched them for a while, basking in the tree canopies and then floating down to the flowers, over and over. It was a morning very well spent.
Dwindle River Studio 