I had a quick visit to Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz, which is about a 30 miles (50 km) on Highway 17 from San Jose.



The purpose of the visit was to view the monarch butterflies that are overwintering in the eucalyptus grove by the beach. It's one of the overwintering sites along the California coastline. Monarchs living to the west of the Rocky Mountains migrate to locations on the central California coast, and those to the east migrate to Mexico.

The eucalyptus grove is a part of the State Park, and thus the butterflies are protected. There is a boardwalk, starting from the Park Visitor Center, that leads through the gove and on to the adjacent open field.



There was a small cluster of monarchs high up on a eucalyptus tree near the end of the boardwalk. It was difficult ot take good photos because I had forgotten to bring a telephoto lens. Since most of the monarchs had their wings closed, they appeared like pale brown leaves on the tree.



Since the sun was beging to warm them up, some of the monarchs were begining to spread the wings to get ready for a flight..



Compared to what I saw when I visited the overwintering site in Pacific Grove (near Monterey) many years ago, this was a rather disappointing "butterfly show". It's quite possible that the monarch population has suffered a steep decline over the years. I might revisit Pacific Grove later in the month.