Butterfly Migration?

I'm not sure if these were monarchs or what. Anyone know? There were dozens of them all over the ground.
Thanks so much for your visits, comments, suggestions, favs. Sorry to be so behind in commenting. I should be able to visit your projects later today.

[Patricia McPhail]

These have the same colours as Monarchs but I don't think they are Monarchs which have black lines with orange inside - look like stained glass windows.

[Allison Maltese]

I think they night be California Tortoiseshells. Let me know what you think. http://www.folksbutterflyfarm.com/butterfly/cal_tort.htm

[Milanie]

Definitely not the monarch, but Allison might be right - that's a remarkable number of them together.

[Mags]

Beautiful capture! These are amazing!

[Jean]

They are beautiful creatures! Lucky to see so many together.

[ChristineL]

Great to see so many together

[JT Simpson]

Jane, as Allison mentioned, these are Ca. Tortoiseshell Butterflies.
So glad you got to see so many in one spot. Very nice!

[Jane Pittenger]

@falcon11 @soylentgreenpics the underside of there wings was dark black...didn’t look like dried leaves

[Rick]

Wow, that was a great find. Cool capture.

[Marnie]

How wonderful, what a great find.

[Diana]

How beautiful to see that.

[aikiuser (jenn)]

Nope, not Monarchs. Tortoiseshells. How amazing to see so many, definitely looks like a migration.

[Junko Y]

I once saw a Monarch migration suddenly appear outside my kitchen window all across the big trees in my backyard. More than 25 years ago now, but I still recall how speechless I felt, the wonder of so many at once. I agree with the others that these aren't monarchs but in any case, seeing so many at once was sure lucky!

[Steve Jacob]

Wonderful

[Jane Pittenger]

@jyokota we were backpacking in the Sisters one year and there was a monarch migration happen8ng. There must have been a thousand of them...never will I forget that either!

[Junko Y]

@jgpittenger it’s breathtaking isn’t it. Maybe we will be lucky and see it more than once in our lifetimes.