Could there have been a Million Butterflies??

On May 1st I saw great numbers of butterflies flying along Rt 147, then even more along the Ocean Drive  up and over the bridge onto Nummy Island.  The butterflies were everywhere.  I could see mostly Red Admirals with some Painted Ladies.  When I got home there were Painted Ladies in my garden nectaring on the Cat Mint I planted last year.

To tell a Painted Lady butterfly from a American Lady butterfly you look to the hindspots on the butterflies.  The Painted Ladies have 4 small hindspots while American Ladies have 2 larger hindspots.

Today, there was an even larger migration of Red Admirals, Painted Ladies and American Ladies that went through Cape May and Atlantic counties.  On Don Frieday's blog he estimates the number of butterflies that migrated today.  The link to his post is below and makes for very interesting reading. <http://freidaybird.blogspot.com/2012/05/million-butterflies-per-hour.html>  My understanding from some research is that there are epic flights like this about every 10 years though no one I have spoken to remembers seeing a flight this massive in the past 20 years.