Where Butterflies Flutter By

The sun has finally burned through the Newport Beach morning fog, its warmth coaxing butterflies from where they've been sleeping amid the California buckwheat, deer weed and scrub oak.

Soon, the leaves, stalks and stamens begin to pulse as the insects sun themselves in preparation for flight — like tiny pilots running up their engines before takeoff. As nature's sun worshipers, butterflies can soar only after their body temperature reaches 86 degrees.

And thanks to the recent heat wave, they are still soaring.

Hundreds of these colorful creatures make their home at Orange County's only butterfly house, a recent addition to the Environmental Nature Center, just over the bluff from Newport Harbor.

The native-butterfly house is a 1,700 square-foot greenhouse, covered with shade cloth to keep its residents inside.

The recent heat wave extended Orange County's butterfly viewing season and brought late visits by the orange- and-black monarchs, which winter at several sites from California to Mexico. The butterfly house will close once cooler weather sets in and reopen in April.

"If you appreciate nature and butterflies, they're like a flying flower," said Reginald Durant, who helped build the house, which opened in April. It was modeled after a larger butterfly garden at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

Visitors at first might not notice much at the house, located a few steps behind the center's office. But "when you really start looking for the details, that's when you see a whole different world emerging," Durant said.

There are 10 species of butterflies at the house: red admirals (black wings with bands of orange and white), Lorquin's admirals (with what looks like a white smiley face on a field of black and brown), monarchs (orange wings outlined in black), painted ladies (calico-colored wings) and mourning cloaks (black wings bordered in yellow with iridescent blue spots).

There's also the West Coast lady (orange and black wings with a row of blue spots), buckeye (brown wings with orange highlights and two multicolored "eye" spots), anise swallowtail (black and yellow wings), cloudless sulfur (yellow wings with brown edging) and California dogface (bright yellow wings with black edges and white highlights).

Even after the house closes, there is plenty to see at the Environmental Nature Center, which opened in 1972.

It gets visits from 15,000 students a year in educational programs, including hands-on classes outdoors. Its 3.5 acres encompass what was once a trash-filled gully behind Newport Harbor High School. Volunteers transformed the arroyo into several native-plant communities, including desert, chaparral, woodland and oak regions, connected by a shaded trail.

Admission is free. The center relies on memberships, gifts and grants to fund its $400,000 annual budget. It also is a popular recipient of high school community service and Scout projects.

The butterfly house draws visitors from across the county, said Bo Glover, the nature center's executive director, who has worked there for 14 years. Second-graders use the house to learn about the life cycle of butterflies as part of state science curriculum.

The $35,000 house was paid for mainly by two Rotary clubs — Newport-Balboa and a sister club in Okazaki, Japan — with additional support from Home Depot and the Pacific Life Foundation.

"The butterfly house is unique in that it features only native butterflies," Glover said. "It has become a very popular attraction."

Butterflies are the peacocks of the insect world. Their distinctive, colorful wings make them welcome garden guests.

Probably the most recognizable is the monarch, which visits California during late fall and breeds on milkweed plants on its journey between Canada and Mexico. It is often mistaken for the more common viceroy butterfly, which shares its signature orange coloring but has a black line bisecting the lower wings.

An equally vivid cousin, the California dogface butterfly, was made the official state insect in 1973. Its bright yellow wings with black edges outline what looks like a white poodle face.

Butterfly lovers will be able to enjoy a second destination in Newport Beach this spring when a butterfly habitat is completed at the nearby Upper Newport Bay Interpretive Center.