The Monarch Monitoring Project is a long-term study on monarch migration through Cape May, NJ. It is a part of the New Jersey Audubon Research Department, and closely affiliated with the Cape May Bird Observatory.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Slow and steady.

While your Monarch Monitoring Project team has stayed busy with presentations to many Cape May visitors, the monarch migration hasn't changed much, with a few monarchs passing through every day and small clusters found in the mornings and evenings at various unpredictable locations around Cape May Point, but usually in wooded lots with lots of blooming English ivy.  Rest assured that we will post quickly whenever we see a significant change in the numbers of monarchs anywhere in the Cape May area.

2 comments:

  1. Am following your reports. Thanks for your devotion to this! Saw a monarch in my Princeton backyard today, feeding on aster and ironweed. Have linked to your site at my PrincetonNatureNotes.org site. Any thoughts on whether the monarchs depend in any way on large numbers to help them migrate, for momentum or improved navigation, or is each individual well equipped to make the journey on its own?

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    Replies
    1. Hard to say for sure, but is seems that each monarch makes the journey on its own. Geography concentrates them into places such as Cape May. The do apparently gain some small thermal benefit by clustering together on a cold night.

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