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.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Late surge of monarchs

Monarch numbers were good last week, but extreme winds kept most hunkered down over the weekend.  Strong northwest winds continued on Monday, and a noticeable increase of monarchs occurred.  Observations were made at Cape May Point, at the Avalon Seawatch, and at Stone Harbor Point.  Tuesday's weather forecast is very promising; if weather like this had come two or three weeks ago we would have predicted a very large flight of monarchs.  It's late in the season, so we don't expect a huge flight, but we do expect the numbers to increase over the next day or two.  We'll be out there watching, and at the very least we know there will be excellent flights of migratory birds occurring.

Here are a few photos from Monday.








Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. UnknownNovember 3, 2016 at 4:04 PM

    Here in Toms River NJ I only raised about 8 monarchs. My first time! Simple wonderful. But now I'm a little worried. While they were hatched in early September, I have two that are still hanging around and it's Nov. 3rd. Will they be alright or should I bring them in the house as long as I have plants for them? or just let nature take it's course.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mark S. GarlandNovember 4, 2016 at 8:05 AM

    Are you sure that the two you are seeing are the same ones? It seems more likely that the 8 you raised already migrated and that you are seeing migrating monarchs from someplace further north now. I'd just let them keep migrating.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)