Saturday update

MMP Founder Dick Walton with 2017 Interns Rebecca Zerlin & Stephanie Augustine.

Dick Walton, our Founder and Director Emeritus, headed back to his home in Massachusetts this morning.  Dick had the vision and the drive to begin the Monarch Monitoring Project in 1990, and he ran the program for more than 25 years, even though he has never lived in Cape May.  He continues to take time out of his schedule every autumn to come to Cape May Point to help with the work of the project.  He provides wisdom and mentorship to our Interns and to all of our volunteers.  We always wish he could stay longer, but Dick is a brilliant naturalist who is involved with many projects, including the study of jumping spiders (see here).  Thanks, Dick, for your wisdom, foresight, guidance, and friendship.

Monarch feeding on seaside goldenrod at Cape May Point.

Meanwhile, the monarch migration continues through Cape May Point.  After seeing very few monarchs on Thursday, due to heavy winds (a gale warning was in place all day), a modest number came out of hiding on Friday, mostly seen feeding in gardens and along the dunes in Cape May Point.  It's hard to know what's going to happen over the next few days, as the weather forecast is quite unsettled.  We do know that there are still a lot of monarchs to our north, so the possibility exists for another big surge to come through Cape May.

Rebecca Zerlin at tagging demo.

We do know that our public outreach programs are continuing.  Our last two formal tagging demos at Cape May Point State Park will be held on Saturday, Oct. 14 and Sunday, Oct. 15.  The programs begin at 2 pm at the East Shelter in Cape May Point State Park, and there is no fee.  These programs begin with about ½ hour talk about monarch biology, migration, and conservation, and then our staff and volunteers spread out and each gathers a small group of visitors to show how monarchs are tagged.  We will also have tagging demos as part of the Cape May Fall Festival, run by NJ Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory.  Our casual "drop-in" programs continue every Monday through Thursday through October 26.  These programs begin at 1 pm and are held at the Triangle Park in Cape May Point, located at the junction of Lighthouse and Coral Avenues.  We hope to see many friends of monarchs at our upcoming programs.