Week 2 Update

We're nearing the end of our second week of studies for the 2019 Monarch Monitoring Project, and the monarch numbers continue to be low.  We had a bit of northwest wind early in the week, but that was earlier than we usually see our first big arrival event, and indeed those favorable breezes just brought modest numbers into Cape May.  We continue to see a slow trickle of monarchs at the Point -- we don't go a day without seeing a few, but we're still waiting for the first big flights.

Monarch feeding on lantana in a Cape May Point garden

We expect big numbers of monarchs to get here eventually.  There have been many reports from our north of observers seeing excellent concentrations; you can see some of those reports via Journey North here: https://journeynorth.org/monarchs/news/fall-2019/.

In staff news, we are excited to report that the Migration Count Coordinator for NJ Audubon's Cape May Bird Observatory, Tom Reed, is now tagging monarchs.  Tom's a busy guy at this time of year, coordinating the hawk watch, sea watch, and morning flight counts, plus doing pilot work on studies of migrating bats, dragonflies, and moths.  If it migrates through Cape May, Tom studies it, so it's not surprising that he wanted to add monarch tagging to his impressive list of skills.

Migration Count Coordinator Tom Reed with tagged monarch.

Our program season has begun, and we met with enthusiastic visitors last weekend at our first two tagging demos at Cape May Point State Park.  Monday through Thursday featured our first four informal "drop-in" programs at the Point's Triangle Park, with attendance ranging from 2 to 15.  We love to talk about monarchs with everybody, and hope that many readers of our blog will attend one or more of our programs this fall.  The Triangle Park programs will run through Oct. 25 every Monday through Thursday at 1 pm.  The Triangle Park is at the junction of Lighthouse and Coral Avenues in the Borough of Cape May Point.  Our more formal tagging demos are held at 2 pm in Cape May Point State Park, at the East Shelter, which is adjacent to the big Hawkwatch Platform.  Those programs run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through Oct. 13.  We'll also be part of the big NJ Audubon Monarch Festival on Sunday, Oct. 13, details here: https://njaudubon.org/event/monarch-migration-festival-2/

The following weekend, Oct. 18 - 20, our demos move to the Cape May Convention Center as part of the NJ Audubon Cape May Fall Festival and will take place at 12 noon (and possibly at other unscheduled times).  See details about the festival and the schedule here: https://njaudubon.org/nja-events/cape-may-fall-festival/

Nothing in the weather forecast suggests that we'll see many monarchs this weekend or early next week, but as we always say, patterns are sometimes broken.  We will hope to be happily surprised.  But even if the big flights don't start up yet, there are always some monarchs in Cape May Point, and this fall we're seeing lots of other butterflies as well, as illustrated below.  You can't go wrong with a visit to Cape May in the fall; we hope to see many of you at our programs and out in the field.

Red Admiral

Red-spotted Purple

Common Buckeye