Date: 10/01/2011

Number: 1000

October 9
Steady stream of many monarchs (and many dragonflies, buckeyes, some painted ladies) came into Cape May today from the north....it ain't over yet! Monarchs were abundant on the butterfly bushes near the cottage, impossible to count but I'd say somewhere in the 400-500 range stopped in between 7:30 am and 3 pm when we left). Most dropped in for a bite and left going towards the point.

We were at the point between 12 and 1; not much along the trails-the action was all by the beach where they were flying in great numbers along the dunes and stopping on the goldenrod here and there. Some were clearly fatigued (flying low, hitting the ground at times) so there will be roosts tonight.

My husband had to literally drag me out of Cape May earlier today to go home; it was hard to leave all our flutterby friends. On the drive to Jackson on the Garden State-counted 39 all flying south between 3 and 4:30 pm (and many dragonflies, etc). Once home we were greeted by five more in our garden.

October 8
All day today the 3 butterfly bushes at our cottage were covered with butterflies-over 3 dozen monarchs for much of the time-unusual to see this many at once (not even last year with huge numbers stopping through did I see this many on the bushes). Working by the cottage today I did not observe any in flux into the city from the north. At 5 pm some of the monarchs roosted high up in a deciduous tree behind our property; I counted 16 going in to roost but then left to go to the point. We walked down at the point from 5:30 to sunset and saw very few monarchs-some on the goldenrod and some roosting individually in trees.

October 1
In a 35 minute walk we saw at least 1000 monarchs at Cape May point. From 11am until 4ish we noted monarchs coming into Cape May from the north-we did not count them.... This evening we found two significantly sized roosts-one on the dunes near Lincoln Ave at the point and the other in the state park at the end of the blue trail--this one was very large--several deciduous trees were literally covered with monarchs. Could not count them-lighting was poor but definitely a large roost!

Cape May, NJ

Latitude: 39 Longitude: -74.9

Observed by: Vidette
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