Finally, news from the butterfly girl: week 1

Hello and welcome to my fellow nature enthusiasts! The Morning Flight and Hawk Watch counts have started and so too has begun the Monarch Monitoring Project! I have been slow to start on the blog, but I promise to try to update you more regularly and either a) expand your Monarch and butterfly knowledge or b) provide little anecdotes from the field. Either way, welcome to the start of the 2010 Fall Migration season! It should be a good one!

We started the season off with a bang and counted 19 Monarchs on the first road census! We observed 21.83 Monarchs/hour in the first week. For those not familiar with the project, we have a specific 5 mile route through Cape May Point that we drive three times/day, at 9 am, noon, and 3 pm. We drive approximately 20-25 mph (I started out at about 10 mph and told Louise, “I feel like we are going too fast, though!”) and each road census takes between 16-20 minutes.

Hearing many stories about slow seasons of the past, I have been informed that we are doing great so far. We had some slower days more recently but I was determined to tag butterflies, regardless. I have some previous experience rearing Monarch caterpillars and tagging the butterflies that emerge, but this is my first experience catching Monarchs in a net. There weren’t many butterflies every day, but people strolling by could witness me with a butterfly net in hand, stealthily (or not so stealthily) creeping up behind a Monarch, swooping, and sometimes missing, so gracelessly swooping through the air, trying to catch the fluttering Monarch. Essentially, this job allows me to release my inner 8 year old child. And it allows me the opportunity to pretend I am on a Discovery Channel program: (in an Australian accent): “Now here we are in Cape May, New Jersey, stalking the wild Monarch as it embarks on a 2,000 mile journey to the overwintering sites in Mexico….”

And on that note, stay tuned to hear about the Buckeye flight, the abundance of butterflies in local gardens, and a little bit about the birds and the bees in Cape May, NJ.