We are nearly three weeks into the field season for the Monarch Monitoring Project, and on Sunday (Sept. 19) we started to see the season’s first major influx of monarchs into Cape May Point. We also conducted our first three tagging demos on Friday through Sunday, with good attendance each day.
Tagging demos will continue each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through October 10, each held at 2:00 pm under the east picnic shelter at Cape May Point State Park. No reservations are required, and no fee is charged, though contributions to support our program are accepted. During the following weekend, Oct. 15 – 17, we will have demos at noon at the Cape May Convention Hall as part of the New Jersey Audubon Cape May Fall Festival, details on our website: njaudubon.org. We’ll then have one more weekend with tagging demos, Oct. 22 – 24, when due to the shortening day length our demos switch to 1:00 pm.
You can meet one of our researchers on Mondays through Thursdays as well, from now until October 21, by meeting at Cape May Point’s Triangle Park at 11:00 am. These are not formal projects, just opportunities to meet a member of our team and learn a bit about our work. Our researcher may be working on garden maintenance, perhaps tagging monarchs, or otherwise working on one of the many tasks involved with our project. One thing for sure – they’ll be happy to answer your questions about monarch biology and about the work we conduct.
Will Sunday’s influx of monarchs into Cape May Point continue through the week? We wish we knew, but unfortunately there’s no way to predict. One thing for sure: there will be at least a few monarchs here every day until late October, and maybe even early November. On some days there will be lots and lots, we just don’t know which days that will happen. So come often, enjoy everything that Cape May has to offer, and keep your fingers crossed, hoping to catch a day when monarchs seem to be absolutely everywhere.
