Monarch staging at Cape May

North wind at Cape May in August means it’s starting. Monarchs staging for the Gulf crossing will use these headlands and the right afternoon gets you thousands. I didn’t get thousands today but I got hundreds and I’m very happy.

Spent most of the afternoon at the Meadows in the goldenrod field. Monarchs were nectaring heavily — they need the fuel — and would stay put on a stem for ten or fifteen seconds at a time. Long enough to get sharp.

Also in the field: dozens of Sachems and Fiery Skippers (Cape May gets the southern skipper crowd), some Common Buckeye, a Question Mark or two, and one glorious Red-banded Hairstreak on a goldenrod stalk that took twelve frames to nail.

The other story was migrating songbirds overhead even before proper fall has started. I heard a Bobolink flock calling (chink-chink) and saw three Ospreys heading south in twenty minutes. A single Peregrine came down from the north and went over Lighthouse Pond without stopping.

Hawk watch at the Point wasn’t open yet but the platform was building — they’d already started drawing the banner for opening day. Good day. I have a soft spot for Cape May in late summer, when it’s not yet the madhouse of October.