 |
| Dale Gerhard, AC Press Photo |
Michelle Brunetti Post writes for the Atlantic City Press:
CAPE MAY POINT — Her friends aren’t surprised when Rebecca Zerlin suddenly calls out “Monarch!” when they are driving with her.
She’s trained to spot the migrating butterflies from far away in a moving car.
The 25-year-old Cape May Bird Observatory intern drove slowly around a set 5-mile route from Higbee Beach through Cape May Point, clicking a hand-held counter every time she saw one of the orange-and-black butterflies.
Her total was 38 in 20 minutes.
The 20 mph drive and count is repeated every day at 9 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. from early September to late October and provides data for a census of monarchs passing through Cape May on their fall migration to Mexico.
 |
| Rebecca Zerlin and to monarch butterflies – Dale Gerhard photo |
“You are here on a good day,” said Zerlin, of New Orleans. A wind from the northwest and sunny skies had brought lots of the migrants to the tip of Cape May, where they will put on as much weight as possible sipping nectar from wild sources and garden flowers before making the 17-mile trip across Delaware Bay to Cape Henlopen in Delaware.
The data aren’t in yet, but early anecdotal reports predict a strong showing for the beautiful insects that travel thousands of miles to huddle together in trees on protected mountainous land in the Reserva de la Biosfera Mariposa Monarca, about 62 miles northwest of Mexico City.
The butterflies’ many fans are hoping for a big population rebound this year.
“At the very least, we can say that in Atlantic and Cape May counties lots of people have seen a lot of monarchs in the last generation before migration, which means lots of caterpillars now, and more are going to be headed (south),” said Mark Garland, director of the Monarch Monitoring Project run by CMBO, a part of New Jersey Audubon. “I’m cautiously optimistic.”
The species has declined about 90 percent nationally in the last 20 years, with particularly rough years in 2004 and 2013. Bad weather and dwindling supplies of milkweed for the caterpillars to feed on are generally blamed for the crashing population.
The data collected here, however, have shown ups and downs but, overall, a more stable population, said Garland, probably because milkweed is more plentiful along the East coast than in the Midwest, where changing farming practices have wiped it out.
Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column —
>>
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column —
>>
