Butterflies on my mind...

This weekend's weather has been a bit variable, with some rain falling Saturday morning to put a bit of a dampener on our programs but it wasn't enough to keep our dragonfly workshop group out of the field. Despite gray skies for much of the day, we saw a fine selection of Cape May's dragonflies and witnessed all sorts of interesting behavior. Here's a couple of stars of the show:

This female Bar-winged Skimmer posed beautifully on a greenbrier stem for us, showing off a wonderful color-coordinated body and those smart, black-margined wings. Bar-winged Skimmers are rather localized in Cape May and can mostly be found in the top third of the county. [photo by Mike Crewe].

Always a show-stopper! A male Widow Skimmer - just one of some 20 individuals that we saw of this relatively recent colonist to our area [photo by Mike Crewe].

Insects have certainly been the main focus of our wildlife walks this past week and one particular little beastie that has come to our attention has been a red-and-black species known as a Cow-killer - sounds ominous doesn't it! Cow-killers are a large member of the group known as velvet ants. These insects are not actually ants, but wingless wasps and as such they have a sting in their tail. The reason for the strange English name is that it is said that the sting is so powerful it can kill a cow, and that being stung by one is akin to being shot! I am not sure whether this is really the case, but I do have a healthy respect for them! Look for Cow-killers anywhere on open ground, and look for a bright red and black thing that looks like a very busy ant. There are a number of other velvet ant species, most of which are similarly-colored, though often more orange in appearance, but none are as big as the Cow-killer, which can get up to an inch long. Females lay eggs  at the entrance to bumblebee nests and their larvae are parasitic, crawling into the nest and eating the bumblebee larvae.

Female Cow-killer - an awesome beast! Stories of killing cows appears to be scientifically unfounded, but I'm not going to be the guinea-pig!! Keep an eye out for these interesting insects, but don't be worried by them, they are perfectly happy ignoring us and are extremely unlikely to sting you unless you really annoy them [photo by Mike Crewe].

With this year's dragonfly workshop now complete, I find myself looking ahead to the butterfly workshop that Will Kerling will again be leading for us. Certainly I've noticed that our summer butterfly species are now emerging in good numbers, in perfect time for our workshop this coming Thursday. We still have a few vacancies on this fabulous day out around Cape May, which offers a superb opportunity to enjoy a nice range of butterfly species, while learning more about the lives of these fascinating insects. As ever, please call our Program Registrar on 609-861-0700 for more details or register. Here's a few tempters for you:

Hayhurst's Scallopwing on our dragonfly workshop yesterday. This may be the classic 'little brown job' but it's an interesting butterfly and never easy to find in Cape May County, so it's always a nice bonus to a day in the field [photo by Mike Crewe].

Late afternoon light shining through the wings of a Viceroy - our butterfly workshop will help you easily learn how to tell this species apart from the Monarch butterfly [photo by Mike Crewe].

It could be a good year for the Little Yellow as several have been seen already around Cape May. This southern species moves its range northward periodically and can occasionally be found in good numbers when conditions are right [photo by Mike Crewe].

Recent sightings
Shorebirds are still in the news as numbers swell around Cape May and wetland habitats are certainly the place to be right now. Top prize in the area at the moment would be the two Black-bellied Whistling-ducks which have so far spent two days at Brigantine and this site also still has a summering Dickcissel and White-faced Ibis. A good variety of herons, egrets and ibises continues to build up and the Great Shearwater may well still be lurking off the point if you fancy a nice day on the beach!

Adult Green Heron at Bunker Pond on our state park walk last Wednesday. It;s worth getting out every day from now on as migrants are well and truly on the move... [photo by Mike Crewe]

Shorebirds & seabirds continue in the news

Southbound shorebirds and wandering seabirds continue to be in the news on the various information lines at the moment. I heard from Clay Sutton that Heislerville is really busy with shorebirds right now, with his latest counts including 3,000+ Semipalmated Sandpipers, 1,600+ Short-billed Dowitchers and 502 Lesser Yellowlegs - the latter count easily surpasses Clay's old fall record of 200! Eastern Willets seem already to have mostly shipped out from the backbays and tern numbers are gradually building down at Cape May Point, among them a Sandwich Tern and two Roseate Terns today, while Lesser Black-backed Gull numbers have so far peaked at 11 on South Cape May Beach. Two Wilson's Storm-petrels were feeding in the bay this morning and a Great Shearwater - presumably the same bird - was reported by Tom Reed, this time seen sitting just offshore from the state park.

A run through our Field Trip Reports should give you a good insight into the shorebirds and other waterbirds that are steadily increasing around wetlands at the point; perhaps most surprising is the appearance of a second American Coot. Solitary Sandpiper and Little Blue Heron are sure signs of fall advancing, as are the little groups of Sanderling that are starting to show up on the tideline now.

Sandwich Tern at Cape May Point this week [photo by Karl Lukens].

Songbird migration is not hugely in evidence as yet, but small numbers of Bobolinks are certainly making their presence known overhead during several of our recent weekly walks and Karen Johnson tells me that numbers of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are starting to build up at her feeders up in the north end of the county.

Another Belleplain Foray

Belleplain State Forest continues to be one of my favorite places to take people for some 'let's see what happens' style wildlife-watching. Our latest walk started, as usual, at the mothing wall, where we found at least six of those raspberry-and-banana delights, the Rosy Maple Moth, a single Southern Flannel (going for the latest ever in New Jersey award!) plus - as usual since this is our first full year recording them - a few new surprises. After the moths and other insects at the lights, we headed into the woods and wetlands of Belleplain, starting first with some close encounters with Slaty Skimmers, going through their bizarre mating ritual which was described, then happened right before our eyes! Carnivorous Spoon-leaved Sundews were flowering and the ancient art of frog catching (a disappearing art sadly!!) was put to good use to identify some decidedly unspotty Southern Leopard Frogs. We rounded off with a study of the local huckleberries and blueberries - which involved some skilled tasting tests! - and finshed with a dazzling Ebony Jewelwing. Here's some of our finds:

I struggled with this moth at the time as it isn't in the new moth guide to our area. However, an internet search eventually led me to Nepytia pellucidaria, a species which is poorly known but which is perhaps the most likely member of its genus to occur in our area. At least five were at the light today [photo by Mike Crewe].

Moth species that disguise themselves from predators during the day by looking like pieces of lichen and blending in with their surroundings are very common in woodland areas. This Mottled Prominent was one of two seen at Belleplain today and behaved very obligingly for the cameras [photo by Mike Crewe].

Our best find of the day, simply because it is so crazy! This strange beast, looking somewhat like a dragonfly with silly antennae is known as a Four-spotted Owlfly (Ululodes quadripunctatus). I guess they are called owlflies because they have very hairy heads and thoraxes. They are actually quite closely related to Ant-lions - those insects that build those little pits in the ground when they are young, to capture ants. Owlfly nymphs are very similar to Ant-lion nymphs, but they roam freely through the leaf litter and don't build pits [photo by Mike Crewe].

A real close-up reveals one of the most peculiar features of owlflies - their split compound eyes! This individual looks as though it has its head turned to show the top, where the two eyes meet, but in fact this is just one compound eye and it has that curved split across the middle; I can't begin to imagine what sort of a view of the world this gives the creature...[photo by Mike Crewe].

Recent Bird Sightings
At least three American Avocets recently turned up at Brigantine but I have heard of no further sightings of the Ruff reported from there a few days ago. The Dickcissel continues at Brigantine and a steady trickle of early migrant shorebirds and Glossy Ibises continues though our area. At Cape May Point, Saturday's CMBO walks turned up the first Pied-billed Grebe and juvenile Little Blue Heron of the fall, while Don Friday had a surprise visitor to his yard in the form of a Pine Siskin - keep an eye out for those strange goings on in your back yard - one of my regular correspondences has two young Green Herons regularly visiting his birdbath in hot weather in Lower Cape May at the moment!

Strangers at the point

There's been a few strangers at the point of late... "Strangers?" I hear you ask. Well, birds that are not quite so expected here right now. Even in mid summer, it seems that the old Cape May magic weaves its spell and draws in those oddball wandering birds!

Today, our Walk for All People at the state park turned up a Merlin, which was chased off by the local Red-winged Blackbirds - clearly they thought that this bird should not be here at the moment either! The American Coot that showed up last week also still lingers on the east half of Lighthouse Pond (though it is likely that this bird has been around since last winter when we had unusually high numbers of this species, it's just been hiding somewhere out of view) and a Great Shearwater was again off the point - presumably the same bird as seen on Tuesday. Up to three Mississippi Kites are wandering the point and, though mostly in some distant corner where we can't find them, they do seem to appear from time to time over the Rea Farm, so that's my tip for a location if you want to see them! These birds are more typically birds of spring here but, as this species continues to push its breeding range north, I guess we can hope to see them more regularly in future. A Sandwich Tern and three Lesser Black-backed Gulls were reported from the South Cape May Beach on 2nd, while Stone Harbor Point and nearby Champagne Island have recently hosted up to 58 Royal Terns, seven Lesser Black-backed Gulls, single Sandwich and Black Terns and a summering Surf Scoter. Black Tern and Whimbrel were reported from The Osprey boat trip on 5th and there was a small, early movement of Bobolinks over the point this morning.

Great Shearwater

Pete Dunne's monday morning walk at The Meadows turned up a nice surprise today with a Great Shearwater cruising the calm waters off the South Cape May Beach. A good hour later, the bird was still present and feeding actively among all the gulls and terns that were busy catching fish in The Rips off Coral Avenue. Oh for a small boat so as to be out there to get real frame-filling shots of this fabulous seabird! While we were watching, a small fishing boat was cruising back and forth among the birds and passing within just a few yards of the shearwater!

Great Shearwater (left) with Laughing Gull for size comparison. It is amazing just how big a lens you really need to get close enough for good shots of birds - or how close you have to be to the bird! This shearwater looked magnificent through a scope and at times I could even see the sun glint in its eye - and yet a 400mm lens wasn't really enough! Here though, you can see the dark-capped look, pale neck collar and typical underwing pattern of a Great Shearwater [photo by Mike Crewe].

From above, the same head pattern is visible on the Great Shearwater and it also shows a narrow white rump patch, dark tail and a dark outer wing with contrastingly pale secondaries [photo by Mike Crewe].

June's Final Surprise?

Perhaps Clay Sutton tallied the final surprise bird of June on Wednesday (27th) with a Mississippi Kite which drifted south over Hidden Valley - the first raptor of Fall!! Well, in reality it is probably a non-breeding bird that has spent spring and early summer wandering the east coast and a little edge of Northerly in the wind for a short period brought it to the cape.

As I type, a real hum-dinger of a thunderstorm is rattling away outside and certainly put paid to working through the moth trap for a while! Such summer storms bring much needed water to Cape May though and at least the temperature has temporarily dropped from yesterday's 91F! If weather patterns like this continue, it will certainly be worth being out there looking for birds, as any passing migrants will be downed by the passing showers. Check out wetland areas for early returning shorebirds (Vince Elia reported two Spotted Sandpipers at the Plover Ponds on 28th) and beaches for wandering terns.

Mississippi Kite over Hidden Valley on Wednesday [photo by Clay Sutton].

End to End Wildlife

As we enter our high summer period, Cape May County really does become a tale of two ends; there are wildlife spectacles to be enjoyed in all corners of the county, but the furthest ends really do offer some wonderful experiences. On my Wednesday walk at Cape May Point State Park this morning, we had the fine sight of at least five Brown Pelicans fishing among the hordes of Laughing Gulls and Forster's Terns out in the rips, a wonderfully starch-white Roseate Tern was on the beach and the first Lesser Yellowlegs of Fall blipped all too briefly past. In contrast, our Belleplain Wildlife walks on Sunday mornings take us right up into the northern corner of the county and each week we have consistently enjoyed some fabulous experiences. Birds don't tend to be our main priority on these Belleplain walks (we do them later in the morning after bird activity has tailed off a little), and yet birds nevertheless do feature strongly. Recently, a singing Yellow-throated Vireo accompanied us for much of our walk and a dayglow Prothonotary Warbler zipped right across the road in full sunshine. Singing Black-and-white Warblers and American Redstarts have featured in these walks too, as well as some stunning dragonflies and awesome orchids - the latter including Rose Pogonia, Grass-pink and the peculiar Green Fringed Orchid.

All of our summer walks continue to provide some great birding opportunities for walk members; at The Beanery, Black-crowned Night Herons, Blue Grosbeaks and Orchard Orioles have been a feature, while a pair of Horned Larks also appears to be breeding there this year, which is great news (keep an eye on our Field Trips section for all the details on what our walk groups are enjoying!). And don't forget the boat trips on the back bays too - some fine pictures keep winging their way to me from folks enjoying good birding out there!

Elsewhere, Tom Reed consistently reports Sandwich Tern and occasional Roseate Tern at Stone Harbor Point, while an interesting Brown Pelican movement has been taking place offshore, with the largest party involving 21 birds that passed north off Cape May Point on 24th. Up at Brigantine, Wilson's Phalarope, Snow Goose, Brant and White-faced Ibis were all still being reported up to a few days ago at least - and more shorebirds will begin to pass through any day now.

Our Belleplain Wildlife walks continue to start with a run through the moths at the state forest headquarters (courtesy of Lorraine McCay and her team - thanks guys!). Recently Tony Leukering had a nice find with a Southern Flannel, a species that the books indicate occurs to the south of New Jersey. Quite good numbers of this species are now appearing at Belleplain and - you have to admit - it is a beast worth seeing! [Photo by Mike Crewe]

Appearing in a wet patch near you right now! Large stands of brilliantly-colored Orange Milkwort make a fabulous sight throughout our region [photo by Mike Crewe].

An orchid highlight for me on a recent Belleplain Wildlife walk was the discovery of a small colony of Green Fringed Orchids - sadly they had been needlessly mown to the ground two days later...[photo by Mike Crewe].

Another tale of two ends - two ends of the size scale: recent visits to Belleplain have turned up a fabulous array of dragonflies, which should be peaking in time for our July 14th dragonfly workshop folks! In one day, I had the delight of seeing Cape May's smallest and its largest dragonfly in the same day. At a mere 0.8 inches long, this male Elfin Skimmer is truly minuscule for a dragonfly - and yet easily as feisty as its larger cousins! [Photo by Mike Crewe]

At the top end of the dragonfly scale, this beast is almost our largest dragonfly (the Swamp Darner just beats it by a nose!). This has the awesome name of Dragonhunter and is a species that specializes in catching and eating other dragonfly species. Note the undersized head (a feature of the clubtail group that it belongs to) and the oversized hind legs [photo by Mike Crewe]

A closer look at the business end of a Dragonhunter [photo by Mike Crewe].

Down at Cape May Point, the ponds at the Rea Farm are producing good views of Black-crowned Night Herons [photo by Karl Lukens].

Common Terns are nesting now in the back bays - this one was photographed on one of our back bay boat trips recently - clearly a great opportunity to get up close and personal with these birds [photo by Beth Polvino].

Breeding-plumaged Common Loons are an all too scarce sight in Cape May County, but this bird has been delighting our boat trip participants regularly of late [photos (above and below) by Beth Polvino].