BirdCapeMay.org

Q: What eats Monarch Butterflies?

A: Praying Mantis are one predator that eat Monarchs, as shown in the picture above (photo by Nicole Popovich). Other predators include birds, some mammals, several kinds of insects, and parasites.

Q: How do you tell a male and female Monarch apart?

A: Males have a small spot on the inside of the hindwing. This is a difference that we can see in the image below, just follow the 2 white arrows (photo by Mark Garland). A few other differences are that the ends of their abdomens look different and females tend to be darker with slightly wider wing veins.

Q: Where are the Monarchs migrating to and how long do they live?

A: Monarch Butterflies migrate through Cape May each autumn. The final fall generation of Monarchs in the East will migrate to the mountains of Mexico, west of Mexico City, where they will winter.

This generation that migrates in the fall live, in general, from August - September to April. However, due to the risks involved not all Monarchs will survive the journey.

Those that make it to Mexico and survive the winter will mate in the spring. After mating the males will die before migrating north. The females, full of fertile eggs, will make the journey back to North America where they will lay their eggs on milkweed before dying.

Q: Do Black Skimmers winter in flocks on the east coast?

A: During September and October, postbreeding adult and juvenile Black Skimmers congregate in flocks on the Cape May beaches. Many of the skimmers that we see roosting by day at Second Avenue Jetty are from the Stone Harbor Point colony.

During the winter, skimmers in the northern part of their breeding range will migrate south. A good place to view skimmers during the winter is on the coast of Florida.

"There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends."
- Shel Silverstein