Monarch at Cape May State Park, photo’d by Sam Galick mid-day, January 1, 2012.
…. Cape May still has butterflies on the wing.
Our first butterflies of 2012 follow immediately on the tracks of our last butterflies of 2011, as warm weather continues in the southernmost extension of the state.
Sam Galick and others spotted the monarch above in Cape May State Park on New Year’s Day less than 24 hours after Will Kerling photo’d a sulphur late on New Year’s Eve afternoon at the Rea Farm. But Will himself had an even earlier butterfly for 2012 — a sulphur at 9:34 a.m., one of two he found at Cape Island Creek Preserve on Jan 1 morning.
See our log for other reports of last/first butterflies by other observers. We have several reports from both sides of New Year’s Eve midnight. On December 31, Megan and Mike Crewe found a red admiral on Bayshore Road in Cape May, Bill Schuhl had a monarch in a Cape May Point garden, and Jim Dowdell recorded a dozen orange sulphurs in Green Creek.
On New Year’s Day Cynthia Allen spotted an anglewing at the Cape Island Creek Preserve, and Jim Dowdell had a red admiral at the state park and two orange sulphurs at Cape Island Creek.
Orange sulphur, photo’d by Will Kerling, Cape May, 3:18 pm on December 31, 2011.