Southbound Butterflies and Moths

Everywhere I looked, butterflies and moths were busy moving from flower to flower, jiggling, flapping, and sipping nectar and headed south fast.

The first I spotted, near the ponds at Cape May Point State Park, was this beautiful 

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris Thysbe) 

with it's bright blue antennae dancing around a swamp milkweed.

A male Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) 

was pounding and vigorously shaking the flowers, 

as it searched aggressively for nectar.

This handsome and flashy Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) caught my eye with his striped antennae and brown checkered compound eyes.

This gorgeous American Lady Butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) was a beauty to behold as she twirled around in all her glory, with beautiful blue eyespots on the hind underwings, bright pinkish orange red on the upperside, a little perky upturned snout and gold tipped antennae. 

 As I walked on towards the beach, more and more flitted by and these are 

just a few I was able to capture:

 Even though very tattered, this Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) whizzed by, frequenting many 

flowers as he coursed south.

This dandy, a Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia), 

delicately perched as it gathered needed supplies.

Spinning down and around on this low lying yellow flower, an American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) finds her way.

I look forward to seeing more butterflies and moths pass through as they make their amazing migrations south.

Bees and Bunnies

Walking through Cape May Point State Park one afternoon, a young naive bunny was resting in the shade, at one of my favorite spots, under an old cedar tree.

 I got closer and closer and he didn't budge. 

 Having enough of me, he dashed off into the bushes. 

Just beyond, making homes in the hard packed sandy soil, the Rose Mallow bees were hard at work again. (See blog entry from August 17, 2016). 

This time I noticed, that the bees actually carry water to help loosen the soil, so they can dig holes. 

I also saw a large bearded insect positioned between the holes 

and I wondered if it was a predator, and sure enough, he zoomed and zagged trying to grab the bees as they worked, provisioning their nests.

Here is the result of Rose Mallow Bees' hard work -

thousands and thousands of beautiful rose mallows for as far as the eye can see.

Moonset

During a recent sunset in early July at the Point,  a fellow sunset watcher, asked if we had ever seen a moonset. 

A moonset? 

Never thought about it. 

A moonset is best, of course, seen during a full moon and lucky us, there was one that weekend. 

So, we set our clocks early for Saturday morning, July 8 at 4:45 a.m. The alarm rang and looking outside, we saw a mist and likely not good viewing for the moonset. Back to bed, we went.

The next night, we went to set the alarm for the same time, but I thought we should double check the time. So glad we did, as we could get up even later, 5:45 a.m. The alarm went off, the skies were clear and we could see stars from the window. 

Off we dashed to the beach and we made it just in the nick of time,

  as the moon was starting to set and 

was slowly descending into a mist or fog over the bay.

It would have been better to have seen in at an earlier time in the morning, like the day before, as the sky would have been darker and it would have more dramatic. 

That darn mist!

So, as we were watching the moonset at 6:00 a.m., the sun had already started breaking at 5:42 a.m. behind us, well before the moonset. 

 It was a memorable start for a great day. 

We then made our way to 

The Blue Pig at Congress Hall for some delicious waffles with strawberries and cream. 

We were the first ones there.