Hammo

[ButterflyPR at comcast.net]

Stopped by Hammonasset late morning to use up my tags.  It was very easy--I only had ten!  There were not very many Monarchs in the garden--a couple with curled wings that seemed to be permanent residents.  Most seemed to be passing through--I didn't see any of the tagged ones after I released them.  I probably saw around 30 total in the garden, as well as numerous cabbage whites, several Americal Ladies, maybe 6 Black Swallowtails, 1 clearwing moth, 1 skipper that took off as I tried to get a closer look at it, and several sort of tan moths.   Also saw a couple of Orange Sulphurs in the parking lot.  As I was leaving, I'm pretty sure I saw two Cloudless Sulphurs fly over the nature center.  Once my attention was directed up, I saw several Monarchs flying over at heights of maybe 40-50 feet.  After seeing that, I walked out into the parking lot to see where they were coming from.  From 12:20-12:30 PM, I saw 50+ Monarchs flying by at cruising altitude, and another 20 or so that just
 seemed to be crossing the parking lot (marsh to marsh).  There may have been more--I was having trouble watching the sky without sunglasses!

I also saw several more crossing the road on the way out--the road inside Hammo, I-95 from Madison to Westbrook, and Rte 145 in Westbrook and Deep River!  

Diane