July 2020

     Summer is in full force in July.  Around Cape May, insects are thriving, from troublesome mosquitoes and biting flies to the more charismatic butterflies and dragonflies.  Birds are active too, many wrapping up the breeding cycle and starting to wander and some even starting to migrate.  I'm usually traveling for much of July, but in this pandemic year I had opportunities to fully experience the Cape May summer.

Above: Halloween Pennant.  Below, left to right: Needham's Skimmer, Eastern Pondhawk, Black Saddlebags, Blue Dasher

      Some summer butterflies of Cape May, clockwise from top left: Pearl Crescent, Common Sootywing, Horace's Duskywing, Broad-winged Skipper, Common Wood Nymph, Red Admiral, Dion Skipper.

Above: Red-winged Blackbird

Below: Fledgling Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Above: Osprey

Below: Lesser Black-backed Gull

Red-headed Woodpecker

Young Glossy Ibis

Blue Grosbeak

Marsh Wren

Common Tern

Least Tern

Swamp Darner

Rose Mallow

Trumpet Creeper

Comet Neowise over the South Cape May Meadows, 7/14/20