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[KNat <knat AT sprintmail.com>]

Thanks for asking. The outdoors is so alive right now with our 
migratories. My joy this time of year is the migrating insects. I took 
my daughter on a much belated summer day off Monday and we went to Cape 
May for the most successful nature experience of decades. THOUSANDS of 
monarchs covering trees. It reminded me of a long long ago childhood in 
Pacific Grove, CA. Each year I go to hot spots on the east coast and my 
highest time in Cape May, in the last 18 years, was 300.
I finally got to understand (maybe) the migrating dragonflies so common 
with the Monarchs in our field. We saw a stream of butterflies along a 
jetty over the water and mixed in were the dragonflies. Birds cycloned 
overhead and worked to dart in and grab a tasty dragonfly without 
accidentally getting a toxic monarch. There were so many birds daintily 
flying to chase the bugs that the Peregrines and Eagles would swoop in 
and grab a bird. Awesome. We watched for hours and the dance kept 
replaying. We walked the beach until nightfall and went to a roosting 
spot to watch a pine tree converted to look like a White Oak with 
drooping "leave clumps" made of Monarches with folded wings.
Only question is. We note the butterflies arrive in our area the same 
time a certain tree turns exactly the shade of orange of their open 
wings. Now we see them become our  White Oaks to sleep. If scientists 
are right they are poisonous and birds don't hunt them, why are they 
camo'd? Do birds need to eat one to learn and personal survival protects 
them from being the tastetester?

Kathyann