Over the years I have spent countless hours adrift on the Atlantic Ocean during the month of September fishing for my favorite gamefish. Many of these trips are quite a distance off the beachfront and some would be several miles. During these trips I was always amazed at the amount of monarch butterflies we encounter. I had always heard of their migration to Mexico from more northern regions but believed they’d take a route over land to their destination as opposed to the open ocean.

Last September a fishing buddy of mine who is the quintessential outdoorsman and an AMAZING photographer posted some pictures he captured of the butterflies roosting in a stand of trees. They had the tree just about completely covered. I was amazed to see that many butterflies in one location. When I asked him where he shot the photos I was floored to hear “right on Long Island”!!! He explained to me that as the monarchs are migrating they travel in the day but then take up “roosts” in the early evening for the night-time. This was something I thought was VERY cool and I wanted to get a sight of it first hand. However, as things go, I never got the chance last September. I promised myself September 2012 would be different.

Fast forward to 9/15/12. With my wife and in-laws willing to take a ride we headed east the beach areas of Hampton Bays. We got out there a bit earlier in the afternoon than planned and there were no butterflies in trees at ALL!!! We were going to wait till twilight so we took the opportunity to jockey along the jetty on the west side of the Shinnecock Inlet and pass some time watching the beautiful sport fishing boats returning. All the time there the butterflies were floating everywhere.

At 6pm I figured we should re-visit the area and sure enough, there they were. As I parked the car we could see hundreds, if not thousands of monarch butterflies streaming over the dune line from the oceanfront and taking up residence in a stand of evergreens right in front of the parking lot. I had been feeling the pressure since you know whenever you tell someone about an amazing sight it just never appears when someone else is watching. The butterflies did not let me or my family down and we spent the next 90 minutes watching the evergreens get FILLED with the bright orange butterflies coming in to rest from their journey for the evening.

Monarch Butterfly Stopover on Long Island's South Shore

 

Hampton Bays Long Island Monarch Butterflies

I’ve read some further on this since and learned that this is a sight seen along the entire length of Long Island’s barrier beach environment and is not at all unique to the area we were in. I was actually able to find pictures from folks who found the very same behavior right down the highway from us in Smith Point Park and further to the west in Robert Moses State Park.

I had my brand new Canon 60D DLSR camera along for some test photography and while the pictures are nowhere near those my buddy produced I was just happy enough in having the opportunity to photograph this phenomenon.

Monarch Butterflies Roosting for the Evening

Very, VERY cool stuff and I can’t wait to visit them again NEXT September.

Tight Lines.........
Capt Paul Mandella
captpaul@maybetonightcharters.com
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