A world of wonder year-round
Animals don’t do pretense. They live au naturel, and that, for most wildlife watchers, is way more than enough.
Still, some species have been known to create quite a spectacle at certain times of year. Seasonal, annual, or just brief events that, in a world full of incredi-nature, ratchet up the jaw-drop factor just a little more.
Think: love-addled fireflies that, for a short time, blink their bottoms in synch.
Think: a lake turned the color of Pepto Bismol — not an environmental disaster but a magical gathering of pink flamingos.
And think (you already are) of wildebeest, miles and miles and miles of them, trudging off to watering holes, barking dogs (hooves?) be damned.
So get out your calendar, and start circling. Here are some of the coolest natural events — true animal spectacles you can witness somewhere in the world every year (fingers crossed). Some are remote, some remarkably close. No matter the effort required to see them, all are once-in-a-lifetime (for you, not them) experiences.
Bird watching
Where: Cape May.
Spectacular because: It’s not just along the Atlantic Flyway — aka the Mother Road of Avian Migration. The Cape May Peninsula, with Delaware Bay on one side and the ocean on the other, effectively works as a natural funnel, sucking southbound flyers toward its shorelines and Cape May Point, the last land they’ll see on their way to winter destinations. Millions and millions of migrating raptors, seabirds, shorebirds, songbirds, butterflies, and dragonflies pass through Cape May every year, making it one of the birding locations on most serious birders’ bucket lists.
When: Fall and spring.
Getting a gander: Come for one of the special “watches” focusing on different types of flyers.
* The Hawk Watch runs from the beginning of September to the end of November; daily totals exceeding 1,000 hawks during the peak period. The greatest species diversity occurs from late-October to mid-November.
* Avalon Sea Watch, Oct 7-Nov. 14 is prime time, between 8th and 9th Streets on the beach in Avalon. Focusing on migrating geese, herons, egrets, swans, gulls, terns, jaegers and auks, the watchers have tallied more than 50,000 sightings a day at peak times.
* Songbird Morning Flight Watch, Aug. 15 to Oct. 31, at Higbee Beach: Many of these delicate birds are nocturnal migrants, but in some coastal areas such as Cape May, thousands of songbirds make brief migratory flights just after sunrise following fall cold fronts.
* Monarch Monitoring Project Census, Sept. 1 to Oct. 31: Millions of monarch butterflies pass through each autumn on a 2,000-mile migration to central Mexico. There’s no specific site for the official count, but there will be presentations and lectures at the Cape May Bird Observatory; sign up to see how researchers tag a butterfly.
Info: Cape May Bird Observatory , Cape May National Wildlife Refuge
Synchronous fireflies
Where: Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Spectacular because: Only two species of fireflies in the world are known to perform this bioluminescent behavior, synchronizing their flashing with Rockette-esque precision — and you’ll have to go to Thailand for the other display. This is one of the 19 lightning bug species in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the light show occurs every year when the firefly larvae become adults. At this point they stop eating, do their courting rituals, mate and die — three weeks and it’s over. The flash display starts slowly, just a few males flashing. Others join in, and synchronize their flashing pattern. Then the males launch into the night sky, flashing and flying, short bursts and periods of dark, until a female, watching from the sidelines, flashes back. Nature’s spectacular dating game works again.
When: May to June.
Getting a gander: The firefly display isn’t widely advertised but still draws big crowds. While exact dates can’t be predicted, access to Elkmont — the area of the park with a high concentration of firefly mating activity — is restricted after 5 p.m. A parking pass is required for the Sugarlands lot. Get passes in advance (they sell out fast) or try for one of the 85 “Day Before” parking passes that go on sale at 10 a.m. the day before the event (for example, passes for Monday will go on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday).
nps.gov/grsm/learn/nature/fireflies.htm
Bat hangouts
Where: Austin, Texas.
Spectacular because: There are two special bat hangouts. First: the gang of Mexican free-tail bats decided — after taking note of the cracks and crevices created when the Congress Avenue Bridge was refurbished in 1980 — they would make it their northernmost migration point every March through October. Today it is the largest urban bat colony in North America, with an estimated 750,000 to 1.5 million bats, all emerging at dusk and swirling in dark clouds into the skies of downtown Austin. At first locals petitioned to have them “eradicated,” but soon the bats were such an awesome spectacle they became a tourist attraction and today there’s a Statesman Bat Observation Center adjacent to the bridge, plus a Bat Appreciation Day.
But the big, big bat gathering is a bit further southwest toward San Antonio, where the Bracken Bat Cave is home to some 20 to 40 million bats, the largest gathering of mammals in the world.
When: March through October.
Getting a gander: The bats in Austin emerge around dusk every night. Congress Avenue Bridge is in downtown Austin, and signs will direct you toward the riverfront. Or book a seat on a Lone Star Riverboat, and you can get a bird’s — well, duck’s eye — view of the action from the water. lonestarriverboat.com.
Bracken Cave and 697 acres of the surrounding Texas Hill Country are owned and protected by Bat Conservation International. They open to the public a few nights while the bats are on board. Reservations required
Info: batcon.org
Bears fishing for salmon
Where: Alaska.
Spectacular because: During the peak of the world’s largest sockeye salmon run, the bears of Katmai National Park head over to the Brooks River and scoop their way into a fish pig-out. Dozens of bears paw-fishing and dining: Kodak (no, not Kodiak) moments.
Because it is one of the first streams in the region where the salmon show up and are accessible to the bears, the Brooks River is home to the biggest seasonal concentrations of brown bears anywhere on earth.
When: Prime bear viewing at Brooks Camp is in July and September, although a few bears may be in the area at any time between late May and December.
Getting a gander: Katmai is open year-round, but services at Brooks Camp are only offered from the beginning of June through mid-September. Most people fly from Anchorage to King Salmon on a commercial airline (Alaska Airlines or Peninsula Airways) and then take a floatplane to Brooks Camp (contact Katmailand.com, the park’s concessioner).
Info: Accommodations are available at the Brooks Lodge, or at the park’s campgrounds
Caribou migration
Where: Alaska to the Arctic.
Spectacular because: Five caribou herds — a total of more than 500,000 animals — make the annual journey from summer calving and feeding grounds on the coastal plain of Alaska and the Yukon south to winter habitat in the mountains and valleys near the Brooks Range. The Porcupine caribou herd alone, all 170,000 of them, take a route totaling about 3,000 miles round trip.
When: Peak in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is mid- to late-June.
Getting a gander: arcticwild.com offers tours.
Info: The Arctic NWR site has info on tours and guides.
The sardine run
Where: South Africa.
Spectacular because: Sardines are the wildebeests of the sea, migrationally speaking. The little fish’s annual thousand-mile journey northward along South Africa’s east coast (aka the Wild Coast) triggers the most spectacular wildlife event in the marine world and the largest gathering of predators on the planet. Predators from the land, sea and air are drawn to the feast presented by billions of sardines pinned to the cold water coastline. Bottlenose dolphins are among the first on the scene, scaring the sardines into protective “bait balls” as massive as 65 feet in diameter.
The initial splashing and feeding frenzy attracts attention quickly, and word spreads. In remarkably little time, the hundreds of thousands of predators have turned the sardine run into a spectacle of unbelievable scope. You’ll find cape gannets, which time their breeding to coincide with the sardines’ arrival; gannets, several species of sharks, penguins, seals and the lunging Bryde’s whales, biggest predator of them all.
When: End of May to late July. But the timing is tricky and can change depending on water temperatures. Plan to visit mid-June or early July for the best chance of catching the action.
Getting a gander: Unfortunately, some of the best wildlife watching is accessible only to divers. Boats are the best way to see the action, who can watch the dive-bombing birds, leaping whales, etc. from the boat or do some snorkeling. The Sardine Run coincides with the annual migration of humpback whales going north to mate and calve, another great wildlife spectacle.
Info: apexpredators.com, early June; Dive Discovery, divediscovery.com, runs five-day Pacific Ocean tours mid-June to late July; and SEAL Expeditions, sardinerun, offers Sardine Run adventure diving and sea safari expeditions in June and July.
Monarchs of Mexico
Where: Mexico.
Spectacular because: Every autumn, up to 300 million monarch butterflies make an amazing 3,000-mile migration from the northeastern United States and Canada to their ancestral wintering grounds in central Mexico’s oyamel fir forests. Finding their breeding grounds in remote areas, finding forests seemingly blanketed in orange, black and white, is otherworldly.
A monarch weighs about a quarter of an ounce — think paperclip heavy. Yet there are so many of them on trees that they actually bend the branches. The gathering here is so vast that it is the one place in the world where you can actually hear the beating of butterfly wings. You can understand why the Aztecs believed that the souls of the dead are reborn as monarchs.
When: February and March are peak
Getting a gander: Visit butterfly reserves in the states of Mexico and Michoacán. Or take a four- to eight-day trip with a tour to some of the sanctuaries — El Rosario and Chincua in Michoacán are the biggest. Info: Among the tour operators: Ecocolors, Natural Habitat Adventures.
Waved Albatross
Where: Galapagos.
Spectacular because: These critically endangered birds arrive en masse on the island of Española in the Galapagos around March 21 for the start of their courtship. Only on Espanola do the birds ever nest. In fact, Española is the only place you’ll ever see them on land, so getting a look is a rare gift. Getting to witness their elaborate beak-clacking, feet-flapping mating dance — which they do for weeks on end — provides a “now I can die” experience.
Between courtship, mating, nest building, egg hatching and raising the chicks, the birds can be on the island for eight months. By late December they’re gone, flying over vast stretches of the Pacific — some have been seen as far off as Okinawa, southwest of Japan’s main islands.
When: March and April for those mating dances, November for the newborn chicks.
Getting a gander: The most common way to tour the Galapagos is by ship. Lindblad Expeditions is highly regarded for its community involvement and sustainable practices. Metropolitan Touring is a veteran tour company in the Galapagos and offers several departures geared toward families.
Info: Galapagos.org
Elephant gathering
Where: Sri Lanka.
Spectacular because: During the dry season in Sri Lanka, Minneriya Tank, a vast reservoir in Minneriya National Park in north-central Sri Lanka, gets pretty popular among the country’s last wild population of pachyderms, who appreciate the fresh grass as well as the drinking supply. Elephants come from all around the region, forming a herd of 300-plus animals — The Gathering, as it’s called. They remain for the dry season, grazing, socializing and splashing.
When: Peak viewing is August and September.
Getting a gander: Tours vary in quality, so do some homework before signing on. Intrepid Travel offers a family-oriented “Elephant Paradise” trip; Boutique Sri Lanka can help you customize your own itinerary.
Info: Among the tour operators: intrepidtravel.com or boutiquesrilanka.com.
Wildebeest migration
Where: East Africa.
Spectacular because: The annual migration between Tanzania and Kenya involves up to 1.5 million of the great beasts (they’re antelopes) traversing vast stretches of open plains in search of mineral-rich grasslands. Along with zebras, gazelles and elands — who join the wildebeests on their travels — the journey attracts thousands of predators — lions, leopards and carnivorous crocodiles. Nature isn’t always pretty, but the migration is always awesome.
When: The start of the dry season — typically late June and July — is best for viewing.
Getting a gander: The migration occurs in both Kenya and Tanzania, a big stretch that can be explored in many ways: flying safaris, luxury camping safaris, or ecotrips that involve meeting with the local Masai people. Some ideas: Natural Habitat Adventures, nathab.com and Micato Safaris, micato.com, are among the tour operators.
Info: wildebeestmigration.blogspot.com
Flamboyant flamingos
Spectacular because: The largest gathering of flamingos is found in the soda lakes of East Africa, particularly Tanzania’s Lake Natron, which has hosted up to 2.5 to 3.2 million lesser flamingos. These massive, dense colonies, known as a “flamboyance,” thrive on algae in highly saline, caustic waters. Lake Natron alone frequently supports 75 percent of the world’s lesser flamingo population. Nearby you’ll also find the active volcano Ol Doinyo Lengai, adjacent to the lake.
When: They gather to breed August through October.
Getting a gander: The Lake Natron Camp was destroyed by freak storms last winter, but you can still see the displays along the southern shorelines and near the Engaresero Village, both accessible and scenic.
Info: Yellow Zebra Safaris offers highly rated tours of Lake Natron. Yellowzebrasafaris.com
