The peninsula of Cape May, New Jersey has a funnel effect when birds are migrating south during the fall, which makes the area ideal for birders. We just happen to arrive during fall migration which was very exciting. Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) has three different monitoring stations to report findings. First is the hawk watch at Cap May Point State Park. An average of 35,000 hawks pass thru here between September and November each year, making this the best hawk watching site in the North America! It's not unusual to have 3,000 birds come thru in just one day! An official counter is at the hawk watch platform from September 1 thru November 30. From mid-September thru October there is also an interpretive intern present to answer questions and help people with identifying the birds as they pass. One of the days we were there, we watched a steady stream of Peregrine Falcons flying over. By the end of the day, 72 had been counted!
At Higbee beach, counters are present from 30 minutes before sunrise til 2 hours after. From this dike facing the Delaware Bay, you are eye level as the birds are migrating. Around a quarter of a million songbirds pass thru here during the fall migration. This place will make your head spin. You will see birds, but many will be a blur as they pass in front of you. The counter is usually the same person everyday thru the fall, so they are very skilled at identifying birds with the tiniest glimpse, but more so by the tiny one note "chip" as they're flying past. Very impressive!
The Avalon Seawatch counts seabirds like loons, grebes, cormorants, gannets, pelicans, ducks, geese, herons, egrets, swans, terns, jaegers, alcids and gulls as the fly down the east coast. Most years the bird count comes close to 1,000,000 counting from dawn to dusk, September 22nd thru December 22nd! I went to a class at the Seawatch where they explained many species of seabirds can be identified by the shape of the flock, the height that they fly or the manner of flight. Cormorants have a drunken V shape in the flock. They may form a V, but it doesn't hold long and soon morphs into something else and then back to a V.
They also have a tagging station to monitor monarch butterflies. They catch them, record measurements, scratch off the scales on a small patch of the lower outside wing and then affix a tag before releasing them.
They released them by setting the butterfly on my children's nose and
allowing them to fly away, though Asher's decided to stick around for awhile.
Monarchs tagged here, have been reported all over the East Coast as well as in Central America during migration. If you ever spot a tagged butterfly, try to take a photo of the tag so you can call to report it.
Later in the day the monarchs would gather on the trees, or roost, to sleep for the night.
We attended multiple classes on banding birds of prey, identifying raptors overhead and water birds in flight.
This WWII bunker, built in 1942, still stands on the beach at Cape May.
While we were there, a movie was being filmed outside of it.
I walked this boardwalk in Seaside, New Jersey when I was in high school
and came to vacation here with friends. It was fun to walk it again now with my family.
While I joined a bird walk, Daddy took the kids to play on the beach.
We spotted a few playful dolphins from the beach!
At the Nature Center of Cape May we thoroughly enjoyed the great displays and views.
We really liked this challenge to identify the shells using the guide books.
The state park had a special event going on where we got to see
spider crabs, snakes and Journey held a tarantula.
A visit to the Cape May County Zoo let us see something new, leucistic deer.
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