Geographically speaking, the cape is a peninsula that situated on the southeast edge of New Jersey. It forms the eastern shoreline of the Delaware Bay. Birds that cross this bay bottleneck through Cape May in the Spring and species like wood warblers "fall out" (meaning they can't continue migrating without regenerating their energy reserves). It is said that around 60% of the species that migrate through New Jersey in the spring pass through Cape May. In reverse, the fall leaves Cape May as one last place to feed up before migrating back South to tropical climes and passing over the bay again.
Peak seasons for Cape May appear to be mid-May and pretty much the entire fall season (late October is when their fall festival occurs). I was able to get down towards the very tail end of the fall migration season. Needless to say, my trip was magical! I had planned out nearly every minutes of available light that I was going to get. For the most part I had been following eBird accounts like crazy weeks prior and I had a good idea of what I was (hopefully) going to see.
My day started out at the Avalon, NJ Seabird Watch. There, Sam Galick, the counter for the day and an avid New Jersey birder, gave me a small (but awesome) taste of what Cape May birding was all about. Having not gone to a Seabird Watch, you can imagine how excited I was to get several new life birds. The Sun had just barely risen and my birding day was heating up rapidly!
Other places I visited included Lake Lily, the Cape May Point Hawk Watch Platform, Harvard Av. and Lincoln Av. along "the dunes", Higbee Beach WMA and the Cape May Airport among a few other locations. In all, I was able to snatch 18 life birds out of a possible 26 purported in the area. All I really know is that I need to get back to Cape May for a spring experience and more fall experiences! Any day in Cape May is a good one! Birding is magical in Cape May!
Brant
Sanderling
Sanderling feeding
Cackling Goose (far left) on Lake Lily was an eBird rare account
Greater White-fronted Goose, also on Lake Lily, was an eBird rare account
Herring Gull
Horned Lark at the Cape May Airport
Cape May Lighthouse
An Eastern Bluebird on Lincoln Avenue. There is a resident population of Eurasian Collared Dove there that I also would have seen, however, it was extremely windy and cold that day. These doves are also rare for the area.
Wilson's Snipe at Cape May Hawk Watch. This hawk watch is one, if not THE, top hawk watches in the nation. It is led by NJ Audubon's Tom Reed.
Tree Swallow at the hawk watch
Northern Harrier at Cape May Hawk Watch
Cooper's Hawk at Cape May Hawk Watch
GBH at hawk watch
A Fox Sparrow (top) and an Ovenbird (bottom) at the CMBO Northwood Center bird feeders
Cave Swallows on the Avondale, a hotel in Cape May
Here is the eBird list I compiled in Cape May County that day...
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