Cape May Celebrates North America’s Oldest Bird Festival Oct. 25 – 27

New Jersey Audubon’s Annual Cape May Autumn Weekend turns 67 (but nobody’s talking about it retiring).
We’re celebrating and want you to join us. What can people expect when New Jersey’s oldest conservation organization hosts its annual migration celebration in North America’s most famous migratory junction?
– Cape May Convention Hall filled with artisans, vendors, exhibitors, and live animals
– Speakers and field trip leaders who are the best in the nation
– Plus all the birds of a Cape May autumn
It was 1946, the year after World War II ended, that New Jersey Audubon hosted their first festival, in the resort town of Cape May. Then it was limited to members. Later, in response to a burgeoning interest in nature, the organization opened the event to residents and visitors from across North America and abroad. Today there are over 100 bird festivals in North America, but still only one Cape May Autumn Weekend/THE Bird Show.
Much of the 3-day weekend success is directly linked to Cape May’s extraordinary concentrations of migrating birds. Typically fine October weather and the close proximity of natural areas to Cape May’s fine dining and lodging insured the event’s success, made even better by the city’s new Convention Hall – headquarters for annual celebration.
Convention Hall is only one small fraction of the celebration. There is a full slate of activities including naturalist-led field trips, boat trips, programs and workshops from experts in their field, book signings, and more.
If you are interested in more than just Convention Hall, you can register online (www.BirdCapeMay.org), call Deb Shaw at 609-861-0700, or stop by Convention Hall during the festival and register for the day of your choice. Daily registration (which includes admission to Convention Hall all weekend) is $85 for NJ Audubon/CMBO members or $125 for non-members. Evening programs are in addition to the daily registration and require advance registration (up until October 21).
Our evening programs this year include keynote speakers, Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle, authors of the newly published “Warbler Guide” and author, ecologist John Kricher who will present, “Conservation, Connections, and 150 Million Years of Birding”. Humans and birds go back a long way and this connection is important to ourselves and our planet.
This year, with sponsorship from Carl Zeiss Sports Optics, we are offering a special NJ Young Birders Event on Saturday, October 26. Geared specifically for ages 10-17, the day includes exclusive field trips, birding with the experts, a hawk banding demo, and a chance to interact with the hawks and owls from Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge at Cape May Convention Hall. Advance registration is required and scholarships are available with funding from Carl Zeiss Sports Optics. Contact Chris at 609-861-0700 (extension 11) for more details and to register.
For many, the Cape May Autumn Festival is an annual tradition. Timed to coincide with the peak of bird migration, when migratory conditions are right – following the passage of a cold front – participants can be treated to the sight of tens of thousands of birds including 16 species of raptor, most notably Bald and Golden Eagle.
But even without optimal conditions, you can count upon North America’s most famous bird watching location to host lots of birds and the experts at New Jersey Audubon to produce them.
Typically, 200 bird species are recorded during the event but it is the great massed spectacle of birds not the diversity that most people marvel at and then return for in hopes of being so fortunate again. In late October, it is typical for so many hawks to be migrating that they cluster in swirling flocks called “kettles”. A good vantage point to view migrating hawks is at the Hawk Watch Platform in Cape May Point State Park. The annual Cape May Hawk Watch count is sponsored this year by Swawovski Optik. The Hawk Watch runs from 7 AM to 5 PM every day through the end of November; stop by any time.