Norse Birder: Europeans Would Flock to Cape May

CAPE MAY—One birder who attended the Cape May Birding Festival on Oct. 26 is an expert at using birdwatching to extend the tourism season and boost the economy of a region best known for its fishing industry and historic lighthouse. But it’s not anyone from the Cape May Bird Observatory. Norway’s Tormod Amundsen was in town to tell people his story of how birding had transformed Varanger, a fishing port above the Arctic Circle.
Varanger sits at the top of Norway, at nearly the same latitude as Point Barrow, Alaska. North of the Taiga forest, it juts out into the warm Gulf Stream. Temperatures fluctuate between 25 and 60 degrees. Changes in the fishing industry and declining fish populations hit the area hard, leaving its economy struggling and its communities in decline.
Amundsen moved his Biotope architecture business there from southern Norway, with dreams of becoming a conservationist/architect. He discovered that focusing on birding had more of an impact because he could affect the economy.
Instead of a short June-July tourism season, Amundsen pushed for birders to visit from February to October. He helped create a March event, Gullfest, that this year drew birders from ten different nations. It also attracted 10,000 King Eider ducks and more than 12,000 Common Eiders, astonishing birders. “It’s just really beautiful,” Amundsen said. “It’s an amazing natural phenomenon.”
In the last decade, he’s seen the number of birders increase by 8,000-10,000 annually. “It’s a place you want to come back to,” says Amundsen. As an architect, he’s created designs for birdwatching platforms, nature trails, photo blinds, and even a floating blind. Birders readily pay a local fisherman $75 an hour for trips across the harbor to the floating hotspot.
Can Cape May do the same thing? Amundsen thinks so, but it will take a change in thinking. He was surprised that so many local businesses were already closed down, and concerned that so few places understood the special needs of birders. An 8 a.m. breakfast at a Bed and Breakfast doesn’t help a birder who wants to get going before sunrise. He says that some Varanger hotels offer “brown bag breakfasts” to cater to early risers.
He also thinks that there’s an untapped tourism market on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Halfway through his nearly three-week trip, with wife and daughter in tow, he’d only met American birders, no Europeans. He noted that the day before, 15,000 yellow-rumped warblers had been seen in the area. In England, he says, a single one would attract a thousand birders. A birding festival outside London regularly draws 25,000 visitors, he added.
Amundsen had glossy brochures extolling the virtues of Varanger birding. The smiling Norwegian sang the praises of the blue sea in March, the grey cliffs in May and the green tundra in July. But when he and his family return home soon, three months of Arctic darkness will begin.
“November to January is pitch black,” he said, “but the northern lights are stunning.”
To contact Phil Broder, email pbroder@cmcherald.com.