Cape May birding—something to crow about

I was not born to be a birder. In fact, one September when a high school beau took me to the top of a Pennsylvania mountain to view migrating hawks, my family reacted with relentless chicken clucks and rooster crows.
They just didn’t get it…and I guess I understand why.
We’ve all seen birds, flittering around the yard or flying above the horizon—a blip of beaks, wings and feathers. We think there is probably not much more to see, and certainly not enough to warrant tiptoeing through the woods, encumbered with binoculars and smothered in bug spray.
You’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, right?
Maybe not. A recent walk through Cape May Point State Park with guides from the New Jersey Audubon inspired me to take another look at what’s right before eyes, and it was fascinating to behold.
The Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) says that not watching birds in Cape May is like not visiting the Grand Canyon when you’re in Arizona, and they offer a weekly “Bird Walk for all People” to give non-birders like me an opportunity to learn a bit about what brings thousands of naturalists and birding enthusiasts to New Jersey’s southern tip every year.
The walks begin on Thursday mornings in the bird observatory parking lot with the Cape May Lighthouse as a scenic backdrop. It is indeed a walk for all sorts of people. The excursion I took in June, was attended by a diverse group of locals and visitors; birding enthusiasts and naturalist newbies; young couples, retired seniors and families with young children.
Lighthouse bookstore naturalist, Bert Hixon and guides, Charles and Mary Jane Slugg introduced themselves to the group and passed out binoculars to those who needed them, as well as check lists of the birds we might expect to see.
The two-hour walk costs $6 for NJ Audubon members and $10 for non-members and comes with a money-back guarantee that participants will see at least 20 species of birds. But even though summer is typically a less-active period for birding, Hixon warned participants not to expect their money back.
“Unless we were out here on the most frigid day in January, we should see at least 20 species,” he said. In fact, he pointed out a number of species before we even left the parking lot. Our first sightings included Red-winged Blackbirds, Purple Martins, terns, and several others. Of those, I recognized one—the seagull, though I called it by the wrong name. It’s a Laughing Gull, I learned.
Mary Jane Slugg said that she and her husband—both retired teachers—took up birding slowly by participating in CMBO walks after moving to Cape May County several years ago. Now they enjoy sharing their knowledge with others, and Mary Jane says she enjoys the company.
“The more eyes the better,” she said. “It’s so easy to miss something.”
Peggy McDevit, of Collingswood, and her husband, John agree. That’s why they take frequent daytrips to Cape May to participate in the CMBO walks. They’ve been taking in the sights at Cape May Point for about a year now, she said.
“We try to go with people who know more than we do,” she said.
The Cape May region is popular with birds and those who like to watch them because of its unique geography. During our leisurely walk, we watched Piping Plovers nest on the shore, swans gliding effortlessly across freshwater ponds, and flocks taking flight over the preserve’s dune forest.
The guides identified some birds by their calls, like the “squeaky toy” wheeze of a Least Tern chick. Others they identified by their markings, which we could view through our loaner binoculars or through viewing scopes that the guides lugged along for our pleasure.
The scopes were amazing, magnifying up to 60 times what we could see with the naked eye, and through them, birds that looked unremarkable in the distance became extraordinary. We also glimpsed a young deer enjoying breakfast along the bank of a spring fed pond and dolphins swimming on the horizon in the Delaware Bay.
So many times, I have taken my children to the zoo to get close to exotic animals in captivity, but this walk offered something more—proximity to an incredible variety of wildlife on its own terms. It is definitely something I’d do again, with my kids or maybe I’ll invite my siblings along.
That would really be something to crow about.