Garretts, Birders View Preserve Additions

COLD SPRING – At The Nature Conservancy’s Garrett Family Preserve at Cape Island Creek, off Wilson Street, east of Seashore Road, three hawks gathered to show their talons and feathers Oct. 29. 
At the same time, it afforded members of the extended Garrett Family to observe the latest improvements on the winding nature trails of the 180 acres of upland forest, farm fields and tidal marsh and part of the watershed that includes the Conservancy’s South Cape May Meadows Preserve.
The tract was acquired by the Conservancy in 2000. In 2013, the generosity of the Garrett family enabled The Nature Conservancy to further protect Cape Island Creek for future generations by acquiring crucial land, improving and stewarding habitat, performing coastal research and installing enhanced visitor amenities.
The Nature Conservancy has added people-friendly amenities including a picnic pavilion, bird blind and artists’ easels, to make the visitor experience enjoyable.
Garrett Family patriarch, James Garrett, was an artist and naturalist who loved Cape May. The family spent many summers at his home.
His estate made it possible for The Conservancy to purchase and set aside the tract that was slated to become a 24-unit housing development.
The preserve is nestled between Seashore Road and Cape Island Creek. Open to the public from 8 a.m. until dusk; access is controlled by an automated gate. Of the total land, 77 acres are upland with the remainder as salt marsh, according to Jody Allesandrine, director of land protection with The Nature Conservancy.
Robert Allen, state deputy director of The Nature Conservancy-New Jersey Chapter, welcomed guests and members of the Garrett Family under a new shelter where walkers can rest on eco-friendly benches.
Back to those feathered “stars” of the day.
Tom Hudson, research assistant, and Arthur Nelson, seasonal bander, with Cape May Raptor Banding Project, presented an Eastern Red Tail Hawk, a Red-Shoulder Hawk and a Cooper’s Hawk.
Cape May Raptor Banding Project is celebrating 50 years of banding raptors in Cape May.
Hudson explained to about 25, many of them birders, how hawks are banded with lightweight metal tags which contain serial numbers that identify each bird and where it was released.
Hudson said hawks are seen in the Cape May peninsula area this time of year. On their way south, many are pushed to the cape by the wind.
Some stay only long enough to fatten, and then head south. Others may travel north along the Delaware Bay and wend south down the Delaware side. Still, others may linger in the area.
He said banders come from around the nation to assist in the work. They come from California, Wyoming, and southern states.
After he explained identifying features of each of the hawks, he carefully walked just outside of the shelter and released them into the blue sky.
Allesandrine said a neighbor to the preserve, Jonathan “Jack” Sayre who had been “like a steward” to the tract, could not make the dedication. To honor his work, the group plans to place some of Sayre’s poems along the salt marsh trail, since he had been a teacher before retiring, and those poems would continue to teach walkers lessons about nature.
Allesandrine also noted that the opening of the preserve was a long process, through a labyrinth of local planning board meetings for approval, as well as procuring access permissions from Atlantic City Electric, Pepco, and New Jersey Transit, since the preserve is situated east of the railroad tracks.
Along with interpretive signs that note the importance of pollinators, there are also plein air painting easels located along the trails.