Cape May, Naturally is a bi-weekly column about birding that runs in the Herald every other week.
Bird migration is an epic phenomenon that involves billions of individuals each year. In the fall, juvenile birds supplement the adult breeding population heading south to wintering grounds, some as far as Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America, creating an avian wave—awe-inspiring movements that overwhelm and capture us with their beauty and abundance. Not to be outdone, spring has its own rewards, captured in newly arriving birds from the south, anxious to return to the breeding grounds.
Situated geographically along the mid-Atlantic and at the tip of a southward facing peninsula, Cape May is in the perfect spot to observe a wide array of bird species in startling numbers, and has long been known as the crossroads of migration. And New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) has been a world leader in migration monitoring and research since its founding in 1976, identifying and counting each species and tracking the weather systems and other factors that affect these movements. To best capture the event, CMBO conducts a suite of migration watches at locations in Cape May County with optimal viewing for different types of birds.
Started in 1976 and one of the oldest hawkwatches in the country, the Cape May Hawkwatch takes place on a large platform at Cape May Point State Park. The hub of the local birding scene, it is a gathering place for birds and birders alike. Conducted from September 1 – November 30, an average of over 47,000 raptors per year are counted, a mix of eagles, ospreys, harriers, accipiters, buteos, falcons, and vultures. Diversity is greatest in October, a time when a passing cold front can bring up to fifteen species in a single day.
The Avalon Seawatch is an incredible passage of seabirds following the coast, concentrated where the northern end of Avalon juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. Counted from the Borough of Avalon’s “Seawatch Shack” on the beach between 8th and 9th Streets, the watch is conducted from sunrise to sunset October 1 – December 22 and has been going yearly since 1993. With a focus on waterbirds, it is a mix of ducks, geese, loons, grebes, gannets, cormorants, jaegers, gulls, tern, herons, egrets, and more – sometimes producing over 70 species in a season. The average count is an astounding 750,000+ per season, with a couple years producing over 1 million individual birds!
The Morning Flight Songbird Count at Higbee Beach WMA, with over 100 species annually, has a focus on neotropical migrants—those species that winter in Central and South America. Officially started in 2003, it is conducted August 1 – November 15 for several hours starting at sunrise. Wide-ranging yearly totals have resulted in an average count of 215,000+, with over 500,000 tallied in 2023. Warblers are a main draw for many visitors, augmented by vireos, buntings, gnatcatchers, kinglets, sparrows, tanagers, thrushes, kingbirds, waxwings, swallows, finches, blackbirds and more.
The Cape May Springwatch, CMBO’s official foray into quantifying spring migration at Cape May Point and newly minted in 2018, is an all-encompassing bird count, packaging all the other migration counts into one. It is conducted from March 1 – May 31 for up to six hours starting at sunrise. Encountering a mix of coastal passing seabirds (entering or exiting Delaware Bay) and northward bound raptors and songbirds, it is a measure of the avian activity past the coastal dune at the Coral Ave. crossing platform.
Highlights include closely streaming scoters, loons, and gannets by the thousands in March and April, while 1,000+ Blue-gray Gnatcatchers have been seen in a single day in May.
With totals for all these counts captured on tablets and live-streamed daily, technology has given us the ability to instantly reach out to fans and advocates of bird migration and conservation. The outreach and education experience of these migration watches is just as important as the numbers recorded. With over 35,000 visitors annually to the watches, they exemplify the connection that these birds and organized watches have with birders from all walks of life and around the globe.
For more details about CMBO’s migration watches, to view live-streamed data, or to support this critical research, check out www.birdcapemay.org or www.njaudubon.org/watches/. Better yet, stop by and see the amazing spectacle for yourself.
