Photo Gallery
Jon Feenstra
Cape May is world renowned as a funnel for birds migrating south down the Atlantic Coast. Here, Sanderlings (and a Semipalmated Plover) move along the beach…
…and here thousands of Tree Swallows gather over Cape May Point.
The raptor show is also amazing: accipiters and falcons in particular, but Bald Eagle and Osprey are also common and showy migrants.
We’ll often bird from platforms like the South Cape May Meadows, a freshwater marsh just over the dune from the Atlantic Ocean.
It is a great place for feeding waterbirds, here a group of Stilt Sandpipers.
We’ll also spend some time in the coastal forests where migrant passerines stage for the next leg of their journey…
…and we’ll be on the beach to look for gulls, terns, and shorebirds.
Many of the warblers are seen in flight as they head south, like this Black-and-white Warbler, a common migrant…
Cape May birders have advanced the art of identifying (and photographing) small birds flying overhead; here a Connecticut Warbler, a scarce migrant.
Some warblers stop to feed and rest, like this Blackpoll Warbler…
…or this Black-throated Blue Warbler…
…or this Northern Waterthrush.
Birds can be seen from anywhere in Cape May from the forests to the neighborhoods and the beaches and dunes…
…the favorite haunts of the Palm Warbler.
Red-eyed Vireo is another common migrant frequently seen flying over…
…and frequently seen foraging…
…and occasionally seen feeding a Merlin.
Woodpeckers, like Northern Flicker, are also migrants through Cape May.
On the tour we’ll walk down wide level paths…
…and along the beach…
…where we’ll have opportunity for close study of Common and Forster’s Terns…
…and Black Skimmers and Royal Terns…
…as well as the endearing and endangered Piping Plover.
Some of our birding will also be from the van along access roads to coastal saltmarsh habitat…
…or from boardwalks that get up close and into the marsh…
…where birds like the retiring Clapper Rails live…
…and American Oystercatchers and Boat-tailed Grackles can often be found.
Cape May is also exciting for things other than birds. Monarchs migrate through in big numbers, and Common Buckeyes fly up off the roadsides.
On one day we’ll take the ferry across the Delaware Bay.
En route we may see a few Bottlenose Dolphin…
…and when we get to Delaware we’ll be at the northern range limit of a North American endemic, the Brown-headed Nuthatch.
We’ll bird Bombay Hook, a complex of salt and freshwater marshes, forest, and fields. Bobolinks, typically heard flying over Cape May, are often seen here.
We’ll return to Cape May for a final day of searching for migrants and residents, like this Carolina Chickadee…
…or just find a place to sit and watch the birds come to us.