April & May 2019

The Birdman of Cape May
David La Puma fell in love with birds in his 20s. Now, his message is
to spread the gospel to the world: birding is not for geeks, and THE
place to do it is right here. So where are the secret spots to enjoy
our feathered friends? (AND his favorite places to get breakfast.)
interview jack wright
photography suzanne kulperger
First, a quick bit of background, Mr Birdman.
Where did you grow up and go to school? Born
and raised in Miami. Studied at Ithaca College,
New York, for undergraduate, did a little Masters
work at Florida International University,
Miami, and then my PhD at Rutgers. Two postdocs,
one at NJ Audubon, another at University
of Delaware, but remotely from the University
of Wisconsin in Madison.
Tell us about your family, and where were
you guys before coming to Cape May? I’m married
to a woman who is more beautiful and much
smarter than I am. Inga is a landscape ecologist
and is the fire-science communications director
for the Northeast Fire Science Compact. She is
the conduit between those doing research on
wildfires and those on the ground either lighting
them for prescription burning or putting
them out for loss prevention. On most days
she’s working from home running the website,
sending out newsletters, boiling down complex
research into research briefs, and planning
meetings and events. Sometimes she’s out on
the front lines burning or fighting fires, aka her
happy place.
We have two daughters, ages eight and 10,
both true Jersey Girls. We’ve been in and out of
New Jersey since 2004, when we came here for
me to start a PhD program at Rutgers. Inga soon
followed suit and began her PhD that same year.
I finished in 2010 and we decided that if we
were going to stay in New Jersey, we should be
exit zero 59 april-may
in the epicenter of bird migration that is Cape
May. I approached NJ Audubon about the possibility
of studying bird migration using radar,
which led to a two-year postdoc in Cape May.
During that time we had our youngest child (we
would find out later that our landlady in North
Cape May would caution our future landlord
against us because we had a home birth in the
house without warning her) while living between
the bay and Cox Hall Creek. What a perfect
spot! Easy long walks on the bay, a wilderness
playground on the other side of the road; it was
great. During that time, Inga finished her PhD
and landed a postdoc at University of Wisconsin
in Madison. We headed out there for almost
three years, during which I conducted a postdoc
and worked for Leica Sport Optics as a product
specialist. That job is where I traveled the
most, running a booth at various birding festivals
across the US.
What brought you to Cape May Bird
Observatory? While we were in Wisconsin,
Pete Dunne had a stroke that left him partially
paralyzed. Soon after, he announced that he
would be stepping down from the director position
at the bird observatory, and I started putting
my application together.
How aware were you of the organization
previously? Before me and Inga left Key Largo,
where we were living before heading to Rutgers,
we had dinner with friends who were also living
in the Keys studying birds. When they heard we