April & May 2019
April & May 2019 Color Issue
April & May 2019
Color Issue
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fine being defined by it… but if you’re expecting<br />
a pocket vest and Tilley hat, you’re going to be<br />
disappointed.<br />
Do you feel lucky having a job that you<br />
presumably love — getting to indulge in your<br />
passions? On the worst days, it’s work; and on<br />
the best days it’s a dream. I get to work with<br />
fantastic people who all believe in the mission<br />
we are committed to. You don’t do this work to<br />
get rich, you do it because of a fire inside you. I<br />
made a decision a long time ago that I wouldn’t<br />
work my butt off for two weeks of vacation, but<br />
rather find something that I love where it feels<br />
like I’m on vacation at work.<br />
What are your daily/weekly rituals around<br />
here? I try and get out and take a walk at one of<br />
the many great birding locations in Cape <strong>May</strong><br />
several times a week. The Nature Conservancy’s<br />
South Cape <strong>May</strong> Meadows Preserve, Cape<br />
<strong>May</strong> Point State Park, Higbee Beach and the<br />
Rea Farm are my go-to birding spots. We often<br />
go with our friends and their kids for long walks<br />
into Davey’s Lake, where you can feel like you’re<br />
miles away from civilization when you’re only<br />
a 20-minute walk to the parking lot on Sunset<br />
Boulevard.<br />
My weekly ritual is going in to Sunset<br />
Liquors to see the wonderful people there…<br />
and while I’m there, scout out the newest double<br />
IPA or imperial stout. When I’m on top of it,<br />
I attend Mark Jacopec’s Island Man’s Yoga class<br />
at his house, which is followed by beer, because<br />
that’s apparently how you get men to do yoga<br />
(I’m not complaining).<br />
Favorite places to eat, drink, get coffee?<br />
There are so many wonderful places to eat and<br />
drink in Cape <strong>May</strong>! Obviously, I love Exit Zero<br />
Filling Station, now super-sized with a bar! The<br />
Kraken Wings are my jam, and all the curries<br />
are delicious. I love the burgers, especially that<br />
one that should not exist but does. The WTF?<br />
Burger… I forgot the name, but it has the lobster<br />
on it. [Editor’s Note: It’s the Cray Cray.] Yeah,<br />
that should be illegal, but until it is, I’ll be eating<br />
it. I LOVE El Pueblo for tacos. That dude is<br />
killing it over there [in North Cape <strong>May</strong>]. Anything<br />
Lucas Manteca touches…The Red Store,<br />
Quahogs, the Taco Shop. Beach Plum Farm for<br />
the breakfast-and-birding combo — the place is<br />
amazing and keeps getting better.<br />
What are your favorite places to visit in<br />
the US? I love going back to Miami, especially<br />
down to the Florida Keys. If I had to live somewhere<br />
else, it would probably be there. I love<br />
New Orleans for the music and culture, and the<br />
Gulf Coast for the birding, so NOLA for the<br />
Jazz and Heritage Festival is the perfect storm<br />
of music, food and birds — that’s the last weekend<br />
in <strong>April</strong> and the first weekend in <strong>May</strong>, which<br />
is also peak for trans-Gulf migration of birds<br />
coming up from the Yucatan. I love the desert<br />
southwest, Chiricahua Mountains of SE Arizona,<br />
the Bay Area of California, Alaska, and the Oregon<br />
coast. There are so many places out west<br />
that I haven’t visited yet, including the Grand<br />
Canyon! I’ve got a pretty long to-do list.<br />
Describe your perfect day in Cape <strong>May</strong>. It<br />
happens every fall. A cold front comes through,<br />
bringing moderate-to-strong NW winds. That<br />
night migration-ready birds from the eastern<br />
Great Lakes to eastern Canada rise up after<br />
sunset and head south, drifted east on the<br />
winds. Just after midnight I pop my head out<br />
and can hear the faint seeps and chips of thousands,<br />
or tens-of-thousands, of songbirds high<br />
overhead. I look at the radar and see the telltale<br />
signal of birds migrating overhead and vectoring<br />
to the coast. I sleep for a few hours, wake before<br />
sunrise, get dressed and head to Higbee Beach<br />
for the official Morning Flight Songbird Count.<br />
As the eastern sky warms, the pace of passage<br />
picks up and soon we’re engulfed in a stream of<br />
warblers, orioles, woodpeckers and cedar waxwings.<br />
Bobolinks high overhead give their telltale<br />
call even if they’re too high to see at first.<br />
Ruby-crowned Kinglets, little caffeinated birds<br />
that they are, flit and flick through the vegetaexit<br />
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