April & May 2019

tion on the dike and weave in and out between
our legs as they too work north along the dike.
A merlin, a small falcon, tears through the river
of birds and picks off an unsuspecting American
Redstart, one of our more commonly counted
warblers. The harsh reality of migration: everyone
has to eat. I bask in these waves of migrants
for several hours and then head down to the
fields of Higbee, walking the hedgerows and
catching glimpses of bird after bird feeding
voraciously as they move though the vegetation.
This is Higbee magic. This is what birders think
of when they think of Cape May in fall.
Before heading to Cape May Point, I hit up
West Side Market for a breakfast sandwich, or
maybe Sunset Grille for one of theirs, or maybe
Beach Plum Farm… and now I’ve got Exit Zero
Filling Station! I take my breakfast to the Cape
May Hawkwatch platform as the raptors begin
to soar. Northwest winds bode well for the
hawkwatch and it’s not long before I’m watching
American Kestrels queue up along the dune
line, catching dragonflies as they pass. Merlins,
too, are on the hunt, for dragons or songbirds,
and the Peregrine Falcon powers overhead,
heading for the Florida Keys before crossing
into the Caribbean or down to Central and
South America. By midday, the sky is full of
raptors, hawks, eagles and falcons, and the platform
is a constant chorus of ooohs and aaaahhhs.
The naturalists explain what’s going on to
anyone who comes on to the platform, and the
locals take their places among the benches and
viewing areas, just as excited about the birds as
they are seeing each other. If birding in Cape
May has a town square, it’s the Hawkwatch platform.
As the day winds down, I’ll head to the TNC
Meadows for an evening walk and a chance to
see something interesting — a short-eared or
barn owl? Or maybe a least bittern, or American
bittern, or some other secretive marsh bird.
Plus, sunset at the Meadows is exquisite in its
own right.
If it’s a perfect day, it’s a Thursday in fall,
when birders take turns hosting potlucks
around town. A Thursday night potluck after
a massive migration day is a glorious thing —
the house is abuzz with stories of the day, rosy
cheeks from wind burn and several glasses
of wine, and a bonding over birds, but probably
just as much over people; a community of
locals, visitors, people returning after years of
being away, and a new generation of birders:
the future.
Subject change. What will you be doing on
July 4 this year? I LOVE fireworks, so hopefully
being somewhere with fireworks. Last year we
had a potluck on the beach at The Cove. It was
awesome. The two years before that we were
in Panama… so not so many fireworks, but monkeys
and quetzals and... just so much nature.
If any of our readers have any interest in
taking up birding, what’s the first thing they
should do? Stop by CMBO’s Northwood Center
at 701 East Lake Drive in Cape May Point.
We will get your sorted out! We’re open seven
days a week in spring, summer and fall. If you’re
here in April or May, you can also stop by our
Center for Research and Education in Cape
May Court House, located very close to the Delaware
Bay during the amazing spring migration
of shorebirds that coincides with the spawning
of horseshoe crabs. If you haven’t seen that, you
need to put it on your bucket list! But we’ve got
something for everyone year-round. We’ve even
got stuff for your SOB — that’s Spouse of Birder.
Do you think there is anything the city
could be doing to further promote Cape May
as a birding/nature destination? Of course!
And to be honest, we’ve been working with
the city to do just that. There should be huge
banners when you come into town, saying WEL-
COME BIRDERS! And placemaking signs at all
the major birding destinations. The city should
be all over it — ecotourism is the fastest-growing
tourism segment, and Cape May is in the top
sites worldwide for birding, and in the top two
for fall migration.
There should
“
be huge
banners when
you come into
town, saying
WELCOME
BIRDERS! The
city should
be all over it
— ecotourism
is the fastestgrowing
tourism
segment, and
Cape May is in
the top sites
worldwide for
birding, and in
the top two for
fall migration.
”
V
exit zero 63 april-may
You took over from Pete Dunne, who was
instrumental in establishing Cape May as a
birding mecca. What have you learned from
him? On day one, Pete gave me a cartoon of
Sisyphus. I often refer to it — when the bureaucracy
makes me feel like I’m pushing a rock
uphill, I use it as a check and change course.
Pete had been the director for more than 30 of
the 40 years of CMBO when I came on. That’s
a lot of institutional knowledge! Pete’s office
was just down the hall, so when I would get a
donation from a donor I could walk down and
ask him, “What can you tell me about so and
so,” and more often than not he could give me
their whole history. This is after Pete’s stroke —
he’s got one hand that doesn’t work, and partial
paralysis in his face, and gets winded after a few
hours of activity, but that man’s mind is sharp
as a tack. Pete is old school, so we often have
spirited discussions about technology, its place
in birding versus being a distraction from birding.
It was a wonderful experience watching him
work back when I was a postdoc, and it’s been
great having had five good years of working
with him in the office. I look forward to seeing
Pete in the field this fall, at the Hawkwatch.
Finally, if you could be a bird, what species
would you be? I don’t want to be a bird. But I
would like to fly. Maybe I’d be a bat.
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