There isn’t a time when birds aren’t migrating through Cape
May. What we birders come for in
the spring and fall is the migration “rush hour.” Diverse species traveling down the coast are funneled into
this skinny peninsula by the Atlantic and Delaware Bay making Cape May a
bird-watching destination.
The famous haunts are Higbee Beach, The Nature Conservancy
preserve, the “Beanery,” and Cape May Lighthouse State Park where the annual
hawk count takes place. The local
economy capitalizes on the popularity, too. Motels and campgrounds stay open long after Labor Day and
the Cape May Bird Observatory sells passes, birding guides, T-shirts and all
types of uber-expensive optics designed especially for birders.
In the years I lived in New Jersey (forty-five) and all the
time I spent “down the shore” I never made it to Cape May. Not even Wildwood! Now that I have lived in Colorado for
seventeen years I finally made it.
Intentionally. And as far as we are concerned Cape May lives up to its
billing.
