Cape May Shorebirds

[marykonchar]

I am planning to travel to the Cape May, NJ, area for about 10 days,

and would appreciate any information on the best areas to photograph

shore birds. I will be leaving on May 19th, and will be there for

the May full moon when the horseshoe crabs lay their eggs.

 

Information about campgrounds with tent sites that offer electric

hookup and are located near good shorebird areas would be most

welcome. Information about good warbler areas would also be much

appreciated.

 

Thanks, Mary

[marymac]

Hi Mary -

 

I went to Cape May last year and had a great time on several walks led by hte NJ Audubon society and Cape May Bird Observatory. I highly recommend that you contact them about walks that are going on during the time you are there. From May 20-22 is their Spring Weekend event and there are lots of events going on (which may be why you've planned to go now!) The link for the Spring Weekend is: http://www.njaudubon.org/Centers/CMBO/SpringWeekend.html

 

Here is a link for their Spring walks: http://www.njaudubon.org/Calendar/calcmbo-old.html

 

I went on the Nummy's Island walk with Pat Sutton while I was there and it was a great spot for shorebirds, herons (7 kinds of herons and egrets!) and a huge colony of laughing gulls.

 

Near the bottom of the page of spring events is a listing for SHOREBIRDS AND HORSESHOE CRABS GALORE which is a slide presentation at the CMBO in Goshen, then you go to a nearby beach to see the crabs and birds. That is probably the best beach for shorebirds that we saw. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of it! You could call the CMBO at 609-861-0700 and ask which beach they go to after the Shorebirds and Horseshoe Crabs walk. I'm sure they would give you directions.

 

Another cool place we found was the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor: http://www.wetlandsinstitute.org/visit.html

They were closed the evening we were there but we enjoyed the osprey platforms you can see from the building and there were a lot of birds on the fields/marshes around it.

 

You're going to love NJ!

 

Hope this helps -

Mary McCanta

[gary_anthes]

I've had good luck at the Wetlands Institute just west of Stone Harbor. Go early in the morning and bring a LOT of insect repellent. (Afterward drive from Stone Harbor to Wildwood along the water. There are a number of places you can pull off on the shoulder and shoot over the water.)<div></div>

[heatherforcier]

Hi, Mary. Just a quick note to let you know that some areas are actually roped off and inaccessible during this event, so you may want to contact some local coordinators, like CMBO, before making the trip. I visited Cape May for photography during this time a few years ago and found many restricted areas, making the trip quite unproductive for photography.

[rwbowman]

Ditto on linking up with Cape May Bird Observatory and New Jersey Audubon. Reeds

Beach is one spot for the shorebird-horseshoe crab nexus, but as others have noted, close

access to these areas is difficult.

[marykonchar]

Thanks to everyone for their input.

 

Since access to good photography sites in Cape May is difficult to obtain at this time, can anyone suggest another area where one may have access to good shorebird photography? I'm located in the Cambridge, MD area, and prefer to travel somewhere between Cape May and Chincoteague.

[heatherforcier]

Mary, have you considered Bombay Hook in Delaware? A friend of mine visited last weekend and the shorebird activity is getting going. They may even have some crabs in that area, although I'm not sure.

 

Let me know what you find!