Day 36, Sunday May 8, 2016, Discovering Cape May’s features.

Day 36, Sunday  May 8, 2016, Discovering Cape May’s features.

There are plenty of venues, sites, and activities here in Cape May and tomorrow is no exception.The Annual “Coast Guard Festival” starts tomorrow to name one. When we drove through that  area today, all the horses for the road blocks were already on the sides of the streets and signs were already posted.   Soon it will be the “Crab Festival” as the Crab activity will be here when the tides and moon are aligned. (That is when the crabs move ashore to lay their eggs and get them fertilized.)

The HQ. For brds at Cape Ma
y. Lots of info.

Cape May Lighthouse at 147 feet in the air. It is climable each day.

Back Ducks seen by the state park.

The Rea farm that was  donated to the Center.

But we went right to the “jugular” and started at the Audubon Observatory for Cape May (ornithological one), to get directions,  maps and locations sorted out that we feel we could use. That is an active center with two guides there  all the time.  Then it was to Higbee Beach, for a walk to the Back Bay  sights,  Some warblers in the shrubs along the way. Rea’s farm and woods was next and we just missed a group coming out from a guided birding tour. They had seen a Prothonotary Warbler on their visit. Our visit was not that fortunate.

Two Oystercatchers right on a stony beach.

The Observatory HQ. Lots of books, and attention.

The Cape May light at the State {ark.

The Black Ibis in a puddle, feeding.

Both of these photos are Black Ibis ,
except for these two who have white Faced markings.

The sand path to Higbeee Beach.

The Osprey taking on the Black Vuture n a fight for
territory and "Get Outta Here"

The Coast Guard Training Center by the water tower.
This is in Cape May.

This is the inevitable. The boat slides through and the cars wait.

The instructions speak for them selves.Save those shorebirds

Then in succession we proceeded to The Cape May Nature Center and a good look at an Osprey nesting pair, fighting off a Black Vulture from the chick in the nest. (see photo).  An Intern from Rutgers U was manning the Center  and Jeff was able to give some hints for places to see birds. He is a Biology major and looking at switching majors to language , French, Spanish and Iraqi. At the Cape May Unit  (a very small area of 40 acres) of the NWR we met Bess, and received  a good line on the Beach/Ocean  things, The walk on the boardwalk to the Ocean  was easy, and at the roped off portion at the bach you can see the nesting areas roped off and signed for “no trespassing”. There is good coordination on the Wildlife groups to enforce this policy during the nesting season. The birds need the space and they need the eggs of the Horseshoe Crab.  More on this tomorrow when  I write about the crab life cycle.

We still were not to the “East Coast” of Cape May , although for the Nature Center we could see the activity there. The Coast Guard station and Training Center blocks any traffic going that way, so we had to go around the Bay  to the north and east side.  We did that and were able to see some more shorebirds especially.

The WHITE FACED IBIS was the outstanding bird today as they are difficult to sort out from the Black Ibis in flocks in a field .We were able to do that .

The day ended wth steaks on the grill at dinner, and a fresh salad to top that .

Tomorrow we will attempt to join a morning walk , in a program called “Birding the Meadows” with one of their experts from the Cape leading the way.  See you tomorrow.