You can’t get enough of Cape May in the fall. I know this is true for you, it’s true for me. Eventually I just moved here, and I still can’t get enough of this place at its autumnal zenith. Every day is a struggle – should I go to the hawkwatch, to the seawatch, walk the fields at Higbee, search for monarchs at Cape May Point … the choice is never easy! Then, after sunset, there’s still dilemma, whether to listen for migrants calling as they pass overhead or to rest up for the next day’s marvels. The only good news about these dilemmas is that you can’t make a bad choice; Cape May in the autumn always rewards the observant naturalist.
Sadly autumn always ends, and for many who can’t move here, autumn visits to Cape May are always too brief. Fortunately naturalist Richard K. Walton has produced a short video entitled Cape May Fall Flight that captures many of the wonders of autumn in Cape May. Walton is a renowned naturalist and a fine videographer, and this production accurately portrays the wonder of the southbound migration.
Walton begins this half-hour DVD with the hawkwatch, showing us a mix of raptors in flight and scenes of the enthusiastic crowd that gathers daily on the platform. Walton also shows us some of the songbirds and dragonflies that are regularly seen from this site, and we watch along as Kestrels and Merlins hunt in the late afternoon. The next focus is on the songbird migration. Walton begins with the morning flight spectacle at the Higbee Dike, where so many birders begin their autumn days. He then takes us afield at Higbee and the Beanery, where we are treated to close-up views of many songbirds. Walton isn’t just a birder, of course, and he also shows us many insects, wildflowers, and a very cute gray treefrog.
Saltmarshes are the next habitats visited, and Walton has great footage of secretive
Sharp-tailed Sparrows and Clapper Rails. After a pause to visit with NJ Audubon researchers banding songbirds, he takes us to the “Meadows,” more formally the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge. You’ll surely marvel at the clips of Sora and American Bittern that Walton has captured. Our final destination is the village of Cape May Point, where Walton shows us more migrant hawks and then points his camera seaward. The highlight here is a great segment that follows a nearshore Parasitic Jaeger.
Late in the video Walton features the monarch butterfly migration, showing us some amazing concentrations of these long-distance migrants. Since 1991 Walton has coordinated the Cape May Monarch Monitoring Project, and this video project is being used as a fundraiser for that research effort. Walton donated all the video footage, other donors supported the cost of production, and the Cape May Bird Observatory is the only sales outlet for this DVD. Relive the wonders of autumn visits to Cape May and support the longest continuous census of a migratory insect that has ever been undertaken.
Walton, Richard K. Cape May Fall Flight. Brownbag Productions, 2006. Available only through the Cape May Bird Observatory at a cost of $20.
To order a copy of a title reviewed on the Birder’s Bookshelf, please call CMBO’s Northwood Center (609)884-2736 or the Center for Research & Education (609)861-0700.