http://birdcapemay.org/times Cape May Bird Observatory News Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:44:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It was May 1969.  My Senior Prom date and I, were in the spirit of Post Prom Elation cutting class and heading for the Joisey Shore.  Most of my classmates were heading for some place near an amusement pier.  Me?  I was heading for some place more natural. About sunrise, about ... I’m a bit surprised about the number of people that we’ve been welcoming to the Cape May Bird Observatory’s Northwood Center who weren’t birders when they walked in the door.  Not so much surprised over the number of people, although it is a bit early for hordes of spring birders.  ... 03-15-12 This column is about rails. [caption id="attachment_1232" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Clapper Rail"][/caption] Fence rails?  Railroad rails? No Virginia and Clapper Rails.  They’ve been around all winter.  Now they are making their presence know. They are calling incessantly.  It’s that time of year when rails start thinking about making more rails and this makes them vocal. That’s ... 03-08-12 Birds just turn up. If you are a birder you know exactly what I mean. They turn up, because one day they just turn up.  Absent yesterday, here today.  Tomorrow?  Tomorrow will take care of itself.  What we’re concerned about is the unanticipated but not unexpected bird that turns up to justify ... 03-01-12 [caption id="attachment_1221" align="alignleft" width="96" caption="Old Books"][/caption] Books. Just that.  Books.  Art and wisdom keyed onto paper and bound between covers.  For hundreds of years, it is how our species has passed on wisdom.  For millions of people this technological trilobite is bound to their earliest memories. Of sitting on daddy’s knee and turning ... 02-23-12 So, I just got back from the Valley. No.  Not Hidden Valley.  THE Valley.  In Texas.  Home of.... Well, what does it matter.  Hardly any of those Rio Grande specialties ever turn up here. But one of the things that rare birds in Texas often have in common with rare birds in New ... 02-16-12 Birds are nature's most obvious emissaries.  We marvel at their power of flight; we delight in their colors and song.  But some birds excite us more than others and few draw more awe than birds of prey.  In ancient times these aerial predators were worshiped, regarded as deities.  Today their ... 02-09-2012 So there we were on the outside porch of this kick-vent (that’s the back end on a bird same as our back end) little bar at the end a dirt road. No, not that end.  The other end. We, meaning the twenty or so members of our Winter Raptor Workshop were scanning ... Published in Exit Zero, 12/22/11     The other day I got a call from a person who wanted to know, “Where do all the birds go in the winter?”      “Can you narrow down the field?” I proposed.      “Can I what?” she countered.      “Can you be a bit more specific?  There are ... Published in Exit Zero, 12/15/11     Well it’s December and that means that fall is officially over.      Okay.  Technically winter doesn’t begin until December 21 but November 30 is the traditional last day of the Hawk Count at Cape May.       The counter goes home.       Daily tabulation end.       Hawks stop migrating.      One ...