Birds at Cape May.

5-13-25 CAPE MAY, NJ: Lynn drove south this morning from Short Hills to Cape May, Exit 0, of the Garden State Parkway. The four of us are here for the bird migrations. We got here in time for lunch in downtown Cape May. Its all quaint seaside resorty with lots of Victorian houses. 

After lunch we hit Sunset Boulevard and stopped to see birds on the waterways in the wetlands—including swans, egrets, geese, yellowlegs, ducks, and smaller waders—at Higbee beach and the lighthouse. From the  grape vine we heard that Cook’s beach was loaded with birds.

It seems that the horseshoe crabs come up on the beach after the first full moon in May to lay eggs. The birds arrive to eat the eggs, including 10,000 red knots, gulls, cormorants, ruddy turnstones and more. Parts of the beach were covered with birds as well as the sandbars. It was raining pretty hard with a steady wind from the east.

We got back to Cape May and our B & B, Mason Cottage, in time to check in and for a nap before dinner at the Lobster House.

Tomorrow a harbor cruise on the Osprey.   

Egret at the first stop.

Rainy day in the wetlands.

Yellowlegs.

Geese, Swans, Ducks.

Osprey, the bird, not the boat.

Mixed palette of birds at Cook's beach for the crab eggs.

Birds crowding the little bars at Cook's.

At Cook's, the reddish ones are Red Knots and the darker ones are Ruddy Turnstones.

Horseshoe crabs in the sand. Not sure if they're dead of alive.