Tahoma Audubon Cape May

Fall Migration in Cape May

To some birders, September and October are the best months for birding at Cape May, when migrating and resident songbirds, shorebirds, raptors, waders and seabirds add to the excitement of birding in this relatively small area. During this season, changes in the weather can bring fallouts, which mean a great number of birds can be found throughout the area. Most of these birds will be building fat reserves to help them with their continued southward migration.

This is the time of year to enjoy the spectacle of raptor migration. Hundreds, sometimes thousands, of raptors can be seen in a single day! The hawk watch site at Cape May Point State Park offers an excellent location to scan the skies to witness this mass movement of birds.

With so many great individual birding destinations scattered around southeastern New Jersey, you have plenty of choice locations to visit, with short driving distances between them. Several different habitat types can be covered in a few days, including ocean shore, salt marsh, freshwater marsh, field and forest.

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Birds

Mute Swan, Clapper Rail, American Oystercatcher, Black-bellied Plover, Piping Plover, Parasitic Jaeger, Great Black-backed Gull, Common Tern, Forster's Tern, Royal Tern, Least Bittern, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Glossy Ibis, Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Bald Eagle, Broad-winged Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Fish Crow, Seaside Sparrow, Saltmarsh Sparrow, Bobolink, Boat-tailed Grackle, Northern Waterthrush, American Redstart, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Blackpoll Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler and Scarlet Tanager