I’m back from the Spring 2025 Cape May Birding Festival, where I spoke about Bird Friendly foodstuffs and shared samples of chocolate and maple syrups from Raaka and Fruition chocolate companies, and Couching Lion Maple Sugar Farm to a rapt and curious audience of about 30 people.
I am pleased with the outcome of the presentation—my first time giving it on this topic! When you are a scheduled indoor speaker at a birding festival where there are multiple outings and events to choose from, you’re lucky to get any warm bodies to your talk! Thank you to the organizers of Cape May Birding Festival for having me!
The audience asked great questions to prompt additional material to the presentation, and I am delighted that the Q and A was half as long as the presentation itself—a great sign of sustained interest. It’s illuminating how few recreational birders are aware of Smithsonian Bird Friendly eco certification for coffee and cocoa and the Audubon Vermont program for maple sugar. Even fewer birders know where to find the products if they had heard of the certifications. Audience members left with QR codes on their phones for the products represented at the talk, and a curiosity to look up additional retailers at the Smithsonian and Audubon Vermont sites or elsewhere online.
I was gratified by the response and am motivated to keep up the sharing! You will see me out in the birding world circuit sharing this presentation in the future.
Bird Like a Mother Panel
Cape May also hosted a panel on the topic Bird Like a Mother, on which I sat with Georgia Silvera Seamans and O. Cookie Estrada, moderated by Indigo Goodson-Fields. It’s gratifying to talk about the perspective and observations we mothers and have for our beloved pastime and how our experience in the birding scene changes when we become caregivers. We spoke about how the birding industry might consider our distinct perspectives for more expansive participation in a birding practice.
This was the third such panel on this topic, the first two panels taking place last year at the 2024 Avistar Bird Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one in English (on which I sat with Tati Pongiluppi and Judith Mirembe), and one in Portuguese with five Brazilian scientists and birding professionals talking about being a mother in the worlds of birding tourism, ornithology, and general birding culture.
If you’re interested to read the perspective of another five women to those mentioned above, you can read my July 2022 Bird Watcher’s Digest story Bird Like A Mother here. Saving a place for our present and future selves as birders is a topic that is on the minds of women birders who are mothers, and may there be more such conversations in public forums like this!
Mid Atlantic Birding as a Westie
While technically a work trip, Cape May and environs evoke vacation vibes. Cape May is a beautiful historic town on the very southern tip of New Jersey. I flew into Virginia/Washington DC and traveled by car to Delaware, taking the Lewes Cape May ferry across the Delaware Bay to reach New Jersey. At times on the crossing we were completely sea-view, no sight of land from any direction. Gulls followed the wake of the boat as we departed Delaware, and dolphins accompanied us for portions of the cruise.
Looking for dolphins from the Lewes Cape May ferry. Photo by O.Cookie Estrada.
This was my first time in Cape May, a destination birding hot spot with a deeply rooted birding community. New Jersey Audubon runs the Cape May Bird Observatory (CMBO) here, now going on its 50th year. Cape May is on the eastern flyway of the United States, and sees significant bird numbers, species variety, and behaviors seen few other places in North America. For instance, while visiting the Spring Count site at Coral Ave in South Cape May, we saw a flock of 21 blue jays migrating. Maybe this isn’t unusual for you but for me, it was special.
First off, a Blue jay! As a West Coast birder, a Blue jay is always special as we do not see them in Washington state where I live. Second, a flock of blue jays flying! How often do you see that? I think of blue jays as terrestrial and more dispersed socially. Third, the flock was flying over coastal salt water!
As a West coast birder, I saw lifers at Cape May, too: a Forster’s tern and a Swallow-tailed kite, the latter bird spotted by my friend Georgia Silvera Seamans while we were visiting the CMBO Northwood visitor’s center. We later saw it again at the Coral Ave Dune Crossing site of the CMBO Spring count. As a new bird for both of us, it was exciting to have our ID hunch confirmed by the counters on site. Yay!
While in Cape May, I stayed at the Cape May Grand Hotel, as a guest of the festival (Thank you, NJ Audubon!). In addition to birding, I did my two other favorite things when visiting someplace new: explore the place on foot, and try the local baked goods (“bakery” is in my top ten favorite words in English).
I did try one of the “best buns in Cape May,” I hadn’t eaten it yet in this photo and that smile must be me looking forward to breakfast. Photo by O. Cookie Estrada.
We also experienced variations of east coast spring weather: a beautiful sunrise, temperatures warm enough to relax and bird from a beach cabana between events, and the drama of watching a thunder and lightening storm in the evening from the hotel room balcony.
Sunrise on Cape May beach.
Spring storm over Cape May Grand Hotel, as seen from our hotel room! Seldom see this kind of weather drama on the West Coast.
My biggest takeaway from this trip is the impetus to speak at more birding festivals. There is nothing like in-person connection when imparting a message like that of my presentation and the shared panel to a live audience.
It was a thrill to meet so many birding colleagues in person, too, and understand how our collaboration and creative ideas sustain this pastime of birding and its impact on bird conservation. Please keep an eye on my event page for more speaking dates in the future—I would love to meet you!