Big Day Tomorrow

The World Series of Birding is tomorrow, and Ellen’s and my team, the Cape May Century Run will be out there searching for and tallying bird species from 5 AM to 9 PM or so. Today I spent a few hours helping out at the Cape May Bird Observatory’s Northwood Center in Cape May Point, where teams out scouting for tomorrow were coming in for snacks and information. I did a little scouting myself before that, but most of the work has been done by the regular and veteran birders that populate the Cape May area. Information on where to find tough species has been shared in a virtual swap-meet, to give everyone a chance to raise as much money as possible in our fundraiser. And knowing WHERE to look for something doesn’t mean you’ll find it, as we know all too well! There have been some rarities around this week like Crested Caracara, Cerulean Warbler and Pileated Woodpecker (rare for here), but often the rare ones don’t show up on the big day, so we’ll see how it goes.

Ellen and I will be up at 3 AM in order to get our act together and down in Cape May Point for the gathering of our team by 5 AM. Then we’ll travel by van through the next 16 plus hours, first around the Cape May area, then to other good birding spots in the county. Top teams will bird the entire state of New Jersey, starting at the northwest corner, and ending in Cape May, but that’s a particularly grueling 24 hours, and many teams now do only one county, or even just the Cape May area. Our team is Cape May County only, and believe me, it’s plenty to cover! I’ll be posting my write-up of our Big Day on Sunday, hopefully, if I’m not too wiped out to manage it.