A juvenile Semipalmated Plover, so young that it doesn't know to keep its distance from me, but instinctively knowing that a tide-washed strandline is the place to be to find juicy sandflies. Adult Semipalmated Plovers are wonderful with their bold black and white head pattern; but juveniles are more subtle, in shades of coffee-brown and with delicate pale fringes to the back feathers. [Photo by Mike Crewe]
The real object of my desire that night was a party of six Buff-breasted Sandpipers. These are birds of the high Arctic tundra which make a staggering migration southward, to winter on the grasslands of northern Argentina. They are with us at Cape May so fleetingly, yet they are such a special bird that they touch our lives with their presence. [Photo by Mike Crewe]
Perhaps the most amazing thing of all about such long distance migrants, is that this group of six birds were all youngsters; first-timers, heading for Argentina with no parental guidance at all. Something to sit and contemplate for a moment....[Photo by Mike Crewe]
So why do Buffies pick Cape May as a stop-over on their long journey? For the same reason that we all do; it's heaven on earth for everyone who comes here - at some point, at some moment in time. [Photo by Mike Crewe]
And my friends? I saw them today - they forgave me - though they won't let me forget it for a while!![Photo by Mike Crewe]
As we head into September and the amazing spectacle of fall migration, Cape May is truly an awesome place to be; come and enjoy the wonderful spectacle of dawn at Higbee Dike; watch in awe as raptors cruise right over your head at the Hawkwatch Platform and drop in on one of the Monarch tagging demonstrations. But above all, take a moment to find your own space, your own time - and just hang out somewhere, just you and a migrating bird, away from the crowds, just for a moment....
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