"Welcome Back"

[This adult Red-shouldered Hawk greeted me along Lighthouse Avenue in Cape May Point on my first day (back) at work for CMBO. Click to enlarge photos.]

"Welcome back." That was the note my longtime friend Pete Dunne left me this week as I started work for the Cape May Bird Observatory for the second time. From 2007 to 2009 I was Director of Birding Programs here, a wonderful time in my life. Now, after five challenging but rewarding years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (think government shutdowns, northeasters, direcho winds, and of course Superstorm Sandy) here I am again, as Program Director.

Mike Crewe, former Program Director and beloved by many, has returned to the U.K. and will work as a birding tour leader. Mike was great, a good friend, and I'm not trying to fill Mike's shoes any more than he tried to fill mine when he started; we have our own shoes.

What to expect? A continuing slate of great field trips, workshops, and events, for sure. Perhaps an eco-tour or two each year (you will hear about them here.) Regular blogs on birds, birding and other natural history (and I hope to continue my personal blog, the Freiday Bird Blog).  Excellent migration counts. The Monarch project. And, I hope, a lot of fun for you and I. I'm especially looking forward to working with the team CMBO Director David La Puma has put together. This is a great organization, and it's getting better. Thanks for your support.

Feel free to stop by to say hello, or drop me a line at don.freidayATnjaudubon.org . I'll normally be at the Center for Research and Education in Goshen Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and at the Northwood Center in Cape May Point Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I'll be picking up the Wednesday morning South Cape May Meadows walks beginning March 16, and will likely show up for a few others now and then.

[Two Red Knots and one of the thousands of Knobbed Whelk shells that washed up on Cape May beaches during last week's northeaster, which featured the highest tide ever recorded in North Wildwood, higher than Sandy and higher than the storm of 1962. People always talk about hurricanes, but it is actually fall and winter northeasters that normally do the most damage to coastal NJ. Two Mile Beach Unit of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge on the morning of Monday, February 1. Click to enlarge.]