Here at New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory, we
strive to keep our finger on the pulse of migration. It is through the efforts
of our dedicated seasonal counters and naturalists that we are able to not only
quantify the migration, but also share the wonder and excitement of the birds
and butterflies that so enrich our lives. They are the front line and face of
the organization when it comes to educating, informing, and carrying out the
NJA mission. Please welcome them to the community and spectacle that is Cape
May – stop by any of the migration count sites (Cape May Hawkwatch, Avalon
Seawatch, Morning Flight, Montclair Hawkwatch) or Monarch tagging demos and
experience it for youself. Thanks to Swarovski Optik NA for their substantial
and continued support of our staff and projects.
Without further ado, we are pleased to introduce the 2018
crew:
REBECCA PERRUCI – GEORGE MYERS NATURALIST
Rebecca is excited to be part of the New Jersey Audubon
community. She has always been fascinated with the animal kingdom and enjoys
being out in nature. She pursued these interests with a degree in Zoo and
Wildlife Biology from Malone University in Canton, Ohio. Being surrounded by
wonderful teachers, mentors, and friends, she couldn’t help but be encouraged
in her love for birds and birding. After graduating in 2016, she decided to
channel her desire to help birds into the field of zoo-keeping. She worked as a
bird keeper at the Gulf Breeze Zoo in Gulf Breeze, Florida, for almost two
years. Her time at the zoo helped her discover that what she loves most of all
is teaching people about animals and the natural world around them. Rebecca’s
goal is to share her love of birds through public education, so as to inspire
the next generation of biologists and conservationists. When she’s not out
birding—which, admittedly, is most of the time - she can be found trail
running, painting and drawing, and spending time with her Yellow-naped Amazon
Parrot.
TOM REED – MIGRATION COUNT COORDINATOR
A sixth-generation area resident, Tom Reed is one of few
birders who truly call Cape May home. He discovered birds at the age of 10 and
was immediately captivated by the spectacle of migration visible from his
Reed’s Beach backyard-- be it Red Knots departing for the Arctic on late-May
evenings, or Sharp-shinned Hawks bounding along the bayshore treeline after an
October cold front. Tom started a hawk migration count along Delaware Bay at
the age of 11 and has been actively involved in Cape May’s birding community
ever since.
TR has traveled throughout much of North America since
graduating from Rutgers University in 2011, with assignments ranging from
wintering Piping Plover surveys in the Bahamas, to breeding bird atlas work in
Wisconsin, to tour leading in Alaska, and naturally, several fall seasons at
Cape May. He has also appeared at various local and national birding events and
represented CMBO in Israel’s Champions of the Flyway competition since 2016.
Tom is editor of the Cape May Annual Bird Report, sits on the Board of
Directors for the Hawk Migration Association of North America, serves as a
Regional Editor for eBird, founded and compiles the Mizpah Christmas Bird
Count, and is a voting member of the New Jersey Bird Records Committee.
Tom has invested about 10,000 hours monitoring bird
migration across all seasons at Cape May and was instrumental in the creation
of CMBO’s Migration Count Coordinator position in 2015. Not surprisingly, his
favorite birding takes place in wide-open spaces: oceans, grasslands, deserts,
marshes, and anywhere visible migration occurs.
ANDREW DREELIN – MORNING FLIGHT COUNTER
Andrew is an aspiring ornithologist and conservation
biologist. He fell in love with birds, birding, and ornithology during his
sophomore year in high school. It didn't take long before he went all the way
down the rabbit hole (or should it be petrel burrow?) of birding passion,
leaving his humid hometown of Columbus, Georgia to pursue an education in
ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University in frigid upstate New
York. After graduating, Andrew spent the fall of 2017 in Cape May working for
NJA as an interpretive naturalist, where he had an absolute wonderful time
immersing himself in bird migration and sharing its joys with those around
him.
Andrew is thrilled to be returning to Cape May this fall as
the counter for the Morning Flight Songbird Count (“hats off to Glen Davis for his numerous years of
service in this role; as he left big shoes to fill!”). This is Andrew’s
first time as an official migration counter.
He is both eager and afraid to tackle one of birding's toughest yet most
exciting challenges. Although the necessity of the count means that he can't be
his normally gregarious self, he welcomes anyone and everyone (regardless of
skill level) to visit the Morning Flight count and revel in the splendor of
visibly migrating songbirds! Morning flight is a phenomenon of ephemeral
abundance, brilliant but fleeting views, and fascinating behavior. The fact
that we have so much more to learn about actively migrating birds in Cape May
(and across the continent) just makes it that much more captivating! At
the end of the day, Andrew has a passion for all of the biodiversity that we
share this planet with, and he looks forward to recording the abundance and
diversity of the spectacular migrants passing through Cape May while
experiencing that magic alongside everyone who comes to visit.
ERIK BRUHNKE – CAPE MAY HAWKWATCH COUNTER
Erik Bruhnke has loved
birds since he was a child looking at chickadees. He graduated from Northland
College in Wisconsin with a Natural Resources degree in 2008. Erik taught three
semesters of field ornithology while attending college. Between 2009 and 2014, he spent his summers conducting field research
focused on breeding bird transects in Upper Michigan, point counts for a
breeding bird atlas in Minnesota and Wisconsin’s Northwoods, vegetation and
breeding bird surveys throughout wind farms in North Dakota’s prairie potholes,
and cavity-nesting surveys in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. A devoted raptor
nerd, he is drawn to hawkwatches. He worked as an interpreter for six seasons
at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth, Minnesota; counted migrating raptors
at the Corpus Christi Hawkwatch in Texas in 2015; and was the 2016 and 2017
hawk counter at the Cape May Hawkwatch. Erik’s wildlife photography has
won national awards and his writings have been featured in Birder’s Guide via the American Birding
Association, BirdWatching,
and Birdwatcher’s
Digest. Erik leads tours for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours as well as
his own business, Naturally Avian Birding Tours. He enjoys kayaking and hiking
in his free time and loves to cook and bake given the opportunity. Erik is
thrilled to return to Cape May for his third consecutive year of counting the
raptor migration!
DAVID WEBER – AVALON
SEAWATCH COUNTER
David is a graduate of Cornell University and a South
Jersey birder from Newfield, NJ. He has worked a variety of jobs
involving behavioral observations of birds, breeding bird point counts, radar
tracking of birds, bird banding, and being a naturalist and guide. He is
most interested in bird migration, abundance, and status and distribution over
time and space. David was the Montclair hawkwatch counter in 2016 and the
Avalon seawatch counter in 2017 and is excited to return to CMBO to count
hundreds of thousands of seabirds and soak in the spectacle of visible
migration in Cape May."
MOLLY JACOBSON – INTERPRETIVE NATURALIST
Molly Jacobson graduated from the University of New
Hampshire in 2017 with a degree in Wildlife & Conservation Biology and
plans to pursue graduate studies in the near future. She has been passionate
about nature her whole life, particularly insects and birds, and enjoys any
chance to share her curiosity with others. Before coming to Cape May, Molly
worked with the nationally threatened piping plover at the Rachel Carson
National Wildlife Refuge in Maine, and published research on native pollinator
declines with UNH’s Rehan Bee Lab. Enthusiastic about both macrophotography and
nature writing, she works to incorporate these into outreach that can help
foster appreciation for the natural world and spread awareness of the
importance of conservation. In the future, Molly hopes to combine this outreach
with fieldwork in order to contribute to the protection and restoration of
native ecosystems.
JERALD REB – INTERPRETIVE NATURALIST
Jerald’s interest in birding began in
earnest after receiving a field guide and binoculars for his sixth
birthday. He grew up birding first in his backyard, but it wasn’t long
before he branched out to various locations in his home state of Delaware and
surrounding areas. His greatest interests in birding have grown to include
nocturnal flight calls, morning flight and pelagic birding. More recently, he
has begun to pursue interests in other facets of the natural world such as
herps, butterflies and dragonflies. Jerald has come to love southern New Jersey
after repeated visits over the past decade, especially after working with the
Springwatch program for a month this past spring. He is very excited to be
working with CMBO as an interpretive naturalist during the fall season!
ADEHL SCHWADERER – INTERPRETIVE
NATURALIST
Adehl received her bachelor’s degree
in Environmental Science with a minor in chemistry in 2017 from
Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania. Throughout college, she interned
at Fern Hollow Nature Center for several seasons, first as a summer camp intern
and then as a college education intern. Adehl assisted with educational
programming for students from pre-k to high school age, along with ongoing
salamander research and environmental testing. Working for this organization is
how she realized her passion for environmental education. She spent two seasons
at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, her first in 2016 as a summer Education Intern
assisting with educational programs and hikes. She spent her second season in
the fall of 2017 as a Conservation Science Trainee assisting with fall
migration counts and programs, as well as conducting a movement ecology study
focused on black vultures in the Kempton Valley. Through these two experiences,
Adehl became interested in raptor conservation and birdwatching. She recently
completed an education internship at Shaver's Creek Environmental Center in
State College, PA, creating and implementing programming, as well as working in
their raptor center. She is very much looking forward to joining the CMBO Team
this fall!
LINDSEY CATHCART – MONARCH FIELD
NATURALIST
Lindsey Cathcart is a recent graduate of the University of
Delaware with a degree in Insect Ecology and Conservation. In her undergraduate
career, she worked on a study examining the pollination ecology of various
native flowering plants. After conducting research at Mt. Cuba Center in
Hockessin, DE, she completed a senior thesis specifically investigating the
quality of native Hydrangeas as food sources for pollinators. Most
recently, she has worked as an entomology intern at Stroud Water Research
Center in Avondale PA, identifying freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates for
their usage in assessing water quality. She is very excited to join the New
Jersey Audubon team in Cape May this fall as an intern on the Monarch
monitoring project and contribute to such a significant area of research. She
hopes to attend graduate school in the future and is looking forward to the
opportunity to grow as a scientist and continue to pursue her passion for
entomology.
SARAH CROSBY – MONARCH FIELD NATURALIST
Sarah graduated from Rutgers University in 2018 with a degree in
Philosophy and Environmental Studies. She grew up in Ringwood, NJ, hiking,
swimming and camping, and developing her love for the natural world. While in
middle school, Sarah began volunteering at the former Weis Ecology Center as a
Jr. Counselor. When the New Weis Center reopened, she returned as a field trip
educator and head camp counselor. Her love of nature really began to blossom
after a dendrology course in college, where she began to understand the entire
ecology of an area and the importance of biodiversity. Since then, Sarah has
been interested in native plant conservation and restoration ecology. She looks
forward to working with the Monarch Monitoring Project to help make an impact
on these locally endangered pollinators, while getting to help educate the
community about this important mission!
LIAM HART – MONTCLAIR HAWKWATCH
COUNTER
Liam grew up in
Haverford, Pennsylvania. As a kid, he became fascinated by raptors upon
learning about the awe-inspiring speed of the Peregrine Falcon. Growing up
within driving distance of Hawk Mountain and Cape May gave him the opportunity
to learn about hawk migration at some of the country’s most important count
sites. After studying history at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Liam served
as a Natural History Guide at Mass Audubon’s Broad Meadow Brook Conservation
Center and Wildlife Sanctuary. He also provided educational trail hikes and
organized public programs as a staff member at Summer Star Wildlife Sanctuary
in Boylston, MA. During his time in Massachusetts, Liam was a volunteer with
Eastern Mass Hawk Watch and called Mt. Wachusett his primary hawkwatch during
Fall migrations. He is now based in the Philadelphia area and is excited to
work the Montclair Hawkwatch this season.
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