What are the opening hours?

Monday 9:30am - 4:30pm Tuesday 9:30am - 4:30pm Wednesday 9:30am - 4:30pm Thursday 9:30am - 4:30pm Friday 9:30am - 4:30pm Saturday 9:30am - 4:30pm Sunday 9:30am - 4:30pm

Cape May Bird Observatory

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Cape May Bird Observatory

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Founded in 1976 by New Jersey Audubon, CMBO is a leader in research, environmental education, bird conservation, and recreational birding activities.

New Jersey Audubon is a privately supported, not-for profit, statewide membership organization. Founded in 1897, and one of the oldest independent Audubon societies, NJ Audubon has no affiliation with National Audubon.

10/31/2026

✨🎃Happy Halloween! 🎃✨

For most people, this is a day full of excitement, but for us at CMBO, it marks the beginning of the end for our fall season. Today was the last day of work for our 2026 Interpretive Naturalists, Josh, Chris, & Madison. We wanted to say a huge thank you to all three of them for the endless hours spent answering every question, delivering weekly programs, and greeting every visitor with a smile.

Josh, Chris, & Madison made many people’s visit to Cape May a special one, so be sure to share a thank you or a story from your time on the platform this fall in the comments if you have one!

Don’t worry, there is still time to visit the Cape May Hawkwatch & Montclair Hawkwatch before the end of the season on November 30th, with even more time to visit Avalon Seawatch before December 22nd.

We hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

10/30/2026

We’re back with another recap from the Cape May Songbird Banding Project!

Weeks 3 and 4 (August 30 to September 12) of the Project saw an increase in migratory activity and diversity, despite the consistently hot and humid weather. The banding team recorded several first-of-season species, including a Blue-winged Warbler, American Woodcock, Tennessee Warbler, Northern Parula, and Connecticut Warbler.

By this point in the season, the team had also deployed dozens of BluBat battery-powered tags from Cellular Tracking Technologies on Northern Waterthrushes. One individual tagged during this time took just one hour to fly 40 kilometers (24 miles) between its last two detection points. Incredible for a bird weighing just 17 grams! Multiple other individuals fitted with these transmitters were also detected foraging near the banding station over several days. This information is quite useful, as it uncovers just how much time Northern Waterthrushes spend at stopover sites, specifically ours. Besides, who’d be in a rush to leave Cape May?

Lastly, there were a few interesting insects spotted at the station during this time. The team pulled a Dog Day Cicada out of the nets, along with a Green Darner munching on a Spotted Lanternfly!

Want to read more? Check out our blog covering each week of the project!

If you found this post or the blog compelling and want to support the work the Cape May Stopover Project team is doing, consider donating to the project through the link in our bio.

All bird capture, handling, and banding are authorized under appropriate USGS state and federal permits.

Photo 1: Northern Parula by Lena Usyk
Photo 2: Magnolia Warbler by Lisa Viviano
Photo 3: Blue-winged Warbler by Lisa Viviano
Photo 4: American Woodcock by Vicki Morgan
Photo 5: Green Darner Dragonfly w/snack by Lisa Viviano
Photo 6: Dog Day Cicada by Lisa Viviano

10/28/2026

Welcome to another Wednesdays from the Watch!

Did you miss our Morning Flight Counter, Aaron Reb? He’s back to talk about what has been seen throughout the month of October, along with the biannual movements of a few migratory species.

We hope you enjoyed this week’s update, and be sure to check out Higbee before the Morning Flight Count ends on November 15th!

10/26/2026

We have a winner in the 2027 Fall Festival Beach Shack Sweepstakes! Congratulations to NJ Audubon Member Clifford from Pennsylvania. Thanks to everyone who contributed and we hope you'll join us again for next year's Spring Festival Sweepstakes!

10/25/2026

We can hardly believe there’s less than a month left of the 2026 Cape May Songbird Stopover Project! With another exciting season of banding almost complete, we wanted to start recapping the Project’s highlights.

The first two weeks of the project, starting on August 18th, marked a strong start to the season. A total of 764 birds were banded, despite challenging conditions that included heat, humidity, wind, and a persistent number of mosquitoes. Other highlights include a record-setting day of 212 birds banded on 8/26/2026, the highest single-day August count in the project’s history.

This year, the Cape May Songbird Stopover Project is being carried out by a crew of banders who are new to the Project! The 2026 head banders are Vicki Morgan and Axel Rutter, with Lisa Viviano serving as the banding technician. The Project continues to be lead by Dr. David Mizrahi, with the help of Lena Usyk as co-lead.

To hear more about August’s several exciting species captures and the project’s efforts to analyze Northern Waterthrush movement, head on over to the “View from the Cape” blog, linked in our bio!

All bird capture, handling, and banding are authorized under appropriate USGS state and federal permits.

If you found this post or the blog compelling and want to support the work the Cape May Stopover Project team is doing, consider donating to the project through the link in our bio.

Photo 2: Golden-winged Warbler by Lena Usyk, Photo 3: Chestnut-sided Warbler by Lisa Viviano

10/24/2026

How does your office view compare to ours??

Don’t forget to take a break and get outside before the weather gets too cold! And be sure to visit the Cape May Hawkwatch this week before our Interpretive Naturalists last day on 10/31.

David, our Hawkwatch Counter, will continue the count through November 30th, but our Naturalists will only be around for one more week. Thank you to Madison, Josh, and Chris for all their hard work this season, and be sure to spend some time with them on the platform before they’re gone!

10/23/2026

It’s been one week since the start of our 80th Cape May Fall Festival! To relive some of the fun, we wanted to highlight a few interesting species seen, along with exciting moments from last weekend.

We asked our friends at ZEISS Birdingto share their favorite sightings from the field during their time in Cape May. Even though they were busy manning their table at Convention Hall and chatting to guests on the Hawkwatch Platform, Renee, Melissa, and France still managed to fit in some birding! Watch until the end to hear all about their time in Cape May.

If you were able to join us last weekend, did you see any of the species mentioned? Thank you, Renee, Melissa, and France, for sharing your Fall Fest experience with us, and thank you to ZEISS for their continued support of the Cape May Bird Observatory. Not only are they supporting our Cape May Hawkwatch for a second year, but they were also a Fall Festival Gold Sponsor.

Be sure to stop by the Cape May Hawkwatch and the CMBO Northwood Center to try out some ZEISS optics for yourself!

10/23/2026

Northern Waterthrush update: two waterthrushes we tagged at Cape May have crossed open ocean to the Bahamas, with very different winds.

NOWA_26-50 left Cape May on Sept. 23 and stopped in Suffolk, Virginia, while a nor’easter spun up offshore. After sunset on Sept. 25 it left on the storm’s north winds.

A tailwind every hour of the flight: about 37 mph at first, 6 mph by the Bahamas
Over Nassau at 7:33 PM on Sept. 26
About 800 miles in about 24 hours

NOWA_26-56 was last detected at Cape May on Oct. 3. A cold front cleared Cape May on Oct. 5, and that night it was over Delmarva.

North winds pushed it south for about 18 hours
Then the wind turned, and the last 10 hours were into a headwind
Bimini at 3:35 AM on Oct. 7: about 930 miles in about 31 hours

By our estimate, the tailwind cut at least 10 hours off 26-50’s trip compared with still air. 26-56’s mixed winds saved it only about 3.

The wind in the video is from the ECMWF weather model at about 2,500 feet, checked against weather balloon data.

These two are among 56 waterthrushes tagged at Cape May this season. Where do they go next? Follow along to find out.

The Cape May Songbird Stopover Project is a collaboration between New Jersey Audubon, Cape May Bird Observatory, The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey Cellular Tracking Technologies, in partnership with Birds Canada and Wildlife Tracking System.

10/23/2026

The Cape May Stopover Project banded 534 birds in three mornings at the Cape May Stopover Project: 200 on Saturday, 47 on a rainy Sunday, and 287 today, plus 12 recaptures and 31 species. Today also brought three firsts of the season. Tonight, northwest winds stretch from the Great Lakes to the coast, carrying birds from upstate New York, New York City and Long Island toward Cape May, and BirdCast is predicting 391 million birds in flight across the U.S. Nets open before sunrise.

Address

701 E Lake Drive
Cape May Point, NJ
08204

Opening Hours

Monday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Friday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday	9:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday	9:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+16098842736

Website

https://linktr.ee/cmbobirds

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