“I watch the birds the way my coal miner grandfather watched the canary. It hasn’t died—but it’s coughing and wheezing. That’s the warning. Will we listen?“
Frank Matheis
“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.“
Robert Swan – Polar Explorer
The New Jersey coast—Salt Point and Cape May—is about three hours from our home in Pawling, New York; Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on Cape Cod is roughly five.
These salt-marsh systems rank among the richest bird habitats in North America, where wetlands, dunes, and coastal forest meet. Around Cape May, a premier migration funnel with 400+ recorded species, expect dense concentrations of shorebirds and seabirds—Sanderlings, American Oystercatchers, Black Skimmers, terns, and gulls—along with marsh waders like Great Egrets and herons. In migration, the scrub fills with warblers (Palm, Pine, Yellow), sparrows, and orioles, while raptors—peregrine falcons, ospreys, sharp-shinned hawks—move overhead.
At Wellfleet Bay, the habitat mix—salt marsh, tidal flats, pine woods, freshwater ponds—packs more than 300 species into a compact landscape. Look for Piping Plovers and Least Terns on the beaches, yellowlegs and sandpipers along the edges, and herons, Black Ducks, and kingfishers in the creeks and ponds. The woods hold chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, orioles, and waves of migrant warblers in spring and fall.
These are repeat grounds—reliable, close enough, and rich.