Week 9 of the Cape May Songbird Stopover Project at The Nature Conservancy’s South Cape May Meadows was a rollercoaster of weather, energy, and migration. The week began with quiet recovery time and ended with record-breaking banding totals that left the whole team buzzing.
The week opened with two days off, October 12 and 13, as a powerful Nor’easter swept through the region. High winds and rain made it impossible to safely open the mist nets, so the banding crew shifted gears. They used the stormy downtime to catch up on data entry, recharge, and dive into some personal creativity through art and photography. These pauses in fieldwork offer a rare chance to reflect and reset before the next big migration wave. And just like last week, that wave arrived in spectacular fashion.
On Tuesday, October 14, the skies cleared, but migration was still slow. Only 14 birds were banded that day, though one was the first Hermit Thrush of the season. This species is always a welcome sign of mid-October. But overnight, conditions changed dramatically, and by sunrise on Wednesday, October 15, the Meadows was alive with bird activity! The team banded 233 new birds, including several season firsts: Dark-eyed Junco, Red-winged Blackbird, and a station and season first: a Dickcissel! This rare and exciting capture thrilled everyone, especially David Mizrahi, Vice President of Research and Monitoring for New Jersey Audubon, who has led this project since it began in 2018.
The momentum carried straight into Thursday, October 16, when migration continued with force. It was the first big Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler day of the season, with 294 newly banded birds, 191 of them being Myrtle Warblers. The following day, Friday, October 17, remained busy with 195 birds banded, keeping the team on their toes.
Then came Saturday, October 18, a day that will go down in the station’s history. In total, 601 birds were captured, with 587 newly banded, marking the busiest day of the 2025 season and one of the highest daily totals in recent years at South Cape May Meadows. Of those, a staggering 507 were Yellow-rumped Warblers. To make the day even more special, the team caught their first Grasshopper Sparrow of the season, which is a rare bird for Cape Island.
By week’s end, over just five days of banding, the team had processed an incredible 1,323 newly banded birds. From the stillness of a storm to the thrill of record-breaking migration, Week 9 perfectly captured the spirit of fall at Cape May; unpredictable and exhilarating.
All bird capture, handling, and banding are authorized under appropriate state and federal permits.
Dark-eyed Junco by Noah Nei
Yellow-rumped Warbler (MYWA) by Noah Nei
Dickcissel by Noah Nei
