REGISTRATION IS OPEN
May 15th – 18th, 2025
Cape May, NJ
Watch the Video of our 2024 Cape May Spring Festival Keynote
NJ Audubon members get special discounts on registration and select program tickets. Not a member – join today.
Book Your Stay Now
The Grand Hotel of Cape May is offering a special rate of $164 for Thursday, and $211 for Friday and Saturday using the code 677763. When booking your stay use the code by entering it into the Group ID box.
KEYNOTES
Saturday
The Shorebirds of North America: A Natural History and Photographic Celebration
Pete Dunne and Kevin Karlson
A lavishly illustrated, large-format reference book by two preeminent experts on North American shorebirds
More than half a century has passed since the publication of The Shorebirds of North America, Peter Matthiessen’s masterful natural history of what is arguably the world’s most amazing and specialized bird group. In the intervening decades, our knowledge about these birds has grown significantly, as have the threats to their populations and habitats. Pete Dunne and Kevin Karlson celebrate Matthiessen’s classic book with this updated and expanded natural history of North American shorebirds. This elegantly written book begins by introducing readers to the unrivaled splendor of shorebirds and goes on to cover topics ranging from their biology and habitats to courtship and breeding, flight, the perils of migration, and conservation. Detailed accounts convey the richness and variety of the five family groups, with incisive, fact-filled descriptions of all 52 species of shorebirds known to breed in North America.
Guest Speakers – Bryony Angell and friends
Bryony Angell writes and speaks about birding culture to promote birding as a pastime for mainstream audience and to promote wild bird conservation. She contributes to publications like The Seattle Times, Audubon.org, Birding Magazine and Bird Watcher’s Digest. She serves on local and international committees focused on the connection between food production and bird conservation: Be Bird Wise, a communications project of Washington state-based Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland, and the Smithsonian Institute’s Bird Friendly coalition supporting for-profit business as an economically sustainable driver for conservation. She lives and builds a birding community in Washington State with her family.
How Sweet It Is: Your love for coffee, chocolate and maple syrup can support bird conservation
Ever consider how your love for the sweet things in life can support the birds you love? Come learn about how your consumer choices for your morning brew, your afternoon sweet treat and your weekend pancakes can directly support bird conservation! New developments in eco-certification now mean you can shop knowing your indulgence protects the migratory birds you hear outside your window. Enjoy this lecture with samples from participating companies in The Smithsonian’s Bird Friendly® and Vermont Audubon’s Produced in Bird Friendly Habitat eco-certifications!
Bird Like a Mother
What happens when you’re a serious birder and also support a family? Where in birding culture is there room for mothers and caregivers of the future conservationist of our scene? Join birding world personalities and mothers of school-age kids Bryony Angell, Orietta Estrada, and Georgia Silvera Seamans for a round table about the joys and challenges of finding a place for birding practice in today’s birding culture designed for those without such obligations. We’re doing it, and come learn how!
Three-Part Bird Photography Workshop with Phil and Becky Witt
A Friday afternoon workshop will cover the basics of bird photography–equipment, composition, background, camera settings, light, and a few post-processing suggestions. This will be preparation for the Part II field workshop at the Ocean City Rookery on Saturday morning where participants will have a chance to photograph nesting wading birds, such as White and Glossy Ibis, Great and Snowy Egrets, and Yellow- and Black-crowned Night Herons. A few days after the festival, we will host a Zoom meeting where Phil and Becky will discuss photo composition and share tools for editing.
