We’ve got some amazing seasonal employees to help us carry out CMBO’s mission of connecting people with nature while also keeping our finger on the pulse of migration. Let’s meet our current seasonals!
Springwatch Technician – Julian Grudens
Julian is a birder and field biologist hailing from the sunshine state, where he graduated from the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation program at the University of Florida. With experience working on avian research and conservation projects across North America, he is excited to take part in CMBO’s Springwatch program. Migration and movement studies are some of his primary research and birding interests, which he most recently pursued at Birds Canada’s Long Point Bird Observatory on the north shore of Lake Erie. While conducting visible migration counts and bird banding at their renowned long-term field stations, he enjoyed witnessing the constantly shifting spectacle of migration as it was shaped by weather and climactic patterns. This brought his attention to the famed Cape May and its pioneering Springwatch which aims to examine some of these topics. Looking forward he aims to stay involved with research and conservation efforts and share this passion with others.
Migration Count Coordinator – Tom Reed
Tom Reed is one of few birders who truly call Cape May home. He happened upon birds at the age of 10 and was immediately captivated by the spectacle of migration visible from his Reed’s Beach backyard—Red Knots departing for the Artic on late-May evenings, Sharp-shinned Hawks bounding along the bayshore tree line 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 spanning the continent, but he always prefers to spend the migrations seasons in Cape May. He has also appeared at various local and national birding events and has represented CMBO in Israel’s Champions of the Flyway competition multiple times. Tom is the creator and editor of the Cape May Annual Bird Report, serves as regional editor for eBird, founded and compiles the Mizpah Christmas Bird Count, and formerly served on the Board of Directors for the Hawk Migration Association of North America and as a voting member of the NJ Bird Records Committee.
Tom has invested over 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. His favorite birding takes place in wide-open spaces: oceans, grasslands, deserts, marshes, and anywhere visible migration occurs.
George Myers Naturalist – Will Kaselow
Will Kaselow is a birder and early career ecologist who started out with NJA as a volunteer at Lorrimer Sanctuary and participant on NJA walks to Sandy Hook. Inspired by the passion and knowledge of NJA’s many naturalists and the birding community as a whole, Will graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in Wildlife Conservation and Ecology. He has worked field ecology positions across North America and Puerto Rico and, after graduating, decided to pursue environmental education. During an AmeriCorps year of service with the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation, Will taught a variety of ecology courses in K-12 classrooms as well as walks and workshops for the general public. Will returns to CMBO after a season as Interpretive Naturalist in the Fall of 2019, studying Piping Plovers with Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ in the spring and summer of 2020, and finally, conducting the Montclair Hawkwatch in the Fall of 2020. He is excited to utilize his experience and blend the fields of ecology and education to best advocate for the admiration and conservation of our native species across the taxonomic spectrum.
