Birds of Cape May

I have an embarrassing confession to make: Ihaveneverbeentocapemay. Yep, that’s right. Cape May, New Jersey – the birding capital of North America – never been there. But in many ways, I feel like I’ve already experienced the bird life there through Kevin Karlson’s Birds of Cape May.

As Pete Dunne writes in the book’s forward, Birds of Cape May is “a visual tribute” to Cape May and its birds. It is not intended to be a field guide, or even to show all of Cape May’s birds. Rather, it is the author’s “personal celebration of thirty years of enjoyment of this special location”. You can think of it as a large, organized, and annotated photo album.

Well over 400 photos are included here, most taken by Karlson, along with a few contributions from Lloyd Spitalnik. The vast majority of the pictures depict birds, naturally, but some are of other wildlife, scenery, and even birders. They are organized by season, starting with spring, and then further divided into coastal and inland areas.

Rarities, such as a Fork-tailed Flycatcher and Brown-chested Martin, get their own section at the end of the book. This arrangement makes sense to me. The book’s purpose is to showcase the area’s typical birds, which these certainly are not. However, I also think it’s important to highlight these special birds, as they are part of Cape May’s appeal to birders. There is also a separate section for butterflies, which includes a spectacular sequence of photos depicting the entire life cycle of a Monarch Butterfly.

Ok, so on to the photos themselves. They’re very nice, as one would expect from one of North America’s leading bird photographers. There are close, intimate portraits, with seemingly every feather visible and tack-sharp. There are also sweeping shots of shorebird flocks in flight. Some photos are amusing, while others are simply spectacular. Still others are pretty and instructive. Karlson captured this robin in the midst of an upward jump, just before plunging its bill into the ground for a worm. I had no idea robins did that. The wide range of subjects, poses, and impressions keeps the book lively and interesting.

Each photo has a short caption that tells a little about the species. The information included varies; sometimes Karlson touches upon identification, other times some interesting fact about its natural history. Some are very personal; others describe what the bird is doing. But most include the bird’s relative abundance and periods of occurrence in Cape May. Overall, the captions were fun to read and really add to the value of the book.

This book is surprisingly large, with an unusual format that is wider than it is tall. The few full-page photos take complete advantage of the space and look fabulous. Likewise, the pages containing three pictures also utilize the space well. However, the majority of pages display two photos and have too much wasted white space. The result is that these pages look “off” somehow, and the impact of the photos is lessened. I think a different page size or layout (or probably some combination of the two) would have suited the book better.

The only error I found is that Saltmarsh Sparrow is referred to as a “subspecies of Sharp-tailed Sparrow”.

Recommendation

Birds of Cape May is a very good showcase of the avian richness possessed by Cape May, New Jersey. Even though it is a little too expensive to be an impulse-buy, it would make a nice souvenir of a trip to this birding hotspot. Cape May residents should also have a copy, preferably displayed prominently for the benefit of non-birding friends and family! Finally, fans of bird photography in general should enjoy this collection.