Qualla: Cape May County, New Jersey

Cape May County, New Jersey: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JimIrwin at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1995, observers counted nearly 900,000 migratory birds passing through Avalon - a single town on a barrier island in a county that geography has turned into one of the most concentrated migration funnels on Earth. Cape May County dangles below the rest of New Jersey like a thin finger pointing into the Atlantic. Birds traveling south down the coast in autumn follow that finger, and then they hit the Delaware Bay and have to make a decision: cross or rest. Most rest. In spring, the same logic runs in reverse. The county counts 151 bird species among its regular visitors, plus two species of whales, the loggerhead sea turtle, the northern pine snake, the tiger salamander, and a small population of professional birders armed with telescopes who have come to watch the show.

Image: JimIrwin at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Cape May County, New Jersey: Storm Country

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ted Kerwin, CC BY 2.0. Core samples taken at Whale Beach on Ludlam Island show evidence of an intense hurricane that struck sometime between 1278 and 1438 - centuries before any written record. The first documented major hurricane to cross the cape came on September 3, 1821, with the eye passing direct...

Image: Ted Kerwin | CC BY 2.0

Cape May County, New Jersey: The Bird Funnel

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Smallbones, CC0. More than thirty species of migrating shorebirds use Delaware Bay each spring to refuel for the trip north. Along that bay, between 800,000 and 1.5 million birds pass through each year. The county's combination of salt marsh, open water, fresh-water creeks, oak-pine forest, and t...

Image: Smallbones | CC0

Cape May County, New Jersey: The Lima Bean Capital

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife, CC BY-SA 4.0. West Cape May, a tiny borough just inland from Cape May City, considered itself the lima bean capital of the world well into the late twentieth century. The county's combination of mild winters, moderate humidity, and salt-influenced soil produced an unusually rich lima bean crop...

Image: Chuck Homler, Focus On Wildlife | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cape May County, New Jersey: Five Bridges and a Highway

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dough4872, CC BY-SA 4.0. The county's barrier islands - Ocean City, Strathmere/Sea Isle/Avalon/Stone Harbor (which share Ludlam, Seven Mile, and the rest), the Wildwoods, and Cape May - were once accessible only by boat or by long detours over the marshes. Between 1934 and 1946, the Cape May County Bridg...

Image: Dough4872 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cape May County, New Jersey: Half the County Is Wild

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Seaginger, CC BY-SA 3.0. As of 2015, roughly 49% of the land area in Cape May County was preserved open space - parkland, wildlife management areas, state forests, and refuges. Belleplain State Forest, established in 1928, covers more than 21,000 acres of pine, oak, and Atlantic white cedar across the co...

Image: Seaginger | CC BY-SA 3.0