When most people in Cape May, N.J., were boarding up windows and scurrying out of the path of Hurricane Sandy, Sam Galick was packing for the beach. For serious birders like Galick, hurricanes are a literal once in a lifetime windfall, sweeping up rarely seen species from hundreds and even thousands of miles away, and scattering the birds in front of their binoculars.

Post storm, Galick picked his way around downed trees and flooded streets in Cape May choked with up to six feet of sand, toting a camera and a notebook to track hourly bird counts. “Over 100,000 birds passed through in the mornings after Hurricane Sandy,” according to Galick. “We ended the day with 130 Pomarine Jaegers, a New Jersey high count,” said Galick, describing a tundra nesting seabird rarely seen on land.

A Major Hub for Migrating Birds

Even without the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, the New Jersey community of Cape May has long been a mecca for bird watchers. Located at the mouth of a river estuary, the Cape May peninsula juts into the Atlantic, and northwesterly airflows funnel migratory birds inland to the New Jersey coastline where birders from throughout the country and even overseas await to note their passage.

Some birds begin migrating south in early summer riding the Atlantic Flyway, an avian freeway that spans from the northern Atlantic coast down to South America. In Cape May, migration peaks from late September to late October. “Sandy hit us right at the end of the peak period,” according to Mike Crewe, program director at the Cape May Observatory. “Warblers and shorebirds were mostly gone, but robins, sparrows and some hawks were at their peak.”