Ninth Annual
BIRDING BED & BREAKFAST
May 2, 3 & 4, 2008 (Friday through Sunday)
Sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore
Spring Birding at the Jersey Shore!
Songbirds will be singing,
Horseshoe crabs will be spawning,
Shorebirds will be feeding.
Join a group of friendly, interesting,
mostly UU folks, and come birding.
We feature small groups
and local birding guides.
Enjoy a great travel bargain
and help a young, growing, and
dynamic UU congregation.
The Program
Spring is a great time to be birding, and southern New Jersey is a wonderful place to be. Migration is well underway and many woodland birds have returned to nest, including Prothonotary and Yellow-throated Warblers. Summer and Scarlet Tanagers are just arriving, and the woods ring with the songs of birds establishing their territories and seeking mates. Ospreys and Bald Eagles are on their nests. Herons and Egrets have returned, and migrating shorebirds, including Red Knots, Ruddy Turnstones, and Sanderlings, have gathered to rest and feed before continuing north to their breeding grounds. The natural wonder of shorebirds massed to feed on the eggs of the horseshoe crab is beginning to unfold. We also have nesting endangered or threatened species such as the Piping Plover, Least Tern, and Black Skimmer.
Our experienced local guides will know of good places to look for all of the above, and more. Birds will be active and singing, and we can help you find and identify them by both sight and sound.
Our exact itinerary will depend on weather and the location of the birds, but we plan to bird in both Atlantic and Cape May Counties, visiting such spots as Belleplain State Forest, the Delaware Bay Shore, Stone Harbor Point, and Forsythe (Brigantine) National Wildlife Refuge.
Each day will begin early! Those who have birded know that the magic hours occur soon after dawn.
Most of our guests will be chauffeured by our guides, with a few guests driving with a guide in their car providing directions.
For those who have difficulty walking, one of the guides will customize field trips to meet your needs.
The Leaders
Eight members of our UU congregation, who have worked together during our earlier, very successful Birding B&B programs, will serve as birding guides.
John and Betsy Searight have been active birders for over 50 years, and for three years were the instructors for a Spring Elderhostel course, Birds of the Jersey Cape. They are members of the American Birding Association and the Cape May Bird Observatory.
Pam Hendrick has been an avid birder for 20 years, specializing in woodland warblers. Her husband, Jon Luoma, is a freelance nature writer and a contributing editor to Audubon.
Jack Miller is a self-taught naturalist who has been birding for most of his life. His skills at picking out birds and other fauna for folks to see are exceptional.
Jesse and Jack Connor have been active birders for more than thirty years. Jack teaches writing, ornithology, and natural history courses at Stockton College and is the author of The Complete Birder and Season At The Point: The Birds & Birders Of Cape May. In January 2007 he was part of a 5 person research team from the Wetlands Institute and Stockton College that journeyed to Tierra del Fuego in extreme southern Chile to assess the status of the Red Knot on its wintering grounds.
Kim Peters is Director of Research and Monitoring with New Jersey Audubon Society. Her Ph.D. in Zoology is from Clemson University, where her doctoral thesis focused on shore and wading bird distributions, habitat use, and response to human disturbance, an obvious fit with the interests and concerns of NJ Audubon.
People of all levels of skill and experience with birding are welcome!
Beginners are encouraged to attend, as well as more experienced birders wishing to explore the rich variety of birds in south Jersey (one of Roger Tory Peterson’s favorite birding spots on the continent). Our ratio of guides to group participants makes this a unique opportunity for beginning birders.
Accomodations
Our guests will stay in the homes of members of our congregation on Friday and Saturday nights, with breakfasts provided by their hosts. We’ll also provide a group orientation and dinner Friday night, a picnic lunch in the field Saturday, and dinner Saturday evening in members’ homes, though not necessarily those of your hosts.
You are invited to join us for a late morning Sunday UU Service and brunch at the Absecon Lions Center for the Blind, our meeting place, but we understand if you choose to do other things. The program will officially close after the brunch, although we may have discovered that there are shore birds yet to be seen and not too far away, and a few may choose to continue to bird.
Fees and Registration
Cost: $225 per person.
To register, send $50 per person with the information requested at the bottom of this page to the address given below.
Registration fees are refundable until 14 days prior to each event. The balance of your fee will be collected when you arrive.
After we receive your registrations, we will send you a questionnaire concerning your specific sleeping and dietary needs, and your birding expectations and experience.
Space is limited. Register early!
About Our Congregation
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore (UUCSJS) began in June 1998 as a fast start congregation. Services were first held in January 1999, and we have met weekly ever since. After two successful Capital Campaigns, construction of our own building is underway. It will be a very green, hopefully LEED-certified building. By May it should be over 50% completed. You may follow its progress on our website.
This will be our ninth birding program. The previous ones have received excellent evaluations, and the birds have been cooperative. We have been successful in attracting diverse participants, involving most of our congregation, and raising much needed funds. So, here we go again.
Additional Information
If you would like additional information or want more brochures, please call
John and Betsy Searight,
(609) 645-2869, or email:
betsysearight@comcast.net
Our congregational mailing address is:
UUCSJS
P.O. Box 272
Oceanville, NJ 08231
Please return the following information with your registration fee of $50 per person:
Name(s): _____________________________
Address: _____________________________
Home Phone: __________________
Work phone: __________________
Email: _______________________
Make checks payable to UUCSJS, and mail to:
Betsy Searight
932 Traymore Avenue
Absecon, NJ 08201
We're looking forward to seeing you!