Warning: birding at night can turn you into a night owl.

The 65th Annual Cape May Autumn Birding Festival is coming up on October 28-30, 2011. This is always a fun and impressive event, as evidenced by the fact that it’s in its 65th year. Birders flock to Cape May to participate in field trips, lectures, and special events. Each year, we welcome birders to our Cape May Bed and Breakfast.

This year promises to be as exciting as ever. Ted Floyd will present a fascinating presentation on Birding at Night: The Final Frontier. Birders beware: “Night birding can become addictive”. Ken Kaufman will encourage participants to have “Birder Pride”. Festival participants can look forward to “Birding by Boat” aboard the Osprey, Birding by Bike, and even Birding by Kayak.

The Cape May Autumn Birding Festival is truly an event not to be missed, as least for birding enthusiasts. But we’d like to encourage birders to consider bringing binoculars to Cape May at other times, too. Try midweek birding. After all, the birds don’t care if you watch them on Saturday or Wednesday. They’re beautiful and interesting any day of the week.

The Osprey offers Birding by Boat tours daily. The Cape May Bird Observatory offers talks, walks, and other birding events on a regular basis. Cape May Point State Park is always open.

Many guests of our Cape May Bed and Breakfast are birders. These folks know that while special birding events are fun and informative, there are innumerable opportunities to see birds in and around Cape May, any day of the week.

Tripadvisor has honored the beaches of Cape May, NJ. Our town was #2 on the 2011 Travelers’ Choice list of Top 25 Beaches in the United States. We can’t really take any credit for the beaches, but we’re thrilled nonetheless.

Plan a trip to our Cape May Bed and Breakfast and see why our beaches have received so many kudos. Sunset Beach is an aptly named, favorite place to watch the sunset. Each evening during the summer there is a flag lowering ceremony, which is worth experiencing at least once. When not admiring the view, be sure to scan the beach for quartz pebbles – these Cape May diamonds should grace every mantle.

Cape May Lighthouse, at dusk.

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No stay at the John F. Craig House, our welcoming Cape May Bed and Breakfast, would be complete without a trip to the Cape May Lighthouse. The lighthouse sits at the entrance to the Delaware River at the southern tip of New Jersey and has been hosting visitors since at least the early 1880s. Mr. Samuel Stillwater, in charge of maintaining the lighthouse at that time, enjoyed guiding visitors to the top to show them the view and the interior of the lantern. Today, more than 100,000 people visit the lighthouse each year, climbing the 199 steps to the top or keeping feet on the ground in the Oil House, which has a visitors’ center and gift shop.

The Cape May Lighthouse is situated in the Cape May Point State Park, at the southern tip of New Jersey. The Park is open daily, and has several inviting trails to fresh-water ponds and along the dunes. After a hearty breakfast at your Cape May b and b, head out to the fresh air at the Cape May Point State Park and work up an appetite for lunch. You are sure to spot a colorful bird, and relax to the sound of the surf.