Nature
Come on a Cicada Safari with Me!
And if you haven’t experienced a Magicicada emergence before, let me say this: it’s not just about the noise or the novelty. It’s about witnessing something ancient and almost mythic.
Nature
Nature
The Secret Lives of Fireflies
As I sit here typing, I’m still bundled in flannel pajama pants and thick merino wool socks. The thermometer reads just above freezing, and the wind outside cuts through my light sweater with ease. It’s still winter, but there are signs of spring. The Baltimore Orioles visiting my jelly feeder […]
Nature
Where Do the Butterflies Go? Winter Survival Tactics of Local Lepidoptera
What a wild fall and winter we had in late 2024 and early 2025! Moths and butterflies held on longer than I can ever remember, with nighttime lows only dipping into the 40s for most of November and December. It was downright weird to see Monarch butterflies even hanging on […]
Nature
Plunging into the Cold
Cold Water Immersion has been a thing throughout our human history, and depending on who you ask, it can be traced back to ancient Egypt, Greece, or, honestly, just throw a dart at a map. In modern history it has seen a lot of attention with online storefronts offering many […]
Nature
Sam the MothMan of Cape May
In summer and fall it’s not uncommon to come to work and find a large mesh cage set up in the middle of the building, with one or more specimens of some special creature crawling around inside. Most of the time these are moths, and sometimes they’re something entirely different, […]
Nature
Summer Camp(ing) in West Cape May
With demand high and supply low, our family decided to throw our hat into the rental ring and invest in a camper that we would live in from June through August. We had a site in West Cape May where we could put it, only a few blocks from our […]
Nature
Little Known Jawns Part 2: Villas Haunts
I don’t even know how to write about this place. This little-known jawn is so local, I don’t even know how to tell you where to go. I mean, if you look on a map, it’s the green spot bordered by Fulling Mill Road to the north, the Villas to […]
Nature
Little Known Jawns Part 1: Kitty’s Trails at the Cape May Airport
“Kitty’s Trails” are a series of winding paths through two adjacent parcels of woods, bisected by Ranger Road, within the Cape May Airport property. If you don’t know Ranger Road, I can’t blame you, I had to look it up while writing this piece. If you’ve driven into the airport […]
Nature
Birds Do It, Bees Do It
As we exit the winter’s cold grip and get ready to move into spring’s warm embrace, love is all around us. In some cases, it has been all along, with birds such as Great-horned Owls already rearing young preparing to fledge the nest. But in most cases, now is the […]
Nature
The Last of Us
Before a TV series, it was a video game. Fungus-infected zombies aside, much of the storyline of The Last of Us takes the main characters across a mostly abandoned America where the signs of humanity persist, yet in a faded state, and the absence of humans has an eerie vibe. […]
Nature
Fall Again
I don’t know how it was for you, but this summer seemed to creep up on me, with a cool start that favored spinach and lettuce plantings (which I totally missed because of previous experiences with hot-as-Hades springs of late), followed by the blast furnace of July into August. It […]
Nature
Finding Shade on Cape Island
“Sit quiet by my side in the shade And not the kind that’s thrown I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown” -Taylor Swift, Paris It’s Saturday, and you’ve made it to Cape May for your summer visit. You stop at your B&B or hotel in just enough […]
Nature
Belleplain State Forest
I find it fascinating how landscapes of my youth have had a profound influence on my preferences as an adult. For instance, some of my favorite places can be found within Florida’s Everglades National Park, where slight variations in elevation result in drastic changes in vegetation. As I sit at […]
Nature
Spring is for Lovers (of the Timberdoodle)
I crave spring for so many reasons, but at the top of my list is the magical and mysterious denizen of the Cape May Peninsula, the American Woodcock.
Nature
Dancing in the Dark
It has been a minute. Maybe you’ve been here the whole time. Perhaps you’re just getting back to Cape May after being away for the winter. Or maybe you’re reading this several months after it was published, as you cool off from the hot summer sun and rifle through the […]
Nature
Fall Bird Migration
When’s the best time to visit Cape May to see bird migration?” This is the question I get asked most often by visitors who have just learned about how Cape May ranks as one of, if not the top, fall birding hotspots. The answer can only be given tongue-in-cheek: “Easy: […]
Nature
Nature: Watching Whales
Spend the day at any of the Cape May beaches this summer and you’re sure to see at least one of the various whale-watching boats motoring to or from port. I’ve heard locals joke about them as “dolphin watching” boats, and there’s some truth as at least one company offers […]
Nature
Gray Tree Frogs
Summer is the season of the frog chorus, and Cape May is a great place to experience a diverse array of singers. From Spring Peepers (no jokes!) to the most recent new addition, Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog (a cool story for a future column), to the “of course I can […]
Nature
The Waiting is the Hardest Part
Growing up in sub-tropical Miami, Florida, I could divide the year into wet and dry seasons, rather than the four distinct ones typical of temperate regions. If you had to, you could further dissect wet and dry into oppressively hot wet (or dry), and moderately hot wet (or dry). Spending […]
Nature
Take a Winter Walk
Cape May is beautiful in winter. Bundle up and tale a walk with Nature columnist David La Puma
