September 27th 2009. Cape May, USA.

We were told on Saturday that the next day (Sunday 27th Sept) was not going to be a good day for Raptor Migration, the wind was heading in the wrong direction. The conditions have to be right, flying in to a head wind would make migration harder for the Raptors, so they would wait for better conditions. My heart sank a little bit as we were departing on Wednesday 30th and we had come a long way. Before we set off on holiday, I had researched (as always!) Cape May. Apart from Raptor Migration, Cape May is also a Whale Watching destination. As today was going to be quiet for Raptors and with quite light winds forecasted, this could be the ideal day for going on the Whale and Dolphin tour.

It rained most of the morning, so we hoped for good weather and enough people for the tour to take place, but we didn't need to worry. There were 3 tours to choose from, we went on the 3hour afternoon whale and dolphin tour. So we boarded the "Cape May Whale Watcher", we went out of the harbour to sea, we followed the coast, first thing we saw was a Brown Pelican, just off the beach. Then the first Bottle-Nosed Dolphins were sighted, but as they were fishing, they would come up for a few seconds and go back down for a minute and then pop up somewhere else, very hard to get a picture! More Dolphins popped up, but no Whales were seen, but definately an amazing experience! The boat took the quick way back through the Cape May Canal, which looked perfect territory for Ospreys, sure enough as we passed up the Canal, there sat an Osprey on a typical dead tree branch. Also by now the sun had come out!