Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area

Last week, I took a day off for bird photography. This week, I took another day off—another Wednesday.

Got up early (4:30 AM) again and drove to Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area in Cape May, about two hours and fifteen minutes away. Got there at 6:50 am. Same as last time.

This time, there were no other birders at the observation deck when I arrived (surely a bad sign), so I wandered around Field One for a little bit. Heard a lot of birds, saw a lot of birds, but didn’t get many photographs. Just like last time.

Higbee Beach · Wednesday 7 October 2026
FujiFilm X-T5 · ISO 500 · 1/1000 sec
XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR · 150 mm · f/9.0

Soon a few people trickled in, and then more and more. It’s easy with a pair of binoculars to look up into a tree or across a field, see birds, and go, ‘Oh, look, it’s a Cape May Warbler. Oh, look, it’s a Magnolia Warbler.’ Update your count, update your life list, look for the next. It’s another thing to point a lens at something.

This time, the light cooperated. It was nice and sunny, no overcast sky, completely clear above me, with golden light pouring down onto the meadow and the trees. Yet I could not get a bird to sit still long enough for a photo, or to sit in a place where light and framing worked properly.

So the photos you see here are the exact sum of keepers I got from this trip. Only one of the photos is of a bird. I stuck around for about two and a half hours.

Just before I left, I walked back down to the beach thinking maybe I could get some shorebirds. Nothing there either.

I need to find better hobbies, maybe ones that are not high-effort, low-reward.