Hopes soar for science center at Cape May Point | The Press of Atlantic City
Bill Barlow - September 27, 2022
CAPE MAY POINT — The doors may open on a new Cape May Point Science Center in the former St. Mary by-the-Sea Retreat by next spring, but the science is already underway.
On Friday morning, a team worked to trap birds of prey not far from the beachfront center at Lehigh and Lincoln avenues, almost literally in the shadow of the Cape May Lighthouse less than 500 feet away.
The plan was to fit the birds with a tracking device developed by Cellular Tracking Technologies, a company based at the Cape May Airport in Lower Township.
Naturalists have for years put bands on the legs of hawks and other birds of prey, allowing the animals to be identified and giving insight into their range, behavior and migration.
“Banding can show point A to where the bird ends up at point B. But it doesn’t show their travels,” said Bob Mullock, who has spearheaded the effort to create the science center and to preserve the long-standing retreat house for the Sisters of St. Joseph.
The tiny electronic device attached to the birds with a harness will offer a much more detailed picture of the bird’s movement, showing where it goes and when, and how much time it spends in each location.
“The goal of the project is to understand the land use of these migratory species that come through Cape May, so we can best utilize the land to preserve the natural beauty of the Cape May area and still have people come and enjoy it,” said Sean Burcher, director of scientific operations for the center.
He volunteers for that position and is also an employee of Cellular Tracking Technologies.
The project is new, Mullock said. According to Burcher, the team has put the devices on Cooper’s hawks and sharp-shinned hawks, and is trying to get a broad-winged hawk. If other hawks were captured, they may instead be banded.
For instance, a merlin, a much smaller bird of prey, would get banded. A hawk may get a transmitter weighing 10 grams, about the weight of two nickels. A sharp-shinned hawk would get an even lighter tracker.
“It depends on the size of the bird, obviously,” Burcher said. There are ethical concerns with using anything that could interfere with the bird’s ability to fly and hunt for food.
He showed on his phone an example of data gathered from a hawk with a transmitter, which showed the time it spent in the woods and fields near Cape May and when it crossed the Delaware Bay heading south. There was a blank area where there were few cell towers, and then it could be seen farther south on the Delmarva peninsula.
According to Mullock, the project will cost about $100,000, funded by participating organizations and a $25,000 donation from a local family.
Mullock worked on the creation of the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May, housed in a former rectory that was likely to otherwise be demolished.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph ran the retreat center in Cape May Point for more than a century. The iconic white building with a red roof is almost as well known a local landmark as the nearby lighthouse.
The religious order announced in 2016 that the retreat would close and its intention of returning the property to nature. The plan was to be open for the summer of 2021, but those plans changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Therefore, we bring our ministry at Saint Mary by-the-Sea to a close. These are difficult words to express and absorb,” read a statement from the religious order in February 2021. By that November, Mullock announced a new plan to preserve the building as a science center.
The Mullock family renovated and preserved the Chalfonte Hotel in Cape May and Cape May National Golf Club. Mullock is a former Cape May Point Borough Commissioner, and his son Zack Mullock is the mayor of Cape May. The Chalfonte is more than 140 years old.
Bob Mullock and his son Dillon are leading the effort on the science center. As planned, it will include space for environmental organizations, displays on history and the environment and photos of local wildlife captured by Dennis Flanagan, which are already on display.
Burcher is a scientist, but not a biologist. He said he obtained his doctorate in nuclear physics at the University of Tennessee, working for a time in California.
He grew up spending his summers on the Jersey Cape.
“Cape May Point has always been special to me,” Burcher said. “During the pandemic, I was working remote here. I just didn’t want to leave again. So I made a career switch.”
Cellular Tracking Technologies was looking for engineers to help design new trackers, he said.
Bob Mullock spoke about the center’s placement along the migratory routes for raptors, monarch butterflies and dragonflies, and its place between the Atlantic Ocean and the mouth of the Delaware Bay.
“There’s another migration that happens right here,” he said, pointing toward the ocean. Sharks, dolphin, whales and other marine species migrate, Mullock said.
He said the science center will work to learn more about those migrations, describing it as urgent to establish a baseline that could show the impact of planned wind power projects off the coast.
The famous U-shaped building includes about 150 rooms on three stories, with dramatic views over the dunes to the water from the upper floors. Mullock sees the structure as important to the community and to history, including Black history.
“There’s another migration that happens right here,” he said, pointing toward the ocean. Sharks, dolphin, whales and other marine species migrate, Mullock said.
He said the science center will work to learn more about those migrations, describing it as urgent to establish a baseline that could show the impact of planned wind power projects off the coast.
The famous U-shaped building includes about 150 rooms on three stories, with dramatic views over the dunes to the water from the upper floors. Mullock sees the structure as important to the community and to history, including Black history.
He envisions the center being self-sufficient and self-funded, and eventually getting grants to help with operations. Also in the works are partnerships with colleges and universities. There is already space in use in the building by a university team gathering ocean data.
The raptor project also includes Conservation Science Global and the Cape May Raptor Banding Project, along with the center and Cellular Tracking Technologies.
While Mullock spoke in the former chapel of the building, which will be the display area of the science center, Trish Miller with Conservation Science Global was in the field, trying to capture a hawk to be fitted with a transmitter.
“We’ve got to get lucky, because they can’t hold the bird for too long. They don’t want to stress the animal out,” Burcher said.
Friday morning was not lucky. Although conditions seemed excellent for seeing hawks, with clear, cool skies for the start of fall, Burcher said the wind was a little too intense.