CAPE MAY POINT - The nation's efforts to protect endangered species are well-known. Witness the attention the bald eagle has received in recent years. Game species, such as deer and bear, get a fair amount of attention, too, thanks, in part, to fees paid by hunters and fishermen.

But, a lot of other wildlife tends to get "lost in the woods," as it were, raising fears that they, too, could someday become endangered.

Last week, a group of conservationists from the public and private sectors gathered here, one of the great birdwatching spots in the nation, to urge steps to prevent that from happening. "It's a lot more expensive to protect an endangered species than it is to keep one off the list," said Rachel Brittin, a spokeswoman for the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the national group that sponsored the gathering. "New Jersey supports one of the most important and largest wildlife migration spectacles in the world, as more than 60,000 hawks and raptors, and one million songbirds visit Cape May each fall," said Dave Chanda, director of the state's Division of Fish and Wildlife, part of the Department of Environmental Protection. "It is up to us to ensure these wildlife and the places they live remain healthy for future generations to enjoy."

As Chanda and others watched from the hawk stand at Cape May Point State Park last week, a "kettle" of raptors circled above, a group that included sharp-shinned hawks, an American kestrel, and an osprey, spiraling upward on thermal currents.

Seven years ago, Congress asked each state to draw up a Wildlife Action Plan. Congress also established a grant program to help the states implement their plans and prevent wildlife from becoming endangered. The plans are done but the gap between what's needed to implement them and what's been provided is substantial, various officials said. An additional $1 billion is needed, above and beyond the $200 million to $300 million provided by the federal government to date, to implement the plans, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies estimates.

For New Jersey, that additional funding would translate into something closer to $19 million a year. The state now gets $1.1 million a year in State Wildlife Grants, Chanda said. The main focus of New Jersey's wildlife action plan is doing the research necessary to know where various species are and how they're doing.

That's where volunteers such as Patti Hodgetts comes in. Hodgetts, a West Cape May resident who works for the N.J. Audubon Society, is a bird bander. Not to be confused with bird watchers, banders are specially trained and permitted to trap birds in large nets for observation and marking. Working in the woods of the state park here last week, Hodgetts removed a songbird that had flown into one of the nets she had set up, an expanse of fine mesh about 15 yards long and 3 yards tall, stretched between two poles.

Removing the bird from the net was like taking it out of a pocket, and the bird, a young gray catbird, put up surprisingly little resistance as Hodgetts cradled it between her fingers. "As long as you're calm, they're calm," Hodgetts said, carrying the bird to a nearby table.

There she measured its wing length ("a good indication of size"), checked the tail feathers, which told her this is "definitely a young bird," and blew the feathers out from around the neck and breast to check for the presence of fat. "It looks a little yellowish," noted David Mizrahi, research director for N.J. Audubon, indicating the youngster had accumulated some fat.

Hodgetts placed the bird in a nylon bag before placing it on a scale for weighing. After closing a numbered aluminum band around a leg -- useful if the bird is trapped again or "recovered" -- Hodgetts set it free. "This is the starting point," Chanda said, "a place where we get the data we need to develop a plan."

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