Nuthatches, kites and more...

Cape May really bounced back today with treats at both ends of the county. South of the canal, there was no news today on yesterday's Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, but a report came in of a Brown-headed Nuthatch seen briefly in the south-west corner of the first field at The Beanery. This follows reports of the same species at the state park a couple of weekends ago, and one heard calling just off Seagrove Avenue last Thursday. All these reports may well refer to the same individual, so it is certainly worth keeping an ear out for the distinctive 'squeeky toy' call of this endearing little bird. There is only two fully documented records of Brown-headed Nuthatch so a lot of people are going to be looking for this one I reckon.

Also at the point today, the Western Grebe was reported off St Mary's and a Cave Swallow was feeding over Lighthouse Pond East with several Cliff Swallows. Meanwhile, up at Belleplain State Forest, a Mississippi Kite showed superbly to an admiring crowd after Matt Webster sent out news of one perched atop a dead tree, right beside Sunset Road. Being in Belleplain myself today, I was actually less than a half mile from the bird when the news broke, so we were able to show this wonderful southern wanderer to the participants of our Spring Shorebirds & Southern Breeders workshop. The kite headlined a great day in the field today as we enjoyed good views of most of the Belleplain specialties and also enjoyed a great afternoon at Heislerville, studying shorebirds and enjoying a session with NJA's research team who were busy continuing their studies into the sadly declining population of Semipalmated Sandpipers that passes through our region. Seeing these birds close-up and in the hand makes you realize just how amazing a feat is performed by these tiny waifs as they push on north from wintering grounds in Brazil to breeding grounds on the Arctic tundra. Adding an educational element to your birding is, of course, what we at CMBO are all about, so if you want to really get the most from your birding, do consider coming on some of our events and become part of the Cape May Family - check out our calendar of events, or treat yourself to a last minute booking on our fabulous Cape Maygration spring festival!

Acadian Flycatchers can be elusive at times and spend much of their time in deeply shaded forest, but this one performed perfectly for our workshop group today [photo by Mike Crewe].

We were seeing red in more ways than one at Belleplain today as we enjoyed great views of singing Scarlet Tanagers at a number of places today [photo by Mike Crewe].

The slightly more subtle red tones of Summer Tanagers were also enjoyed today - at one location we found three males and a female all congregated at the same spot and this one was calling relentlessly and looking down at the ground, which tempted us to suggest that perhaps a snake had been located there [photo by Mike Crewe].

 

This very obliging male Hooded Warbler was singing from high up in a White Oak and gave unusually good views to our workshop group [photo by Mike Crewe].

Today's highlight for me was a close encounter with this perched Mississippi Kite along Sunset Road in Belleplain [photo by Mike Crewe].

 

At Heislerville, the variety of birds seems to increase almost daily. This group of Black Skimmers was performing amazing synchronised fishing trips across the main impoundment today [photo by Mike Crewe]

Sometimes birds just seem to be having too much fun! These Short-billed Dowitchers spill the air off their wing surfaces as they pitch in to the main impoundment at Heislerville today - I love the one who has been caught upside down with his feet in the air!

 

Keep an eye out! This Brown-headed Nuthatch was photographed in South Carolina, but it gives you a clear picture of what to look out for around the point right now. Note the brown cap which extends down to just below the eye, without there being a pale supercilium. Note also the white 'thumb mark' up the back of the head.

Rain didn't stop play...

Saturday turned out to be a real rotter in New Jersey as waves of lashing rain swept across the state and brought thunderstorms to many areas. Saturday was also the day of the 30th World Series of Birding too of course - but the weather really didn't dampen the spirits of the participants and, once again, a great day was had by all.

As luck would have it, many teams seemed able to duck out of the worst of the weather and the heaviest downpours were mostly short-lived. Having taken part in the CMBO Century Run again this year, I can attest to the mucky weather, but we did have some gloriously sunny spells too and there was - as always - a great variety of birds to be sought. It's fair to say that the weather put paid to a good run of migrants this year to help boost team totals, but the cumulative total of 254 species seen in the state on the day by participating teams demonstrates that, even when the weather doesn't bring us a magical fall of migrants, New Jersey still plays host to a remarkable number of bird species.

Perhaps above all else, this year's World Series will be remembered for its youth teams; this competition has for many years been recognised for its great youth participation and this year was to be a year when a youth team romped home and stole the show. Upper Main Line YMCA's BB Kingfishers raced to the finishing line with an excellent total of 186 species recorded in New Jersey between soggy downpours, winning themselves a place in the record books. Other teams put on a magnificent showing too, not least of which were some of the carbon footprint teams who showed great presence of mind in using foot power and bicycle to demonstrate that you can still see a remarkable number of bird species around Cape May without the need to drive everywhere. All the results can be found via the World Series of Birding section of our website.

Of course, the seemingly inevitable cruel twist of fate meant that the sun shone beautifully today and those present at the World Series of Birding award ceremony were able to enjoy a trio of magnificent southern visitors afterward. News broke of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher along Seagrove Avenue and this was swiftly followed by brief but much appreciated visitations from both Mississippi and Swallow-tailed Kites at the point.

Cape May delivers the very best of birding yet again!! If you haven't booked already, get in touch with us as soon as you can and book yourself a place on next weekend's Cape Maygration event - the birds are here, why would you want to be anywhere else?!!

It's certainly proving to be a great spring for Swallow-tailed Kites at Cape May, as this beauty cruised gracefully over Coral Avenue at Cape May Point this afternoon [photo by Mike Crewe].

I am sure that better photos of today's Scissor-tailed Flycatcher along Seagrove Avenue will come to light in due course. But for now, here's a couple of snap shots of this amazing species [photos by Mike Crewe].

World Series Here We Come!!!

The 30th World Series looms before us; birders will be in bed early tonight (or perhaps not at all!) preparing for one second after midnight - when the countdown stops and the counting begins! As a fitting lead-in to the event, Mother Nature smiled on us last night, spun us a nice run of South-westerly winds and dumped a multitude of many-colored birds on us! Higbee Beach and many other locations south of the Cape May Canal dripped with warblers today, as well as a mass of Scarlet Tanagers and Baltimore Orioles. Flycatchers, grosbeaks, cuckoos and thrushes were all in the mix and conditions look set for a much healthier World Series than I was fearing.

At last night's Swapmeet at Goshen, teams exchanged information and a break day of latest sightings is given at the following page on our website:

http://www.njaudubon.org/Portals/10/Swap%20Meet%20Notes.pdf

If you are in town to compete, do check out the list for any extra species you may not know about; if you are here just to enjoy the birding, check out the list anyway!

Good luck all - the fun starts now!!

Yaaaayyyy!!!

Warblers are here, and so is the sun - yaaaayyyy!! Maybe I should have mentioned the dreary weather a little sooner, since it seems that as soon as I did, the mists rolled away, the sun shone and the birds moved into town!

Today definitely made promises that we hope will be kept and that is that migrants are on their way. My walk at Cox Hall Creek WMA this morning was accompanied pretty much throughout by the trilling songs of Northern Parulas, a species that seems to be all over the point today. Baltimore Orioles and Yellow-rumped Warblers were present in very good numbers too and, together with the parulas and the local Chipping Sparrows, made up the bulk of the birds there today. A number of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks arrived in the area today and at least one Acadian Flycatcher was at Cox Hall. I heard tell of Black-throated Green, Blackpoll and Blackburnian Warblers at several places today, a Swallow-tailed Kite was seen passing over Stevens Street and a male King Eider (presumably our itinerant bird from last winter) drifted past St Mary's - beware the male Common Eider that was also photographed at the same location today. There was brief discussion today of a Whiskered Tern at Bunker Pond but Will Kerling's photos showed that the bird was an unusually dark Common Tern.

A little further away from the point, a Red Phalarope was reported from Brigantine yesterday (8th) and the Wilson's Phalarope seems still to be lurking among the wader flocks at Heislerville.

This molting female Red Phalarope was at Brigantine on 8th and attracted a number of happy photographers [photo by E J Nistico]

Shorebirds are coming through in good numbers now, including Lesser Yellowlegs.... [photo by Beth Polvino]

....Black-bellied Plover.... [photo by Beth Polvino]

.... and Least Sandpipers.... [photo by Beth Polvino]

It's been a great day for enjoying Northern Parulas at Cape May Point today, and often up close and personal such as this one at the Northwood Center [photo by Mike Crewe]

One more parula, one less forktail! This Northern Parula snatched a recently-emerged damselfly this afternoon. There's no color yet in the insect to help with identification but size and shape suggests that it is a forktail species [photo by Mike Crewe]

Today's word - Emergence

The word for today is emergence. It's a really great word and one which, I reckon, really sums up spring. Winter's cold spell puts so much into dormancy and both animals and plants need to find ways to survive this chilly period. They achieve this mostly by shutting themselves off from the environment, either by forming tough, protective outer layers, or by hiding themselves away in the ground or in dark, out of the way places (or both!). Depending on their method of shutting down to survive, increasing day length or increasing temperatures will be needed to bring them out of this torpid state - and sometimes a combination of both.

As I poke around Cape May County, emergence is certainly a word that constantly comes to mind as spring gradually throws the heavy shawl of winter off the countryside; plants emerge from the ground as if by magic, flowers emerge from heavily-protected tree buds, insects emerge from their coccoons and crysalises and birds emerge from eggs. Emergence is taking place everywhere around you, right now, so keep an eye on one or two favorite spots every day and see how the ground turns from bare brown to leafy green and oddball bunches of dead leaves that have been hanging on your trees all winter turn into amazing moths. Check the edges of ponds for dragonflies, emerging from nymph cases that are left gripping the leaves like macabre remains and keep an eye on your backyard birds to see when they start following a regular path with beaks full of juicy insects....

But the word emergence is on my mind for one extra reason this particular year, for it's our turn here in New Jersey for the insanity that is a Periodic Cicada emergence! This is a spectacle that I have never had the opportunity to witness before and the last time it happened around here was in 1996. Spectacular emergences of periodic cicadas are unique to North America and take place as regular as clockwork, based on either a seventeen-year or thirteen-year cycle. These are peculiar periods and scientists generally believe that cycles based on these two prime numbers mean that they create the hardest cycle for potential predatory or parasitic species to mimic. Thus, a potential parasite with an even-number cycle may hit one year, but miss on several others. Each brood of periodic cicada has been given a number - from Brood I to Brood XXIII with most being 17-year species and a few 13-year.

In New Jersey, we get Brood II and Brood X (Brood X is due next in 2021, having emerged last in 2004); Brood II occurs along the East Coast from roughly North Carolina to Connecticut and is perhaps one of the better-known since it affects much of the I-95 corridor from Washington DC to New York. I'm not sure that we will get them out here in Cape May, but I'm hoping. Emergences have been reliably reported in North Carolina, where the soil has reached the magic temperature of 64F - the temperature at which the soil needs to be for an emergence to take place. While there has been many reports of empty nymph cases well north of this, I think these are old cases from last year's annual cicadas, still clinging eerily to tree trunks. So, if you are in the Eastern US, keep an eye out for those crazy red-eyed cicadas and let us know if you have any in your area.

One other thing I ask too: there's quite a bit of sad journalism out there, showing people having fun playing tennis with these insects, as well as any number of 'pest' exterminators looking forward to cashing in on the event by offering their services to rid people of these 'harmful bugs'. While it is true that Periodic Cicadas in large numbers can damage trees as they spend 17 years sucking away at the roots, our ecosystem has evolved to deal with them and healthy trees will survive. At the very most, these guys will give us a certain amount of inconvenience, which I am sure we can live with just once in 17 years right?! Please try and dissuade people from using pesticides (which generally do not specifically target cicadas and will kill friends as well as foe) and, if you do want to protect a valued ornamental in your yard, think about using a hose pipe to push the cicadas off elsewhere, or - if the plant is small enough - you can always use some well-placed netting.

Looking forward to seeing red eyes looking back at me some time soon - but I think we better do something about our soil temperatures first!!

Emerging from its larval exoskeleton, a Dragonhunter prepares to pump up its wings and get airborne. This species will be hunting the Tuckahoe River once we get into June [photo by Mike Crewe].

Freshly emerged moths are fabulous subjects for photography with their unbattered wings still covered in thick scales and their legs and bodies all furry. This Rosy Maple Moth was seen on our Belleplain Wildlife walk last Sunday [photo by Mike Crewe]

Mention spring emergence in plants and few trees offer the remarkable exuberance of a Redbud. The clusters of brilliant cerise flowers burst forth straight from the woody stems, even from the main trunk of older trees. Redbud is not native out here on the coastal plain but is a poplar garden tree [photo by Mike Crewe].

Spring emergence can still be exhilerating even when it is subtle. I found this unfolding Moccasin-flower (or Pink Ladies-slipper Orchid) in local woods last weekend and got a certain satisfaction from knowing that I was almost certainly the first person to witness its emergence. The pink has still yet to develop on the flower and its head still hangs in a protective arch as it pushes up from the sheathing leaves [photo by Mike Crewe].

Recent Bird Sightings
Don't forget to keep a close eye on our eBird link for all the rarity news in the region. This morning saw the point shrouded in mist and fine rain, but a few birds were grounded and a small push of warblers was reported from around Cape May Point this morning. Indigo Buntings and Orchard Orioles have arrived in fair number over the past 24 hours and Chimney Swifts were swarming with mixed swallow and martin flocks to hoover up insects along the dune line at the state park. A Blue-headed Vireo was singing at the Northwood Center midday and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks continue to visit the feeders here. Shorebirds too are heading north and always call more in foggy weather as they try to reorientate. Keep an eye (and ear!) overhead for passing shorebirds, Common Loons and many other birds right now. Rumor has it that we could be getting a SW element to the winds over the next couple of days - birds must surely be on their way!!

5 4 3 2 1....WSB!!

It's time for the final countdown to the 30th World Series of Birding - and what an interesting year it's going to be!! I love the gradual build up that takes place in the run-up to this event; old friends from years past start to drift into town, ready to start scouting for their teams, the stores get even busier than usual as excited birders stop by to pick up bird maps, snacks and catch up on the latest bird gossip.

But you can bet that this year there will be an extra topic of discussion - the East Coast weather! It's fair to say that the weather has been a little unkind to us so far this season, with temperatures well below what we would like to see at this time of year and some decidedly chilly nights - seems like our heating-oil guy is the only one with a smile on his face at the moment! With winds predominantly from the East of late, there's certainly been a shortage of migrants passing our way - but that doesn't mean that Cape May doesn't have birds - Cape May always has birds!

Under rather dreary gray skies, I spent the last couple of days checking a lot of hidden corners around the county ready for Cape May Bird Observatory's Century Run Team. Our team confines itself to Cape May County so we spend time beforehand checking all those hidden corners in the county where that one extra bird species may be lurking. I mention dreary gray skies for a reason, because it is easy to feel down about the weather and yet, the birds are out there. What amazed me today was the sheer exuberance of bird activity at Jakes Landing and it's something that I've noticed before with wetland birds. Many wetland birds seem to have a habit of being active at night and this is at least partly because their life is controlled more by the tides than the hours of daylight. Perhaps because these birds are regularly happy in the dark, they seem to be equally happy in dreary weather and this was the case today. Clapper Rails were amazingly vocal pretty much everywhere that I went today and I chanced across several trotting across roads and showing themselves. At Jakes Landing they were joined by active and vocal parties of Short-billed Dowitchers, Greater Yellowlegs and Willets, while Seaside Sparrows were weezing out their short songs in all directions. A male Northern Harrier breezed by and restless parties of Glossy Ibises and Brant were passing overhead. Similarly, it is often the case that woodland birds remain active for longer through the day when the weather is dull. When the weather is hot and sunny, woodland songsters soon go quiet, but last Sunday, warblers were easy to locate around Belleplain State Forest and we enjoyed some memorable moments with them - especially the wonderfully spiffy male American Redstart that sang and performed in a roadside maple.

So, World Series looms - there may not be too many migrants in town right now, but all the local birds are here and in fine song and in any case, there's another three days to go yet - who knows what might happen!!

If you are not able to take part in the World Series but would like to help, we value each and every pledge that we get. How about giving us a call a pledging a donation to the CMBO Century Run Team, or you could donate to Pete Dunne's Zeiss team if you prefer. Give us a call and help us on our way!

Continuing winter birds

As May dawns upon us it will very soon be time to be wallowing in kaleidoscope of color that comes with any spring migration season in Cape May. But for now, it seems that most of the local rare bird reports involve late winterers still hanging around our area. Purple Finches are currently rubbing shoulders with the first Rose-breasted Grosbeaks of the season at many feeders and one or two American Wigeons and Ring-ducked Ducks lurk on the ponds. Three Hooded Mergansers are still at Brigantine and at least two Fox Sparrows are still visiting feeders in Cape May county.

As far as arrivals are concerned, Heislerville continues to draw the crowds with a long-staying Wilson's Phalarope and up to two Glaucous Gulls - the latter joined by an Iceland Gull on 26th apparently. One or two Long-billed Dowitchers have been noted at both Brigantine and Heislerville as numbers of commoner shorebirds begin to build up now. Two Brown Pelicans were reported passing Cape May Point on 28th and a Gull-billed Tern was at Heislerville on 26th. Red-headed Woodpecker sightings continue to come from Cape May Point so do keep an eye out if you are visiting the Northwood Center.