The chatter of an Orchard Oriole greeted me as I left the CMBO Center for Research and Education in Goshen late in the afternoon. It turned out to be an adult male. This species has already been reported this year in northern NJ, but this is the first one I've heard of in Cape May county.
[Reminder: CMBO CRE on Route 47 in Goshen is temporarily closed to the public except for special events. However, visitors are welcome to explore the grounds there.]
Thinking I would take advantage of a nice evening, I bicycled from my home on the sunny Delaware bayshore over to Stone Harbor. It was was a different world east of the Garden State Parkway, as it sometimes is, one encased in dense fog thanks to a stout onshore wind. The wind right now seems to be south-southwest and is forecast to stay southwest all night. Expect more migrants tomorrow, as David laPuma's birding forecast says, although unless a storm grounds them, new birds will be dispersed.
The new moon is not until Saturday, but there was an exceptionally high tide tonight thanks to the wind, and even in the fog shorebirds were evident along the Stone Harbor causeway and Nummy Island, primarily Greater Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitchers, Willets, Dunlin, and Black-bellied Plovers. I also heard one of the sharp-tailed sparrows give 2-3 flight calls on Nummy Island.
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