Thursday, August 13, 2009

Juvenile Shorebirds, Northern Pintail at the State Park

The first juvenile shorebirds I've seen this "fall" (other than Spotted Sandpiper) were at the state park this morning, in the form of 2 Least Sandpipers and one Greater Yellowlegs. A Brown Pelican flew by, American Kestrel and Belted Kingfisher flew over, and there were more egrets around than there have been recently. A nearly grown juvenile Piping Plover was on the second plover pond. Another highlight was an early female Northern Pintail on Bunker Pond.

I hear that over at Hidden Valley the walk this morning had 4 American Kestrels and 5 Blue Grosbeaks, among other highlights.

I also learned today that the White Pelican reported on Tuesday was photographed from a boat later that day by a different observer as it was standing on a mud flat in Swain's Channel, behind Two Mile Beach. Photos hopefully will follow.

The full list from this morning's walk at the state park follows.

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/13/09
Notes: CMBO Bird Walk for All People
Number of species: 58

Canada Goose 2
Mute Swan 8
Mallard 10
Northern Pintail 1
Brown Pelican 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 8
Snowy Egret 2
Green Heron 2
Glossy Ibis 12
Turkey Vulture 5
American Kestrel 1
Semipalmated Plover 8
Piping Plover 1 juv
Killdeer 2
American Oystercatcher 1
Spotted Sandpiper 2 juv
Greater Yellowlegs 2 1 juv
Lesser Yellowlegs 4
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Sanderling 20
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 15 2 juvs
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 5 pre-walk
Laughing Gull 50
Ring-billed Gull 2
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Least Tern 35
Common Tern 50
Forster's Tern 10
Royal Tern 5
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 10
Chimney Swift 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Fish Crow 35
Purple Martin 50
Tree Swallow 5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 20
Carolina Chickadee 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 3
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 10
Yellow Warbler 5
American Redstart 2 pre-walk
Northern Cardinal 2
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Common Grackle 5
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 8
House Sparrow 10

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