CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE August 31, 2007

CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE August 31, 2007

You have reached the Cape May Birding Hotline, a service of New Jersey Audubon Societys Cape May Bird Observatory. This weeks message was prepared on Friday August 31, 2007. Highlights this week include sightings of ROSEATE SPOONBILL, AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, BAIRD’S SANPIPER, WILSONS PHALAROPE, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER, LARK SPARROW and YELLOW-HEADED BALCKBIRD.

The long staying ROSEATE SPOONBILL continues at the Brigantine NWR as of 8/27. This bird is still being seen in the gull pond area.

Along with various other species of shorebirds at Brigantine NWR, both WILSONS PHALAROPE and RED-NECKED PHAROPE were observed in the southwest pool on 8/29.

Also, in the southwest pool on 8/27, was one BAIRDS SANDPIPER and an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. On 8/26 an amazing 40 HUDSONIAN GODWITS were observed at Brigantine NWR.

Continuing at Brigantine, the AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN was seen on 8/27 thru 8/29.

Also, on the north dike at Brigantine, a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD was observed in a flock of Red-winged blackbirds on 8/25 thru 8/27. The bird was reported to be an immature male or female.

Here in Cape May, the minor invasion of RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES continues. Reports are from various locations in Cape May County. As many as eight individuals were observed at Higbee Beach WMA on 8/28.

A GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER made a brief appearance at Higbee Beach WMA on 8/28.

The BAIRDS SANDPIPER that had been frequently seen on Bunker pond was last reported on 8/26.

Also at the Cape May Point State Park, on 8/22, a BUFF-BREASTED SANPIPER made a brief appearance. Another of this species was observed briefly at Stone Harbor, yesterday, 8/30.

Lastly, a LARK SPARROW was observed on the CMBO Villas WMA walk on 8/26. This is just one of a hand full of Lark Sparrow reports that have come in the last few weeks.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

CMBO is offering a special to new and upgraded membership renewals. Join CMBO for the first time or upgrade from Individual or Family to The Hundred and receive Charley Harpers Migration Mainline- Cape May lithograph poster, valued at $50. Call either CMBO center to ask an associate about joining today!

CMBO Bookstore hours are as follows; Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point has returned to a seven day a week schedule. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday- Sunday 9:30- 4:30.

The Cape May Birding Hotline is a service of the New Jersey Audubon Societys Cape May Bird Observatory and details sightings from Cape May, Cumberland, and Atlantic Counties. Updates are made weekly. Please report sightings of rare or unusual birds to CMBO at 609-884-2736. Sponsorship for this hotline comes from the support of CMBO members and business members, and should you not be a member, we cordially invite you to join. Individual membership is $35 per year; $45 for families. You can call either center to become a member or visit. Become a member in person and you’ll receive a FREE gift (in addition to member discount in the stores).

Good Luck and Good Birding!

CMBO Hidden Valley walk

"Well, I was planing on walking Hidden Valley anyway", I said to myself as I arrived to find the tiny parking lot almost full. There was one spot open and I grabbed it.

It has been some time since I've walked in the "valley" and I decided to head there today because it can sometimes be good when migration conditions were not the most favorable over night.

When I realized I recognized some of the cars in the lot, it dawned on me that this was a CMBO walk taking place. Still, I was happy to see cars especially at Hidden Valley as I think this spot is too under-birded anyway. Since this was a CMBO walk I figured that once I caught up to the group I might just hang in the back and adopt a few birding partners for the morning.

All in all a nice morning, nothing earth shattering to report. In fact a relatively low diversity but there were good numbers of Eastern kingbirds (still) and many Baltimore and a few Orchard orioles.

Below is a short report from George Myers of birds seen at Higbee Beach WMA on Wednesday 8/29.

"Some observations from Higbee Beach Wed morning 8/29, 7-9:15AM. A decent flight of 35+ Baltimore Orioles and several Red-eyed Vireos, along with 100+ Eastern Kingbirds. Also 4 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 3 American Redstarts, and singles of Ovenbird, Veery, Tennessee Warbler, and Northern Waterthrush."


Location:Cape May - Hidden Valley Ranch
Observation date: 8/30/07
Number of species: 27
Wood Duck 2
American Kestrel 2
Mourning Dove 18
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Northern Flicker 16
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 285
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Blue Jay 6
Purple Martin 1
Tree Swallow 7
Barn Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 8
American Robin 16
Gray Catbird 3
Northern Mockingbird 4
European Starling 33
Cedar Waxwing 99
Common Yellowthroat 1
Northern Cardinal 8
Bobolink 30
Common Grackle 23
Orchard Oriole 2
Baltimore Oriole 18
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Great Gray Greetings from the Grand Tetons

I'd been whining for a week because I was going to be out of Cape May for the last week of August and the first week of September - warbler time. I'm off on a "business trip" - leading a tour to the Great Yellowstone Ecosystem for NJAS. NJAS, by the way, has an excellent tour program - you can learn more at http://www.njaudubon.org/Travel/ToursHome.html.

Anyhow, here I am, stuck in the Grand Tetons near Jackson Hole scouting for the tour, which starts Saturday. One of the most sought after birds in the mountain west is Great Gray Owl, because they are a) magnificent and b) elusive. Finding any owl requires current local knowledge, something we didn't really have. Luckily, "we" includes Sean Grace, Director of NJAS's Plainsboro Preserve, who lived out here for several years, and even more serendipitously, we ran into an old friend of Sean's on the streets of Jackson who knew a little bit about where Great Grays might be found.

Sean's friend gave us a road name on the Teton Front Range - a road that was about 30 miles long. Well, that narrows it down, doesn't it? I decided to go scout the road tonight while Sean "networked" with some other old friends at the local brewpub.

The sun was already behind the Tetons when I reached the recommended area, and I just drove, looking for areas where rich montane forest edged up to the road. Just stay positive when you're looking for a bird, and I tried, reminding myself that Great Gray fledglings were flying well now and begging actively of their parents. They should respond to hooting.

I found a spot that had an elevated vantage over a douglas fir-lodgepole pine - trembling aspen hollow, and figured it looked good. So I conjured up my best version of a Great Gray's deep "hwoof, huwoof, huwoof" - and immediately a "squeeh-ya" was launched from the grove. A fledgling Great Gray!! By walking up and down the road I pinpointed the sound, and miraculously detected a spot of gray against green that the bins revealed was a full grown fledgling Great Gray, opening his mouth wide periodically with its plaintive cry. Scope views for one (me) followed. I dearly hope, and dearly doubt, I'll be able to reproduce this for the tour, but sure will try. If I do, I suggest signing up for the Tanzania trip we'll be running next February - with luck like this, great things await in Africa!

CMBO Cape May Point State Park walk

This was emailed to me by Karl Lukens, re. the CMBO Cape May Point walk this morning.


"Still nice shore birds in Bunker pond although less than in previous days, and the Baird's Sandpiper was not to be found.

Land birds rather slow but a house Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Baltimore Oriole, and numerous Kingbirds made it interesting. One Wilson's Snipe also flushed along the Yellow Trail."


SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP
8/29/2007 ~ in Cape May Point ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 67 seen


Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 3
Snowy Egret 3
Tricolored Heron 1
Mute Swan 8
Canada Goose 20
Mallard 20
Blue-winged Teal 6
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 3
Merlin 1
American Oystercatcher 3
Semipalmated Plover 10
Killdeer 1
Wilson's Snipe 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 3
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Sanderling 20
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 20
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 20
American Herring Gull 8
Laughing Gull 20
Least Tern 3
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 10
Royal Tern 45
Black Skimmer 3
Rock Pigeon 15
Mourning Dove 8
Chimney Swift 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 4
Eastern Kingbird 6
Tree Swallow 20
Purple Martin 1
Barn Swallow 4
Cedar Waxwing 5
Carolina Wren 4
House Wren 1
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
American Robin 1
Carolina Chickadee 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 1
European Starling 10
House Sparrow 10
White-eyed Vireo 1
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 5
Yellow Warbler 2
Northern Waterthrush 1
Northern Cardinal 6
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Baltimore Oriole 1

Migrants around and nobody there to watch the Golden-winged warbler

As it turns out the birding was quite good at Higbee beach this morning. In fact yesterday morning was not that bad either. Sure slower by a bit but still good biring. When I woke up this morning and turned on The Weather Channel (yes, that's the first thing I do in the morning. Don't act like most of you out there don't check to see what the weather/winds are like in the morning at this time of year.) I was surprised to see that they we saying NNW at 6 mph. Given the way things had been I was expecing a NE to SE direction wind.

What surprised me more was that there was only one car in the parking lot at Higbee when we arrived just after 7 a.m. I said to myself, surely there is a rare bird around and everyone is there looking at the bird! I know it's a regular work weekday for everyone else in the world pretty much, but I expected there to be a few more cars.

Well either way, if you weren't able to catch the small fight this morning make sure you keep watching the weather channel and checking out the Birding Forecasts http://www.birdcapemay.org/forecast/ because this weekend looks like it could shape up to be pretty good. Saturday especially.

By the way, make note that the "official' Hawkcount and Morning Flight start in earnest on this Saturday Sept. 1. I can't believe that it's Sept. already. If you don't know what the hawkcount or Morning Flight is, check out these pages on BirdCapeMay.org; http://www.birdcapemay.org/hawkwatch/ and http://www.birdcapemay.org/morningflight/

With the winds still from the NNW when we left the island, there may possibly be a little hawk flight today. I heard that there was a nice assortment of hawks over Cape May yesterday. Heck in the WNW winds on Sunday, when we went to look for the Baird's sandpiper, we had a few hawks up and circling. I guess it's just that time of year.

So, for the birding today, there are still good number of kingbirds around. Today also brought a good flight of Baltimore orioles and Red-eyed vireos as well. The birds of the day for me were a beautiful breeding male Golden-winged warbler and a Warbling vireo. We were able share the Golden-winged with only one other person!

So as per usual the list of species is below. The second list is from yesterday 8/27. I wasn't able to enter my numbers into eBird as they were doing some server maintenance. So, I figured that I'd post it along with today's list.

One more note, the numbers today by all means are very conservative estimates. It was very difficult to keep track of the individuals moving around. In fact eBird has a few excellent articles on their site about counting/estimating bird numbers. In my opinion a must read, especially for anyone who is currently or contemplating entering data into eBird. There is also a great article about how you classify the data you submit. Here are a couple of the links. http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/CasualObs.html, http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/Bird_Counting.html

Remember to watch the weather and get out this weekend! Heck, get out even if it doesn't look great weather wise. You never know what you'll tern up. Make sure to at least hit your favorite local patch.



Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/28/07
Number of species: 49
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Snowy Egret 2
Laughing Gull 18
Rock Pigeon 4
Mourning Dove 12
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 3
Least Flycatcher 1- We had a good 6-8 un-id Empids around today. By no means am I an expert in flycatchers plus they didn't give very good looks. In fact, I'm going to do a little brush up reading right now.
Great Crested Flycatcher 26
Eastern Kingbird 280
White-eyed Vireo 12
Warbling Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 42
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 18
Barn Swallow 4
Carolina Chickadee 8
Tufted Titmouse 4
Red-breasted Nuthatch 8
Carolina Wren 8
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 10
Veery 3
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 22
Blue-winged Warbler 4
Golden-winged Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 9
American Redstart 21
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 3
Yellow-breasted Chat 2
Northern Cardinal 9
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3
Bobolink 35
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Common Grackle 8
Baltimore Oriole 24
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/27/07
Number of species: 37
Great Egret 4
Cooper's Hawk 1
Laughing Gull 12
Mourning Dove 8
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 368
White-eyed Vireo 4
Red-eyed Vireo 2
American Crow 1
Tree Swallow 13
Barn Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 4
Carolina Wren 12
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Veery 1
American Robin 2
Northern Mockingbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 15
Blue-winged Warbler 5
Yellow Warbler 2
Magnolia Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 5
American Redstart 9
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Bobolink 65
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Baltimore Oriole 2
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 3
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

Lark Sparrow and Dickcissel Photos from Villas and Beanery

[Dickcissel on Saturday's CMBO Beanery walk. Photo by George Myers.]

George Myers got these photos of Saturday's Beanery Dickcissel and Sunday's Villas Lark Sparrow:

[Lark Sparrow at Villas, first discovered by Sean Bamford on CMBO walk. Photo by George Myers].

From the Northwood Center sightings log

Finally got to see the Baird's sandpiper. Whew! Thought that I had forgotten how to tell what they looked like.

Since I have not been able to get the hotline done for this week, I thought that I'd at least post some of the more interesting sightings from the last couple of days.

Dickcissel- 8/25- Beanery
Baird's sandpiper (of course!)- 8/26- Bunker pond
Western sandpiper- same as above
3 Upland and 3 Buff-breasted sandpiper- 8/25- out of county, Johnson's Sod Farm
Lark sparrow- 8/26- CMBO Villas WMA walk
2 Upland sandpipers (fly overs)- 8/26- Cape May point State Park
Also at the park today;
Long-billed dowitcher
4 Black terns
Yellow-bellied flycatcher
Yellow-breasted chat- 8/26- Higbee
Worm-eating warbler- 8/26- Higbee

Parking lot plovers and Long-billed Dowitcher

[Semi-palmated Plover in the parking lot, Cape May Point State Park today. Photo by Don Freiday]

I planned to meet a friend at Cape May Point State Park this morning, and arriving a little early at 6:45 a.m. I noticed some little brown "House Sparrows" foraging in the parking lot. They were only sparrows until they flew ahead of the car, and I thought, gee they have long tails, they look almost like semi-plovers. Which is what they were, 6 of them, wandering the lot and drinking from the puddles.

We walked the park trails, and yup, we found the Baird's Sandpiper again (sorry, Jason!). If you try for the Baird's, make sure you check the southeast corner of Bunker Pond. There's a spot where you walk a bit to the inland side of the first plover pond and there's a break in the bayberry lining the pond, with that wet grassy habitat that Baird's likes so much. While we were watching the Baird's, two Upland Sandpipers flew over, calling.

A Long-billed Dowitcher was very cooperative at the "shorebird island" and penninsula on Bunker Pond, near the hawk watch, posing for a photograph:

[Long-billed Dowitcher, adult well along to winter plumage, with two juvenile Short-billeds in front. Note the Long-billed's rounder body and overall sooty appearance, and that wash of reddish still retained on the undertail coverts. Photo by Don Freiday).

Click Here for Tide, Moon, Sun Rise/Set Information- A User's Guide

Many may have noticed a new link at the top of the page (just below the hotline phone number) and some may have even attempted to navigate the link to find out the tide information for Cape May.

As well, many by now may have realized that this tide site is one that has been mentioned on View from the Cape before; http://www.saltwatedtides.com/. In an effort to make your Cape May visitation research easier we wanted to provide an easy to use tide chart but found that various options which would refresh on their own were to cumbersome or did not allow for the intuitive use we were looking for in a tide site. So, I wanted to give a quick "how to navigate" guide to the website we are using.

I was first introduced to this particular tide site when I was doing Red knot surveys along the gulf coast of Florida and have been using it ever since. I personally find that it is very easy to use with a significant number of sites available for most any of the places I've been where I wanted to know tide information.


So, what I have done is to create a quick tutorial so that you can get a brief understanding of how this particular site works. After this it's up to you to play with the settings on the site and gather your own tide information.

To start, click the link at the top of the page. i.e. "Click here for Tide, Moon, Sun Rise / Set Information." A new window should open which shows the Saltwatertides.com site. At the bottom of this "home page" click the "tide" link. i.e. "Onwards to the tide region selection page."

Now follow the instructions to the side of each picture and you'll get tide information for where ever you may choose.



After you click the "tide" link you will see a list of states offered. Obviously we will be choosing New Jersey. NOTE: click on the picture and the image will enlarge in a new window for better viewing.








Here we scrolled down the list of sites for the State of New Jersey. You may notice that the list of sites starts at the northern coast of NJ and follows down to Cape May and then back up the Delaware Bay cost of NJ. This is important to note for any state for which you may be researching tide. In this example we have chosen "Cape May, Atlantic Ocean" found just above the "Delaware Bay" section. Notice the circle is filled in with a little green dot.





Next it's time to choose the month in which you are looking for tidal information. Also, choose the day of the month and the number of days for which you want tide information. Here we've chosen August 2007. We are looking for tide tables starting on the 25th day of the month and running for the full 14 days. Now you simply click the "Get Tides" button and up pops the tide information your looking for.




NOTE: you can choose up to 14 days for tides, as well, you can
query many months in advance. If you are thinking about
putting together a WSB team you could look up the tide
information for May 10, 2008.



Now, you have all the tide information you were seeking for the given state and location. You'll notice that not only do you get the high and low tide information; you also get the sunrise and sunset times for the location in addition to the moonrise and set times. Also a nice addition to this chart is the moon phase.







Hopefully after this you have a good grasp of how to navigate this particular tide site. You can hopefully see why we chose this site as well. Good luck and my the tides be in your favor.

Fifth times a......nother strike out!

Well, I am beginning to believe that Baird's sandpiper has been removed from my program. I have tried and tried and have still yet to see this bird. Or, there is the possibility that, as a good friend says about not being able to hear the high pitched birds anymore; it's all a conspiracy against me!

Anyway, the birding was pretty good at the Cape May point State Park this morning. As I've already stated the Baird's was a no show. In fact there were over all lower number of shorebirds period. Still a decent diversity, I had 11 species in my quick walk around the park.

One nice sight was a group of Royal terns sitting on the beach with a mix of Forster's and Common's. Also a hand full of imm. mixed in with adult Laughing gulls. There were a good number terns a gulls over the ocean headed in the direction of the rips. No jaegers were seen by me but it's getting time to be looking for these pirates chasing the gulls and terns around. I remember one day when I was counting hawks here, it was a rainy day so we were sea watching from the covered pavilion, and we had somewhere between 9 and 11 Parasitic jaegers in the area of the rips at one time.

This morning I had to pay special attention to a "dark" tern making a bee line for the rips. While my first impression was that the bird was Black tern the way the bird was flying did not fit my search image for Black tern in flight. What I soon came to realize, once the bird had arrived at the area at which it was wishing to look for food, was that I was watching a Black tern that was in, evidently, determined flight mode. I can't think of a time I have seen Black tern flying with such strength to its wing beats. Usually they have such loopy, loose wing beats they are obvious at some distance. Another lesson.

Other good finds for the morning were; a Northern harrier hanging around toward the back end of Bunker pond. This bird picked up and floated toward TNC's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge but was continuing to gain altitude, migrating? On the back end of the red trail there was a good sized flock of Eastern kingbirds chasing one another around. Also, a good number of Bobolink flying over. My largest singe flock was 140 birds. I totaled 414 but there were probably half that number that passed that I could not locate in the sky. Funny how you can hear "plink" coming from over head and not see a thing. Or, hear one "plink" and find a flock of 50 Bobolink.

One last note; just got a call from George Myers that they had a LARK SPARROW on the CMBO Villas WMA walk this morning. If you have yet to bird the Villas WMA you definitely need to make the trip. It's a very cool place to bird and the walking is extremely easy since the paths are all paved.

As usual the list of species seen today is below.


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/26/07
Number of species: 66
Canada Goose 4
Mute Swan 43
Gadwall 2
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 12
Hooded Merganser 1
Great Blue Heron 2
Osprey 1
Northern Harrier 1
Black-bellied Plover 2
Semipalmated Plover 16
Killdeer 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Sanderling 5
Semipalmated Sandpiper 6
Least Sandpiper 52
White-rumped Sandpiper 2
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Laughing Gull 196
Herring Gull 15
Great Black-backed Gull 36
Royal Tern 36
Common Tern 8
Forster's Tern 35
Least Tern 28
Black Tern 4
Black Skimmer 2
Rock Pigeon 36
Mourning Dove 22
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Kingbird 26
White-eyed Vireo 6
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 4
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 75
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Bank Swallow 4
Barn Swallow 45
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 12
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 3
Northern Mockingbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 8
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 4
Common Yellowthroat 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 414
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Common Grackle 8
Brown-headed Cowbird 32
House Finch 12
House Sparrow 8
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

Baird's still at State Park and reports from Beanery and Meadows

Michael O'Brien checked the state park this morning and said overall shorebird numbers were low but the Baird's Sandpiper was still at Bunker Pond.

Karl Lukens reports the following.

From the meadows /TNC Migratory Bird Refuge Friday night: "Shorebirds are down and water level is up but we did get most of the usual suspects. A couple more ducks showed up including 1 Am. Wigeon, 1 Shoveler, with 2 Blue-wing Teal. 3 Black Terns and 15 Royals in addition to the Common, Forster's and dwindling Leasts were observed.We were also swarmed by ~1000 Tree Swallows."

From the Beanery /Rea Farm this morning: "This morning was rather slow for land birds but we did come up with enough to keep us interested. A female Dickcissel at the winery fence in the back field gave everyone a good look, and 3-4 Blue Grosbeaks were also seen, as well as a Prothonotary Warbler and several Hummingbirds.The Prothonotary was last seen chasing a Baltimore Oriole across the field. A Black-crowned Night-Heron, and 3 Green Herons were also observed."

Karl's full Meadows and Beanery lists are below:

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP
8/24/2007 ~ in Meadow ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 53 seen
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 1
Green Heron 4
Mute Swan 4
Canada Goose 30
American Wigeon 1
Mallard 20
Blue-winged Teal 2
Northern Shoveler 1
Turkey Vulture 1
American Oystercatcher 2
Semipalmated Plover 15
Piping Plover 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 3
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 6
Ruddy Turnstone 6
Sanderling 50
Semipalmated Sandpiper 2
Least Sandpiper 8
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Ring-billed Gull 6
Great Black-backed Gull 35
American Herring Gull 10
Laughing Gull 60
Royal Tern 15
Least Tern 10
Black Tern 3
Common Tern 50
Forster's Tern 10
Rock Pigeon 8
Mourning Dove 6
Chimney Swift 6
Eastern Kingbird 2
Tree Swallow 1000
Purple Martin 20
Barn Swallow 10
Carolina Wren 2
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
American Robin 1
American Crow 1
European Starling 10
House Sparrow 20
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 8
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 3



SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP
8/25/2007 ~ in Beanery ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 41 seen

Great Egret 1
Green Heron 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Canada Goose 30
Mallard 8
Great Black-backed Gull 1
American Herring Gull 1
Laughing Gull 8
Forster's Tern 2
Rock Pigeon 15
Mourning Dove 20
Chimney Swift 3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 4
Tree Swallow 15
Purple Martin 4
Barn Swallow 5
Cedar Waxwing 6
Carolina Wren 6
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
American Robin 4
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 1
American Crow 3
Fish Crow 1
European Starling 20
House Sparrow 20
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 5
Prothonotary Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Northern Cardinal 3
Blue Grosbeak 4
Dickcissel 1
Bobolink 4
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 12
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
Baltimore Oriole 3

30 Shorebirds including Hudwit, plus Spoonbill and how to age backlit peep. . .

[The sleeping bird in the center of this photo, digiscoped backlit at 20 power, was one of the "final exam" quiz birds for our workshop. Click to enlarge - and can you identify it and the surrounding species? After three days of practice, most of the participants could. Photo by Don Freiday].


CMBO's Cape May School of Birding Shorebird Workshop finished today with 30 shorebird (sandpiper and plover) species over the three days of the workshop, and a whole lot of fun was had by all. The Roseate Spoonbill flyby at 8:45 this morning at Brig, from the gull tower, was certainly appreciated by all participants (and myself and Michael O'Brien, since it was a state lifer all around) even if it didn't add to the shorebird list.

I had been wondering if we'd encounter Hudsonian Godwit, given the northeasterly flow and rain for the past few days, and got that wish - sort of. Two Hudwits flew over the south dike at Brig, headed north and calling. Unfortunately not everyone got on them in time, but there was much else to see. Hudsonian Godwits usually migrate to South America by leaving the northeast and flying south across the Atlantic Ocean, so rain and east winds are good conditions to see them.

[Here's an easier chance at the quiz species from above - White-rumped Sandpiper, top center, Photo by Don Freiday. ]


Brigantine was loaded with shorebirds (full list below), especially on our second pass around, when the tide was nearing high and all the salt marsh mud flats and beaches were covered with water. Western Sandpipers piled into the impoundments, and we also extracted 5 Red Knots, a species I feared we had missed for the workshop.

[Red Knot scratching it's chin. Perhaps it's wondering how to age Western Sandpipers. . .Photo by Don Freiday.]






As we worked on our quiz white-rumped, we also picked out backlit Western Sandpipers from the nearby flocks. Michael hazarded that one of them, because it was slender, was a juvenile, which shows you just how far birding by shape and size can take you.

Our Brig list follows; scroll down to see the results from the past two days. Lots of birds, lots of laughing, lots of learning.

Location: E B Forsythe NWR
Observation date: 8/24/07
Notes: CMBO's Shorebird Workshop. With Michael O'Brien. Counts are VERY rough.
Number of species: 74
Canada Goose 50
Wood Duck 2
American Black Duck 50
Mallard 25
Northern Shoveler 10
Green-winged Teal 40
Double-crested Cormorant 200
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 25
Snowy Egret 25
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 25
Roseate Spoonbill 1 First or second year
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 10
Northern Harrier 2
Cooper's Hawk 1 Can't swear this wasn't a Sharpie.
Peregrine Falcon 2
Clapper Rail 5
Common Moorhen 1
Black-bellied Plover 400
Semipalmated Plover 400
American Oystercatcher 20
Greater Yellowlegs 100
Lesser Yellowlegs 100
Willet 5 1 western, 2 juv eastern, 2 u eastern
Spotted Sandpiper 5
Whimbrel 5
Hudsonian Godwit 2 flyovers heading north, may have landed. RElated to northeasterly flow?
Ruddy Turnstone 5
Red Knot 5
Semipalmated Sandpiper 3000
Western Sandpiper 500
Least Sandpiper 50
White-rumped Sandpiper 50 1 adult was nearly full breeding plumage
Stilt Sandpiper 20
Short-billed Dowitcher 800 a few already full winter - lighter gray than long-billeds
Long-billed Dowitcher 50 all adults. Tended to cluster. Wing molt usually evident.
Laughing Gull 500
Herring Gull 700
Great Black-backed Gull 100
Gull-billed Tern 10 several juveniles
Caspian Tern 2
Common Tern 2
Forster's Tern 150
Black Tern 2
Black Skimmer 75
Mourning Dove 10
Eastern Kingbird 5
Fish Crow 50
Tree Swallow 300
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 10
Bank Swallow 10
Carolina Wren 5
Marsh Wren 2
American Robin 5
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 5
Cedar Waxwing 5
Yellow Warbler 10
Common Yellowthroat 5

Sharp-tailed Sparrow sp. 1 If Sibley's right that juv's of this species have few streaks and are brighter than Salt-marsh, then this looked plumage-wise like a Nelson's. However, Michael O'Brien noted, "the juv sharp-tailed sparrow we were looking at looked and sounded like a Saltmarsh to me. The degree of breast streaking is more variable than Sibley indicates and they are often very bright. In terms of bill shape and size (the only solid structural feature I know of), it looked like a Saltmarsh to me. This is probably an under-appreciated ID problem that deserves more attention. For now, though, there's no evidence that Nelson's should be in NJ for another 3-4 weeks."

Seaside Sparrow 10
Song Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 1
Blue Grosbeak 1
Bobolink 20
Red-winged Blackbird 300
Eastern Meadowlark 5
Boat-tailed Grackle 10
Brown-headed Cowbird 10
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

eBird Launches Rare Bird Google Gadget- NOW on BirdCapeMay.org

I was just speaking with Laura the other day about posting that we are working on integrating the new eBird Rare Bird Google Gadget on BirdCapeMay (many of you might have seen this featured as a top story on www.birdingonthe.net).

Now I find out that it's done! Look above this post, click the link and you will be directed to the new gadget which will help to keep you informed of up to the minute rare bird sightings. The default has been set to focus on New Jersey.

So, this is our latest effort in bring you the most innovative birding site available. Keep visiting as we are working on a number of other aspects, which are sure to please.

If you want more info about eBird or the how the new gadget works, use the link provided below.
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/Google_Gadget.html

Shorebird Workshop: Marbled Godwits at Nummy, a Whole Lot of Peep Plus Merlin and Rails at Port Norris

We began day two of CMBO's Shorebird Workshop at the base of the free bridge from Stone Harbor to Nummy Island, on the Nummy Island side, hoping to extract godwits and who knows what else. "We" means me and Michael O'Brien, plus a cast of fun and already quite skilled participants. Leading a shorebird workshop with Michael is a privelege - he wrote the book, literally (The Shorebird Guide, co-authored by Richard Crossley and Kevin Karlson) - and I find myself learning as well as teaching.

Three Marbled Godwits fed on the shoreline across Great Channel, with many dowitchers and other species, but we missed Red Knot, and that means we'll probably miss it for the workshop unless we find one at Brigantine tomorrow, which I've done before but only rarely. The only eastern Willet we saw was out in the marsh near a group of feeding egrets and herons, which happily included several Tri-coloreds, a bird which has declined to my eye in recent years, as well as several Little Blues. Many Western Willets fed along the shore of Great Channel, looking very godwit-like. Check out Michael's article on this site, in Tigrina Times under Field Identification, for info on how to separate Eastern and Western Willets, a likely split sometime soon.

After some time well spent at the Center for Research and Education in Goshen learning from the master (that would be Michael), we headed for Port Norris, hoping to catch the tide right. High tide for Bivalve was forecast for 6:05 p.m., and we were at the Port Norris Strawberry Avenue access from 2:00 to 4:30, which seemed just perfect - when we left the tide had flooded out any shorebird habitat. So 4 hours to 2 hours before high tide, or probably 2 to 4 hours after, seems about right for shorbirding that site. The rising tide made it fun in that shorebirds were continually pushed closer to us, and there was lots of movement.

A perched Merlin greeted us at Port Norris, and later a juvenile Peregrine made life miserable for a patch of Forster's Terns, but the absolute highlight was a juvenile Clapper Rail, still sporting some fuzzy tufts of down, which got itself trapped in a tiny clump of spartina as the tide rose. It proceeded to walk/swim from clump to clump until it reached the concealment of a large patch - within 20 yards of the boardwalk the whole time!

Shorebird wise, the most interesting thing at Port Norris (besided great overall abundance of birds) was the presence of juvenile, and only juvenile, Western Sandpipers, and adult, only adult, semi-palms. The juv. Westerns made for point blank studies from the boardwalk - of course I had no camera with me for either them or the juvenile Ruddy Turnstone that perched, every feather perfect, on the railing with a group of Forster's Terns. As Michael said, "Well, it is a tern-stone". . .

Full lists for Nummy Island and Port Norris are below.


Location: Nummy Island
Observation date: 8/23/07
Notes: CMBO Shorebird workshop, day 2. Tide falling, from between 3 hours to low to 1 hour to low.
Number of species: 43
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Great Egret 10
Snowy Egret 10
Little Blue Heron 3
Tricolored Heron 4
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Glossy Ibis 10
Osprey 5
Clapper Rail 5
Black-bellied Plover 10
Semipalmated Plover 10
American Oystercatcher 25
Greater Yellowlegs 15
Willet 25 1 juv Eastern on the island proper, the rest Westerns along Great Channel/the mussel beds
Marbled Godwit 3
Ruddy Turnstone 10
Sanderling 10
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5
Western Sandpiper 10 adults were all we detected
Least Sandpiper 5
Short-billed Dowitcher 100
Laughing Gull 50
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 20
Caspian Tern 2 adult with begging juv in tow
Royal Tern 10
Common Tern 30
Black Skimmer 10
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 5
Eastern Kingbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Yellow Warbler 2
Magnolia Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 3
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 1 heard (M. O'Brien pointed it out, call note)
Song Sparrow 2
Bobolink 5
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Boat-tailed Grackle 10
House Sparrow 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)


Location: Bivalve - Strawberry Ave.
Observation date: 8/23/07
Notes: CMBO's shorebird workshop.
Number of species: 30
Great Egret 10
Snowy Egret 40
Glossy Ibis 3
Osprey 10 We saw one juv. that had caught itself a fish.
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 2
Clapper Rail 5 Incl one juv that darted grass clump to grass clump as tide rose.
Black-bellied Plover 40
Semipalmated Plover 1000
Greater Yellowlegs 20
Lesser Yellowlegs 20
Willet 1
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Ruddy Turnstone 4 1 juv
Semipalmated Sandpiper 3000 all adults
Western Sandpiper 20 all juvs
Least Sandpiper 20
Short-billed Dowitcher 250 ads and juvs, mostly ads. At least one hendersoni.
Laughing Gull 25
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 25
Caspian Tern 2
Forster's Tern 50
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Eastern Kingbird 5
Purple Martin 10
Tree Swallow 5
Marsh Wren 1
Common Yellowthroat 5
American Goldfinch 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

A foggy start to the day.

Now that the rain has finally broken, for the most part, I figured I'd get out before work to look for a few of these migrants which are being reported and I'm having no luck relocating.

While it was a foggy start to the morning, things were burning off at a good rate. We didn't have a huge amount of time for birding this morning so we decided for a quick jaunt around the Cape May Point State Park. Try as we might, we were unsuccessful at getting any glimpses of the previously seen Buff-breasted or Baird's sandpipers.

Not that it was particularly good conditions for migration, there were a few Yellow warblers in evidence today and still decent numbers of Blue-gray gnatacthers sounding off in the trees. Plenty of "plinking" from Bobolinks above us, none could be counted though, given the fog.

Even thought we might not have had the luck that some other before us had, the birding was still good. And, given a little more time we might have turned up our sought after species. It will be interesting to find out if the CMBO "Birds of Cape May" walk turns up any of those species. Another thought would be to try TNC's CMMBR as the rain might have added enough water to make the property a little more inviting to would be hungry shorebirds.

While the weather for migration doesn't look to promising for this weekend, the positive side is that many species my not move out. Besides, you never know what you may turn up that has slowly been working it's way south. So don't count birding out for this weekend.

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/23/07
Number of species: 49
Mute Swan 16
Mallard 3
Blue-winged Teal 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 12
Snowy Egret 2
Osprey 1
Semipalmated Plover 23
Greater Yellowlegs 8
Lesser Yellowlegs 3
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Sanderling 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 20
Least Sandpiper 45
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 6
Laughing Gull 12
Herring Gull 6
Great Black-backed Gull 4
Royal Tern 2
Common Tern 2
Forster's Tern 16
Least Tern 6
Black Tern 3
Black Skimmer 12
Rock Pigeon 8
Mourning Dove 10
Eastern Kingbird 8
American Crow 2
Purple Martin 22
Tree Swallow 45
Bank Swallow 3
Cliff Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 25
Carolina Chickadee 4
Carolina Wren 6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 6
American Robin 5
European Starling X
Cedar Waxwing 15
Yellow Warbler 4
Northern Waterthrush 1
Northern Cardinal 8
Bobolink X
Red-winged Blackbird 26
Orchard Oriole 1
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow X
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

Excellent Shorebird Flight at Cape May Point State Park

[Baird's Sandpiper, Bunker Pond 8/22/07, photo by Don Freiday]

The first day of CMBO's Shorebird Workshop truly was an extraordinary day of birding - Michael O'Brien and I opted to keep the group in the field for the whole day because the shorebird flight was so strong, perhaps related to the wedge of high pressure oozing in from the Canadian Maritimes. In spite of light rain much of the morning, we compiled a list of 23 shorebird species including Ruff (adult male black molting to winter plumage, flyby only but at length as it darted about trying to figure out where to land), Wilson's Phalarope (juv), Baird's Sandpiper (juv), Buff-breasted Sandpiper (juv), Long-billed Dowitcher (ad), and 30+ White-rumped Sandpipers - all at Cape May Point State Park!! The full list for the day is below - the numbers are conservative, since birds were moving in and out all day. Most of the birds were seen at Bunker Pond

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/22/07
Notes: CMBO Shorebird Workshop. With Michael O'Brien. High building into the area from NE, dense drizzle until ~ 10:00 a.m.
Number of species: 63
Canada Goose 5
Mute Swan 10
Mallard 20
Blue-winged Teal 1 first of fall
Great Egret 10
Snowy Egret 5
Green Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 3
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 5
Black-bellied Plover 1 heard
Semipalmated Plover 20
Piping Plover 4 2 juv, 2 adult
Killdeer 5
American Oystercatcher 3
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 25

Solitary Sandpiper 3
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Upland Sandpiper 1 heard
Sanderling 150
Semipalmated Sandpiper 50
Western Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 200
White-rumped Sandpiper 30
Baird's Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 10
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Buff-breasted Sandpiper 1
Ruff 1 flying around, landing only briefly
Short-billed Dowitcher 20
Long-billed Dowitcher 1
Wilson's Phalarope 1 juv
Laughing Gull 50
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 20
Royal Tern 10
Common Tern 20
Forster's Tern 10
Least Tern 10
Black Tern 6
Black Skimmer 5
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Fish Crow 5
Purple Martin 75
Tree Swallow 1000
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Bank Swallow 10
Cliff Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 50
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 5
Cedar Waxwing 10
Yellow Warbler 10
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Indigo Bunting 5
Bobolink 50
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Brown-headed Cowbird 10
House Sparrow 10
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Norbury's Landing, Birds about Cape May, and a Black Tern Rumination

(Horseshoe crab molt, see below. Photos by Don Freiday)

I had an appointment to meet Sam Galick, the Morning Flight counter-to-be, at Higbee this morning, and so had the opportunity to "enjoy" a whole lot of much needed rain in the gray light of dawn. Two birds kept flying up ahead of me on the lane out to the dike, stopping obligingly in the headlights often enough that I finally checked them with the bins - two Northern Waterthrushes. I could tell they were northerns because they always stopped by still puddles and never fed in the streams of water rushing down the lane, in which case I would have called them Louisianas ;).

I didn't bird much today but Sam did, and reports the following from the State Park:

"2 Northern Shoveler- only landed for a few seconds then took off towards the meadows.
1 Blue-winged Teal
1 Baird's Sandpiper- excellent views in the far east corner of the bunker pond.
6 White-rumped Sandpiper
2 Stilt Sandpiper
5 Royal Tern
8 Black Terns- all were imm. When they are not roosting at the Bunker Pond, try the Lighthouse Pond, they love to pick from there.
3 Caspian Tern

Meadows had 2 Blue-winged Teal and a single Green-winged."

Sam later emailed to up the Black Tern total to 10 on Bunker Pond, which is a good count these days and set me to ruminating. Reading Rick Radis's interview of Rich Kane (published on this web site, in the Migrants and Residents section of Tigrina Times), I stopped at Rich's comment, "Also in the early 1950s, Black Terns some days were in three figures; Black Terns were easy to find."

I fished out my copy of Stone, i.e. Witmer Stone's Bird Studies at Old Cape May, published in 1937, and found this about Black Terns: "There are often only one or two at first but their number increases later so that there used to be as many as one hundred in some years. Over the great meadows north of the Harbor during August there are often many times that number coursing about."

Many times one hundred, and now 10 is a good count. . .you have to ask, what's up with that? Birds of North America Online (I highly recommend a subscription) noted:

"Populations of this tern in North America and Europe have declined markedly, at least since the 1960s. Loss of wetlands on breeding grounds and migration routes is probably a major cause, but food supplies may have been reduced through agricultural control of insects and overfishing in the marine winter range." [Dunn, E. H., and D. J. Agro. 1995. Black Tern (Chlidonias niger). In The Birds of North America, No. 147 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and The American Ornithologists’ Union, Washington, D.C.]

"Our" Black Terns winter mostly in coastal areas along the coast of northern South America, and up into Central America and somewhat in the Antilles. I was also somewhat astonished to read that there apparently was an unsuccessful Black Tern nesting attempt here in NJ!

My birding today was a walk at Norbury's Landing along the Delaware Bayshore, where the early molts of this year's horseshoe crabs are apparent (see photos above and at right). The bayshore is important for migrating shorebirds in fall as well as spring, not to mention other species - below is a list from a couple days ago.

Location: Norbury's Landing
Observation date: 8/19/07
Notes: Light rain. No binoculars.
Number of species: 28
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 5
Green Heron 1
Osprey 5
Bald Eagle 3 2 adults on the sandbar, one third year pursued an Osprey with a fish
Clapper Rail 5 still grunting and clicking
Black-bellied Plover 2 first this fall here
Semipalmated Plover 25 much increased from last visit
American Oystercatcher 1 My first here? Don't remember.
Spotted Sandpiper 5
Ruddy Turnstone 10 Much increased since last visit
Red Knot 1 First of fall here
Sanderling 75
Semipalmated Sandpiper 200
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 150
Herring Gull 5
Forster's Tern 15
Least Tern 5
Black Skimmer 5
Mourning Dove 2
Eastern Kingbird 5
Purple Martin 75 Largest group I've seen here
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 5
Blue Grosbeak 2 1 mile north of landing, chinking and then singing
Red-winged Blackbird 100
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Cape May Meadows are HOT

Before this morning's CMBO walk at TNC's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge even started, we were standing in the parking lot with the group and a sparrow with white in its tail dropped into the ragweed east of the lot. I told the group, "We'll start officially in a minute, but we have a bird to track down. It's a sparrow with white in the tail, and that means whatever it is, it's good."

It turned out to be a frustratingly shy immature Lark Sparrow with an unusual tail pattern apparently due to molt; the tail pattern resembled a Vesper's, but the face pattern certainly did not. It seemed to be missing some inner tail feathers, reducing the white-cornered tail effect.

Most of the folks on the walk did not get a good look at the sparrow, so the adult Bald Eagle that flew over chasing an Osprey while we waited for the sparrow to reappear was a nice consolation bird. We proceeded out the path leading east from the lot looking intently for the sparrow, and I heard a hard zzzt. While I was processing the sound and continuing to search for the Lark Sparrow, Karl Lukens called out, "Dickcissel! Female Dickcissel," and there it was perched up on the reeds to the right of the trail. We all got great scope looks at this bird, and as we watched, a second Dickcissel "zzzt-ed" overhead. Since I heard this morning of a second Lark Sparrow at a feeder in Cape May, we seem to have a bit of a western invasion going on.

Not exactly an invasion, but 8 Green Herons in one small area east of the east trail seems like a lot. Four Green-winged Teal in the plover pond are the first for fall in Cape May that I've heard of, and the swallow accumulation on and along the dunes was impressive.

The full list for the morning, which included a decent selection of shorebirds and enough juveniles thereof to indicate that the juveniles are solidly "in," is below.


Location: South Cape May Meadows
Observation date: 8/20/07
Notes: CMBO's Monday walk
Number of species: 61
Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 2
Mallard 30
Green-winged Teal 4
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 8 Herons and egrets increased again - due to rain or???
Snowy Egret 2
Green Heron 8
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 3
Osprey 4
Bald Eagle 1 adult
Semipalmated Plover 15
Killdeer 1 where'd they all go?
American Oystercatcher 3
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Solitary Sandpiper 2 heard only
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Ruddy Turnstone 3
Sanderling 100
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10
Least Sandpiper 30 many juvs
Pectoral Sandpiper 4
Short-billed Dowitcher 10
Laughing Gull 50
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 15
Great Black-backed Gull 25
Common Tern 5
Least Tern 20
Black Skimmer 5
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 5
Chimney Swift 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Eastern Kingbird 10
White-eyed Vireo 1 heard
American Crow 1
Purple Martin 50
Tree Swallow 1000
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 10
Bank Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 20
Carolina Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 2
Cedar Waxwing 10
Yellow Warbler 10
American Redstart 2 flyovers
Common Yellowthroat 2
Lark Sparrow 1 imm.; weird tail pattern looked like Vesper
Song Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 5
Dickcissel 2 1 female, one called elsewhere while we were watching the female
Bobolink 20
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Brown-headed Cowbird 20
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 20
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Word from Brigantine NWR

Just received a voice mail from Sam Galick who is braving the rainy weather at Brigantine NWR. He reports that the Roseate Spoonbill was putting on quite the show for about 30 or so minuets in gull pond. Anyone who has yet to try for this bird; well, it seems that you still have ample opportunity to add this species to your NJ state list.

Also of note are many species of shorebirds including a Red-necked phalarope (no details about exact location. And a Wilson's phalarope with in the first 1/10 mile of the one way auto loop.

So, anyone wanting to take odds on whether or not Sam will complete the tri-fecta. I'm posting 15:1 odds. Now I'm not a betting man but I've given some good odds.

In all seriousness, now is as great time to be looking for both of the mentioned species. Red phalarope on the other hand, well let's just say that Sam would be having one heck of a day if he did pull off the hat-trick.

Flight after Front Part 2 - Higbee Beach and a bit of the State Park

I was a little surprised to climb the dike at Higbee this morning and find south winds - it had seemed like the high pressure system that created yesterday's northwesterlies was big and strong enough to persist into today, but it apparently wasn't. There was no morning flight to speak of, just occasional flurries of 1-5 warblers popping out of the woods, flying over the dike, and mostly returning to the woods.

A walk about revealed that a few birds had come in overnight, mostly redstarts, Black-and-white Warblers, Yellow Warblers and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, but a tiny smattering of this's and that's led to a decent list of birds with some quality. What was more interesting, perhaps, was that each encounter with another birder would add a species or two to the morning list for Higbee, if not to ours. Different people were finding scattered migrants at different places and different times, and each would say "it was best at thus-and-such spot," but each thus-and-such spot was a different place!

Our better birds included Worm-eating Warbler and both cuckoos, and our best spot was near the lot in the first field. Paul Guris reported a Blackburnian and, if I remember correctly, a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher back by the pond. Richard Crossley turned up a Golden-winged. Other birders reported Blue-winged, Nashville, Black-throated Green, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Canada. . .there were at least 15 species of Warblers at Higbee, but I doubt any single person found them all.

A quick stop at Bunker Pond at the State Park revealed even fewer shorebirds than yesterday - 2 Stilt S.P., 2 dowitchers, maybe 40 peep, Semi-plover, Spotted S.P. , etc. Which still isn't bad for 15 minutes of checking. Sadly, a one-legged Lesser Yellowlegs remains at the pond, he's been there for a few days.

The list below is just ours for Higbee.


Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/19/07
Notes: A little bit of the dike, mostly first field. 2nd day after front, wind s, overcast, occ. v. light rain.
Number of species: 46
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 5
Osprey 2
Semipalmated Plover 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 25
Great Black-backed Gull 5
Mourning Dove 10
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 50
White-eyed Vireo 2
Blue Jay 1
Purple Martin 10
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 5
House Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 15
European Starling 2
Cedar Waxwing 25
Yellow Warbler 10
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 10
American Redstart 25
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 5
Northern Cardinal 5
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 15
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 20
Orchard Oriole 2
Baltimore Oriole 5
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 10
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE August 18, 2007

CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE August 18, 2007

You have reached the Cape May Birding Hotline, a service of New Jersey Audubon Societys Cape May Bird Observatory. This weeks message was prepared on Saturday August 18, 2007. Highlights this week include sightings of ROSEATE SPOONBILL, WHITE IBIS, AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, ARCTIC TERN, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, GRATER SHEARWATER, BAIRD SANDPIPER, and RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH


The ROSEATE SPOONBILL continues to be seen at Brigantine NWR in the gull pond area. The latest sighting of this bird was on 8/16 around 7:00 p.m.

An immature WHITE IBIS found at Brigantine NWR on 8/13 has not been reported again in this area. Though, an imm. ibis was spotted form the Skimmer boat on Sunset Lake in Wildwood on 8/15. Also, an imm. White Ibis was seen flying over the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge on 8/17.

Continuing the Brigantine NWR thread, an AMERICN WHITE PELICAN was spotted over the NWR on 8/11.

A report came in today, 8/18, of an ARCTIC TERN on the beach at the Cape May Point State Park. This sighting has yet to be verified. Keep this bird in mind if you are birding the state park in the next few days.

RED-NECKED PHALAROPE reports continue to come in from Cape May and Brigantine NWR. A juvenile bird flew by the Cape May Point State Park on 8/12. The most recent report of this species from the Brigantine NWR was on 8/11.

A GRETER SHEARWATER was spotted off Cape May Point on 8/10.

An adult BAIRD SANDPIPER was seen on Lighthouse pond on 8/16. There have been no further reports of this bird since the initial sighting.

RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH sightings continue to increase. Three were heard at Higbee Beach this morning, 8/18, and one at CMBO’s Northwood Center.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

CMBO is offering a special to new and upgraded membership renewals. Join CMBO for the first time or upgrade from Individual or Family to The Hundred and receive Charley Harpers Migration Mainline- Cape May lithograph poster, valued at $50. Call either CMBO center to ask an associate about joining today!

CMBO Bookstore hours are as follows; Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point; summer hours, Wednesday- Monday 9:30-4:30. The Northwood Center will be closed on Tuesdays. Starting September 1, the Northwood Center returns to a seven day a week schedule. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday- Sunday 9:30- 4:30. At least one CMBO center will be open everyday to serve our members needs.


The Cape May Birding Hotline is a service of the New Jersey Audubon Society’s Cape May Bird Observatory and details sightings from Cape May, Cumberland, and Atlantic Counties. Updates are made weekly. Please report sightings of rare or unusual birds to CMBO at 609-884-2736. Sponsorship for this hotline comes from the support of CMBO members and business members, and should you not be a member, we cordially invite you to join. Individual membership is $35 per year; $45 for families. You can call either center to become a member or visit. Become a member in person and youll receive your choice of a FREE gift (in addition to member discount in the stores).

Good Luck and Good Birding!

Flight after Front? Yes and No, plus a Black Tern and more on Merlins

That a front passed was completely evident this morning from the dike at Higbee - we could see the clear Canadian air coming in from the north, as visible in this sunrise shot, which points north east. Perhaps it passed too late in the night, perhaps it was too windy (winds were gusting to 20+ from the NW) - whatever the reason, the hoped for passerine flight did not materialize.

"We," by the way, consisted of me, Sam Galick, who will be CMBO's Morning Flight counter this fall, and a little later, Richard Crossley. Collectively we observed perhaps 100 Eastern Kingbirds, 50 Cedar Waxwings, and the barest smattering of warblers including a few redstarts, Northern Waterthrush, Yellow Warbler, and one Louisiana Waterthrush extracted by Richard. The dike's avian highlight was a pre-sunrise male Peregrine, sporting the narrow mustache and pale forehead of a tundra bird, which checked the spoil ponds for shorebirds before continuing north across the canal.

Shorebird numbers at Cape May Point State Park had indeed diminished from previous days, as Paul Lehman predicted in his Birding Forecast, but all the regular species that had been present this week were still available, including a couple Stilt Sandpipers and White-rumpeds. Semipalmted Plovers were definitely more abundant than of late there, while many of the long-legged birds like yellowlegs and Stilt s.p. seemed to have cleared out with the front.

A first year Bald Eagle came floating down the beach at the park, and turned inland well before reaching the lighthouse. Another highlight was this juvenile Black Tern (right, with a Common Tern) on one of the Bunker Pond mud islands.

Karl Lukens just emailed to report that CMBO's 7:30 Beanery walk was "Cool and breezy, but no large influx of warblers. Did find a handful of Redstarts, a Blue-wing, and Gnatcatcher, both orioles, and a spattering of raptors - Sharpie, Cooper's, Red-tail, both vultures and an Imm. Bald Eagle. " Likely the very seem eagle I saw at the park.

On Merlins, Tom Raub e-mailed to report that the PA Breeding Bird Atlas, just finishing its 4th year, confirmed Merlins nesting in 4 blocks, and they were "observed, possible or probable) in 6 others. Tom added, ". . . the original nesting was found in, I think, Bradford County in the extreme northwest corner of the state. . .Looking at the "view results" page as I did, it doesn't give exact locations, just blocks, but it looked to me like one of the confirmed nestings is roughly 40 miles west of Wilkes Barre! Edging closer to New Jersey!"

WHITE IBIS and BAIRD SANDPIPER

While a group of CMBO staff and volunteers were taking a tour of TNC's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, Don Freiday spotted an imm. WHITE IBIS flying in from the west and over head. We were on the east trail nearing the new raised platform (walking west, toward Sunset Blvd.) The bird flew over giving good views to all and headed toward the east-northeast. I did not watch the bird long enough to see if it made any attempts to land in the near by vicinity.

With the finding of a imm. White ibis at Brigantine NWR and one seen roosting at Sunset Lake in Wildwood in the recent past; it would seem prudent to keep ibis in mind if you are visiting Cape May or South Jersey anytime in the near future.

I should mention that while we were not really "birding" on our tour this morning we did find among other peep, four Pectoral sandpipers off the east trail. Also a young, dark Peregrine falcon made a brief appearance; long enough to stir up the shorebirds before it headed to the south. Probably going to see if it could scare any birds into flight off of the ponds at the State Park.

On another topic, I gleaned a sighting of an adult BAIRD SANDPIPER at the Cape May Point State Park, posted to the New Jersey Birding listserv. The bird was seen yesterday 8/16, on the small mudflat on Lighthouse pond across from the overlook platform. This area (Lighthouse pond) has been very good for shorebirds in the last few weeks. In fact between Bunker pond and Lighthouse, these are the most productive shorebirding spots around.

Early Merlin and where are the herons?

This morning's walk at Cape May Point State Park was "interrupted" by a dark Merlin that blew overhead and briefly scattered the shorebird flock on Bunker Pond. Unfortunately, it came and went before most of the folks on the walk were able to see it, as Merlins sometimes do. August 16 is early for a Merlin, but not precedent setting. The earliest date listed in Sibley's Birds of Cape May is August 5. Merlins nest as close as the Adirondacks and I seem to remember something about recent nesting in northern Pennsylvania. Wouldn't it be fine to have them nesting in New Jersey someday!

One of the park's young Cooper's Hawks perched and preened in the far treeline, and then made an obvious hunting pass at a crow. All these baby birds have to learn, and the Coop learned that crows are too big and agile and it had best stick to easier quarry.

Shorebirds were thin and herons and egrets were even thinner, with only a single Snowy Egret. I wonder if the Cape May Point ponds are being fished out - with the water so low from the drought, fish have a hard time hiding.

This morning's full list is below.
Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/16/07
Notes: CMBO Thursday walk.
Number of species: 34

Mute Swan 25
Mallard 3
Snowy Egret 1 General lack of herons - has the drought let herons fish the ponds down here out?
Glossy Ibis 3
Osprey 3
Cooper's Hawk 1
Merlin 1
Semipalmated Plover 10
Killdeer 5
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 30
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 30
Stilt Sandpiper 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 7
Laughing Gull 50
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Royal Tern 40 incl. 3 recently fledged juvs
Common Tern 40
Forster's Tern 20
Least Tern 75
Black Skimmer 5
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 2
Eastern Kingbird 1
Fish Crow 1
Purple Martin 50 all out of the colonies now
Tree Swallow 20
Barn Swallow 5
Northern Mockingbird 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 5
House Sparrow 5

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

White Ibis at Sunset Lake and Cape May Point Birds

Bob Carlough, Captain of the Skimmer, just called and reported an immature White Ibis, seen from his boat, at the Sunset Lake Rookery between Wildwood and Wildwood crest. It's conceivable this bird could be relocated from land - Sunset Lake is off New Jersey Avenue in Wildwood Crest and the rookery itself is on an island on the west side of Sunset Lake,(Delorme Atlas K-8), too far to view well from land. It might be worth checking any "heron-y" looking access points in the vicinity, such as Nummy Island. Or check out one of the CMBO-sponsored Skimmer tours, held every August Monday at 10:00 and on Sundays and Mondays in September.

Karl Lukens reports that, "There is still good variety of shorebirds at the Bunker Pond, including Stilt, Western, White-rump, Semis and Least Sandpipers, Semi-plover, Piping Plover, Killdeer. Nice close-up Cooper's Hawk. Land birds still scarce." The list from this morning's CMBO walk, provided by Karl, is below:

SPECIES SEEN ~ CAPE MAY ST PRK
8/15/2007 ~ in Cape May Point ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 59 seen

Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Mute Swan 4
Canada Goose 10
Mallard 20
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 3
Cooper's Hawk 1
Semipalmated Plover 30
Killdeer 8
Piping Plover 2
Short-billed Dowitcher 10
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Ruddy Turnstone 2
Sanderling 20
Semipalmated Sandpiper 25
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 40
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Stilt Sandpiper 8
Great Black-backed Gull 20
American Herring Gull 15
Laughing Gull 100
Royal Tern 14
Common Tern 15
Forster's Tern 12
Least Tern 20
Black Skimmer 1
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 6
Chimney Swift 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Purple Martin 8
Tree Swallow 15
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 10
Cedar Waxwing 4
Carolina Wren 6
House Wren 1
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
American Robin 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Fish Crow 1
European Starling 10
House Sparrow 10
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 6
Yellow Warbler 3
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 6
Indigo Bunting 1 /h
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 8

We're not in Cape May anymore Toto.......

"Ithaca is Gorges" as the saying goes. In fact you almost can't look in any direction without seeing that phrase.

Well, they are right! Ithaca is gorgeous in part because of the gorges. Situated at the southern end of Cayuga Lake (in the Finger Lakes region) is well known for it's wineries. So why am I writing about being away from Cape May? Well, why not, there are birds up here too.

We came up for a meeting at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and have had some time to fit in a little birding. Fit in some birding? Well, get out and actually take notice (observe), count and log on to eBird our sightings. After all isn't this supposed to be the mecca of avian research; just as Cape May is the mecca of birdwatching?

The birding has not been the most spectacular I have ever experienced but getting up here to see the "Lab" has compensated for any avian short comings. After all it's hard to top birding in Cape May. Need I remind you of the quote from Alexander Wilson; "If birds are good judges of excellent climate, Cape May has the finest climate in the United States, for it has the greatest variety of birds."

If you haven't made a trip to Sapsucker Woods, you should. The property is beautiful (the weather has been awesome) and the small history lesson you receive through the signage in the building is worth the stop by. I for one did not realize that Louis Agassiz Fuertes was a resident of Ithaca. I guess that I should have but you learn something new every day. It was interesting to make some connections in this way. I realized that Cornell/Ithaca are as steeped in an ornithological past as Cape May. Again, something that should have been obvious and I guess that it was but the pieces just seemed to fall into place by making this visit.

Speaking of Fuertes, seeing original oil paintings made quite the impression. Couple that with the original Charley Harper (the one he did for the Lab a few years ago) on the wall and you have quite a bit of eye candy for the bird enthusiast.

So, many of you are probably asking, did you see any sapsuckers? No, we went sapsucker-less today. Actually I was thinking that the area should have been named Red-eyed vireo Woods given that they were everywhere, singing today. We did have a number of other good sightings. (see below) Like I said to some of the folks we were meeting with today, coming from the south, it's just nice to see Black-capped chickadees and hear Purple finches sing. It all relative.

To finish off this most excellent and very productive trip we went to dinner at the legendary Moosewood Restaurant. Like the Lab, a place that one must go when in Ithaca. That is if you are into healthy (mostly organic), vegetarian/vegan cooking. I've used their cookbooks for years and still do even though I am no longer a vegetarian. But somehow my cooking just pales in comparison. Either way, a most excellent restaurant, but I digress........

I'd like to say that I have photos to post with this but being the goofball that I am, I forgot the cable you need to download the photos from the camera. That just means you'll have to visit for yourself. (Maybe if a I get a few moments after we get back I'll edit in some photos.)

So as usual, the bird list is posted below. One last thing, having met with most of next years (probable) WSB Cornell Lab team, I think that Don and Pete will have their work cut out for them.

Location: Sapsucker Woods, CLO
Observation date: 8/14/07
Number of species: 31
Mallard 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Mourning Dove 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 15
Eastern Kingbird 8
Red-eyed Vireo 23
Blue Jay 3
Black-capped Chickadee 14
Tufted Titmouse 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
House Wren 2
Veery 1
American Robin 44
Gray Catbird 12
Cedar Waxwing 28
Yellow Warbler 1
American Redstart 6- still a few singing
Common Yellowthroat 1
Song Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 11
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Bobolink 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
Purple Finch 13
American Goldfinch 27
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

An hour at Higbee's: Golden-winged Warbler and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Given the weather (and my birding prediction from last night) I pretty much had to wake early and try Higbee Beach before work. I'm glad I did. At first it seemed pretty quiet, with only one Yellow Warbler and one Northern Waterthrush to show for the first half hour, migrant wise.

Then an empid popped into view underneath the canopy on the edge of the first field, and I said right away (to myself) very un-scientifically, "Hey, a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher!" Not exactly the right way to identify non-calling empids, especially since this one did not even have a yellow throat! But Yellow-bellieds are little with a compact, round-headed look, making them reminiscent of Least Flycatcher - which this bird definitely was not since it was washed with olive-yellow below and was overall olive-yellow, not gray like a Least. The bill was too narrow for Least, and for Acadian, too. A little more scrutiny revealed an eye-ring widest behind the eye but complete all the way around. When I finally got a look at the wing tips, I was satisfied it was a Yellow-bellied - I couldn't exactly count the number of primary tips sticking out past the tertials (a trick I think may be useful with photographs but not so much in the field), but my impression was of significant but not exceptional primary projection - in other words, the bird was too long-winged for Least and too short-winged for Acadian.

I've talked with a lot of excellent birders about identification by GISS (General Impression of Shape and Size), and most agree that such i.d.'s should be tentative and then backed up with details of plumage and structure. It helps to have studied known-identity birds at length - in this case Yellow-bellied Flycatcher is a bird I've been able to know well from trips to Maine and Newfoundland, and Acadian is a bread-and-butter summer bird in Cape May County. Of course what often happens with me is I'll be leading a group and blurt a GISS-based i.d. - out loud - and then follow up by looking at the bird closely and discovering it is something else. Oh well, if you're not mis-calling any, it can only be because you're not calling any.

At the hedgerow boundary between the first and second field of Higbee, and just beyond it, titmice and chickadees were calling and with them was a feeding flock of warblers, including a male Golden-winged, a scarce bird in Cape May. Several Blue-wingeds were with the Golden-winged, in fact a Blue-winged and the GWW bickered for a bit, chasing each other around.

Later I met up with a couple other birders and we enjoyed a long, close look at a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, and a low flyover by a juvenile Cooper's Hawk, perhaps one of the local brood from Cape May Point State Park, or perhaps a migrant.

The morning's list is below.

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/14/07
Notes: One hour walk, first-third fields. Dry front passed last night, winds north 10ish.
Number of species: 35
Snowy Egret 1
Cooper's Hawk 1 juvenile, perhaps a local
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Laughing Gull 10
Mourning Dove 10
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 worn-looking adult
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 singing
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1 worn adult, early
Great Crested Flycatcher 2 calling
Blue Jay 2
Purple Martin 5
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 3
Carolina Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 10
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
Blue-winged Warbler 5
Golden-winged Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 5
Black-and-white Warbler 5
American Redstart 10
Ovenbird 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Field Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 5
Indigo Bunting 2
Bobolink 10 flyovers
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Baltimore Oriole 1
American Goldfinch 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Watching the weather. . .

Paul Lehman's Birding Forecast will be up on www.birdcapemay.org soon, but in the meantime (given that the winds are light and northwest in Cape May right now) I thought I would quote the National Weather Service's forecast discussion:

"AS OF LATE THIS AFTERNOON THE COOL FRONT IS PUSHING INTO NORTHERN PA AND COOLER/DRIER AIR IS FILTERING IN BEHIND IT. LOOKS LIKE THE FRONTAL PASSAGE THIS EVENING WILL BE DRY...AS THE HIGH PRESSURE BUILDS IN . . .A LIGHT NORTHERLY BREEZE SHOULD PERSIST THROUGH THE NIGHTTIME. OTHERWISE FALLING TEMPS AND DEWPOINTS SHOULD MAKE FOR A VERY PLEASANT EVENING AND NIGHT."

The passage of this dry front should bring migrants to Cape May tomorrow morning. Even better than tonight's forecast of a weak frontal passage, however, the NWS goes on to say:

"A FAIRLY STRONG COLD FRONT WILL MOVE THOUGH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT OR FRIDAY MORNING...FOLLOWED BY MORE HIGH PRESSURE AND FAIR WEATHER FOR THE WEEKEND."

Cape May birders, indeed late-summer and fall birders throughout the mid-Atlantic, love to hear about strong cold fronts. The day or two after such a front can bring great birding - if the front passes this Friday, come to Cape May this weekend if you can and try Higbee Beach at dawn for early migrant landbirds, or try your local migrant patch. As Paul notes in his essay on early fall migrants (click on Birding Forecast to see it), "Many birders may be loathe to search out migrant passerines in the heat and bugs of early/mid- August, but that month may see a good variety of migrant warblers (up to 30 species may be present already by the middle of the month) at such well-known sites as Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, including the best “autumn” chances at seeing such scarce transients as Golden-winged and Cerulean Warblers."

Also, northwest winds bring raptors to Cape May Point at any time of year, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear of Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers, or American Kestrels moving past the Hawkwatch Platform at Cape May Point State Park this weekend.

Lark Sparrow (not), shorebirds of many stripes, and one more sign of the end of summer

The Lark Sparrow discovered at Cape May Point State Park on Saturday has not been reported since, despite searching - including by me Sunday afternoon. Plenty of other birds were there to hold my attention, or distract it, depending on one's point of view about "chasing" rare birds. Among these were two of the world's most bedraggled Northern Mockingbirds, sitting right where the Lark Sparrow was supposed to be, in the snag at the north side of the metal bridge on the red trail at the park. The mockers, like most other birds, have finished up nesting for the summer, indeed we saw a family group of 7 together on the dune at the meadows this morning (more on the meadows below).

Other state park birds from yesterday afternoon included a Long-billed Dowitcher that "keeked" obligingly and alighted in Bunker Pond, and two Sandwich Terns reported there earlier in the day by other birders.

At least twenty-one sandpiper-and-plover species have been reported at Cape May Point in the past two days, so not surprisingly this morning's CMBO walk at TNC's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge (a.k.a. the Meadows) was rich in shorebirds, including some in evident movement. The wind was west-northwest, and single Black-bellied Plover (the first I recall seeing or hearing about at Cape May Point this summer, which seems surprising somehow) and Whimbrel were flyovers. I'm fairly certain I heard an Upland Sandpiper, too, but none of the other leaders heard it so I'm a bit hesitant to claim the bird. An Uppie was seen on the grass edging Lighthouse Pond last week.

The plover ponds hosted higher numbers of shorebirds than they have in the recent past, including several groups of dowitchers with Stilt Sandpipers mixed in. In the wetlands west of the west path, there were 4 White-rumped Sandpipers with the usual assortment of peep. These were interesting in the fact that they were completely back-lit, the worst possible lighting, and that actually made them easier to pick out. You could do it naked eye at 40 yards, with a little practice, either "cheating" by finding another peep for a size comparison (white-rumps are over an inch longer than Semi-palmated Sandpipers, weigh almost twice as much, and it shows in side-side comparison) or by noting the white-rumpeds' attenuated rear end. Paul Guris one time put it to a group that white-rumpeds "look like someone grabbed their tail and pulled," and they do, very drawn out in back. It's their long wings, not tail, that gives them this profile, but the analogy is perfect.

Baltimore Oriole nests in Cape May County but is very scarce south of the canal outside migration, so the female we found foraging near the dunes was interesting.

Finally, with a bit of sadness I can report that the Least Terns have completed their nesting efforts and vacated the colony at the meadows - an American Crow sat in the middle of the roped-off area completely undisturbed. If it had tried that a few weeks ago, it would surely have wished it were somewhere else. The fledgling Least Terns are now all out and about with their parents, learning how to fish and stay out of trouble.

Today's full list is below.

Location: South Cape May Meadows
Observation date: 8/13/07
Notes: CMBO's Monday morning walk.
Number of species: 59
Canada Goose 40
Mute Swan 2
Mallard 30
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 3 Perhaps a family group that moved over from the Beanery?
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 3
Black-bellied Plover 1 First for this walk
Semipalmated Plover 30
Piping Plover 5
Killdeer 5
American Oystercatcher 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Solitary Sandpiper 2 flyovers
Whimbrel 1 flyover
Sanderling 100
Semipalmated Sandpiper 20
Least Sandpiper 20
White-rumped Sandpiper 4
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
Stilt Sandpiper 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 35
Laughing Gull 200
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 30 10 fresh juveniles in the plover ponds
Great Black-backed Gull 30
Royal Tern 5
Common Tern 25
Forster's Tern 5
Least Tern 10 the tern colony is officially empty; a crow sat within it unharassed.
Black Skimmer 10
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 5
Belted Kingfisher 1
Eastern Kingbird 2
White-eyed Vireo 1 singing; surprise, hasn't been there - migrant or wanderer
American Crow 1
Purple Martin 10
Tree Swallow 50
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 20
Carolina Wren 1
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 7 a family group or groups on the dune, including some recently fledged juvenile
European Starling 2
Cedar Waxwing 5
Yellow Warbler 5
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Bobolink 1 flyover
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Baltimore Oriole 1 one female
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Trans-peninsula cycling, heron "fly-out," Royal and Sandwich Terns

I decided to get in some early morning cycling to beat the oppressive Sunday beach traffic, and left my house on the Delaware Bay side of the Cape May Penninsula when it was still dark, headed for Stone Harbor. A Great-horned Owl called from the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge, just down the street.

I passed the big woods along Indian Trail just at first light, and slowed to listen for a bit. The woods produced only a Carolina Wren and the often overwhelming quiet of neotropical migrants that have finished nesting for the year. This spot has Kentucky Warbler, or had last May, among other quality nesters. Unfortunately, a sand mine proposal threatens Indian Trail, a project NJAS has been opposing under the leadership of Cristina Frank of our IBBA program.

One of the reasons for cycling to Stone Harbor is to get a chance to ride the only things that pass for hills down here: the bridges! The biggest of these is the one from the mainland to North Wildwood, and while it's not exactly High Point, the view from the top is an impressive landscape of salt marsh and channels, pocked with islands of shrubs where herons and egrets nest. The sun hadn't risen yet, and lots of egrets and a fair number of Black-crowned Night-Herons were in the air, going and coming, respectively. It reminded me of the good old days at the Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary, former home to a large rookery, where you could go at dawn or dusk to watch the "changing of the guard." The herons and egrets are still here (though Tri-colored numbers seem to have fallen), but now they nest in smaller, scattered colonies.

As I crested the bridge a Royal Tern passed carrying a ~4" fish, headed straight for Champagne Island where it must have a fairly big chick waiting for a fish that size. It was a little surprising to see a Royal that apparently had been foraging inshore, since they mostly feed in the ocean. Yesterday I saw an adult Royal with a recently fledged youngster on the bayside at Norbury's Landing, the first of this species I've seen out there this summer. That parent and young undoubtedly came up from a southern colony and are not part of the Champagne Island group.

I must have picked the right time to cross the bridge, because on the descent two Sandwich Terns passed headed in the opposite direction of the Royal - how lucky can you get. It was a bit of surprise to this species away from the barrier beach and ocean, too. There have been swarms of small bluefish in all the back channels and bays of late, pushing baitfish to the surface, perhaps that explains it.

Hordes of Boat-tailed Grackles chattered and squeaked in the cedars near the marina on the south side of the Nummy Island toll bridge. I thought for a moment I was hearing Purple Martins from the cedars, an odd place for such, and concluded the "cheewp" notes were coming from young boat-taileds.

Nothing unusual appeared on the run from the toll bridge north to Stone Harbor and back, which is to say "all" I saw were many Common Terns, Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers, egrets, gulls, shorebirds in passing flocks pushed back by the rising tide . . . the whole complex of wetland/barrier beach/inlet and channel surrounding Nummy Island and Hereford Inlet is undoubtedly one of the most fertile and important bird areas in the state.

CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE August 11, 2007

CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE August 11, 2007

You have reached the Cape May Birding Hotline, a service of New Jersey Audubon Societys Cape May Bird Observatory. This weeks message was prepared on Saturday August 11, 2007. Highlights this week include sightings of MANX SHEARWATER, SOOTY SHEARWATER, ROSEATE SPOONBILL, WILSON’S PHALROPE, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, SANDWICH TERN, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, SEDGE WREN and LARK SPARROW

The ROSEATE SPOONBILL continues at Brigantine NWR as of 8/8. Early morning or evening remains the best time to try for this bird.

A MANX SHEARWATER was seen feeding in the rips off Cape May Point on 8/4.

Also on 8/4, a SOOTY SHEARWATER was seen from the second dune crossing at the Cape May Point State Park.

An unexpected find was a WILSONS PHALAROPE at Stone Harbor Point on 8/6.

There have been various reports of RED-NECKED PHALAROPE at Brigantine NWR in the last week. The most recent report was of two birds seen from the east dike in the east pool on 8/10.

Two SANDWICH TERNS were observed from Cape May Point on 8/5 and 8/6.

Coldspring Campground played host to a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH on 8/4.

A SEDGE WREN was heard singing at Brigantine NWR, from on the left side of the south dike near the beginning of the auto loop road on 8/7.

Lastly, a LARK SPARROW was observed at the first metal bridge on the red trail at the Cape May Point State Park, today, 8/11.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

CMBO is offering a special to new and upgraded membership renewals. Join CMBO for the first time or upgrade from Individual or Family to The Hundred and receive Charley Harpers Migration Mainline- Cape May lithograph poster, valued at $50. Call either CMBO center to ask an associate about joining today!


CMBO Bookstore hours are as follows; Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point; summer hours, Wednesday- Monday 9:30-4:30. The Northwood Center will be closed on Tuesdays. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday- Sunday 9:30- 4:30. At least one CMBO center will be open everyday to serve our members needs.

The Cape May Birding Hotline is a service of the New Jersey Audubon Societys Cape May Bird Observatory and details sightings from Cape May, Cumberland, and Atlantic Counties. Updates are made weekly. Please report sightings of rare or unusual birds to CMBO at 609-884-2736. Sponsorship for this hotline comes from the support of CMBO members and business members, and should you not be a member, we cordially invite you to join. Individual membership is $35 per year; $45 for families. You can call either center to become a member or visit. Become a member in person and youll receive your choice of a FREE gift (in addition to member discount in the stores).

Good Luck and Good Birding!