Close-up Shorebirds at Bunker Pond, and Kingfisher Terns

CMBO's Wednesday morning walk at Cape May Point State Park yielded a nice selection of shorebirds, many of which provided close views. The full list, courtesy of Karl Lukens, is below.

On another note, last night at the free bridge in Stone Harbor, Common Terns conserved energy by behaving very much like kingfishers, as they sometimes do: perching quietly on a bridge piling or cross-member, patiently watching the water below for Atlantic silversides being driven to the surface by an attending school of small bluefish. When fish appeared, often spraying across the surface in their efforts to escape, the terns would drop off their perch with hardly a wingbeat, capture a fish, and (the ones I was watching, anyhow) eat it on the wing. Apparently these birds either had no young at nearby Champagne Island, or were having a parents' night out. Many Black Skimmers also enjoyed the good fishing, slicing back and forth quite close to the sod banks near the bridge.

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP ~ 8/1/2007
~ Cape May Point ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 61 seen
Great Blue Heron 7
Great Egret 25
Snowy Egret 35
Black-crowned Night-Heron 3
Glossy Ibis 20
Mute Swan 25
Canada Goose 18
Mallard 40
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 4
Semipalmated Plover 10
Killdeer 10
Short-billed Dowitcher 15
Greater Yellowlegs 6
Lesser Yellowlegs 20
Solitary Sandpiper 2
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Sanderling 20
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10
Least Sandpiper 40
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
Stilt Sandpiper 6
Ring-billed Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 10
American Herring Gull 10
Laughing Gull 50
Common Tern 6
Forster's Tern 20
Least Tern 70
Black Skimmer 3
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 5
Chimney Swift 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Purple Martin 20
Tree Swallow 8
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 8
Cedar Waxwing 7
Carolina Wren 7
House Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
American Robin 4
Carolina Chickadee 8
American Crow 1
European Starling 10
House Sparrow 10
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 4
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 5
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 1 /h
Bobolink 4
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
Orchard Oriole 1