Higbee Beach WMA and the dawn of the Northern Flicker

I've been fortunate enough to witness many big flicker flights here in Cape May over the years. Like clockwork, they have again graced the south Jersey skies. There were Northern flickers everywhere! And, it still thrills me to see that many flickers in the sky together at once. In fact there were groups flying out at the Morning Flight, by the 20's at some points.

Given the number of birds moving through Higbee this morning most of my eBird numbers are more estimates than typical counts. It's hard to bird watch, count and then write down totals with out missing a bunch. It was nice to have some friends along to help point out things while I was writing. In fact a couple of my World Series of Birding teammates (actually all of the team was here over the weekend at some point) have been gracious enough to give me there list of species seen (for yesterday 9/29) and allowed me to post their numbers here on View from the Cape. I am jealous because between all of them they had 23 species of warbler! The list is not complete but you'll get a good feel for the number of species and individuals on Cape island yesterday. You'll also see why they are on my WSB team (i.e. great field birding partners)!!

So as the birding goes here in Cape May, today was pretty darned good. Birds were actually sitting in the trees even if for a brief moment or two. Long enough to identify the species at least. I did hear that the birding was equally as spectacular at the Cape May Point State Park. One theory discussed was wind switch to the NE early on helped in this location.

As usual, the list of birds today is below. The second list at the bottom is the list mentioned from friends. Suffice to say, the birding has been great the last few days. I hope that you were able to get out, where ever you may be and have enjoyed a bit of migration.

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/30/07
Number of species: 50

Mallard 1
Great Blue Heron 13
Black-crowned Night-Heron 3
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 6
American Kestrel 2
Merlin 1
Semipalmated Plover 12
Mourning Dove 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 225
Empidonax sp. 1
Eastern Phoebe 6
Red-eyed Vireo 8
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 3
Tufted Titmouse 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 30
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 18
Veery 1
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird 35
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
Cedar Waxwing 35
Tennessee Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 12
Black-throated Blue Warbler 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler 12
Black-throated Green Warbler 8
Palm Warbler 3
Blackpoll Warbler 15
Black-and-white Warbler 8
American Redstart 12
Common Yellowthroat 6
Scarlet Tanager 2
Eastern Towhee 6
Northern Cardinal 5
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 2
Bobolink X
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Baltimore Oriole 2

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

Location: Cape Island
Observation date: 9/29/07
Notes: Jared, Zach, Dan & Maren's list for 9/29/07
Number of species: 66

American Wigeon X
Blue-winged Teal X
Great Egret X
Snowy Egret X
Osprey X
Bald Eagle X
Northern Harrier X
Sharp-shinned Hawk X
Cooper's Hawk X
American Kestrel X
Merlin X
Greater Yellowlegs X
Lesser Yellowlegs X
Sanderling X
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 2
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Great Horned Owl 2
Whip-poor-will 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4
Northern Flicker X
Eastern Wood-Pewee 6
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 11
Blue-headed Vireo 4
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 21
House Wren 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 10
Gray-cheeked Thrush 8
Swainson's Thrush 3
Wood Thrush 4
Brown Thrasher 7
Tennessee Warbler 3
Nashville Warbler 2
Northern Parula 40
Yellow Warbler 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 6
Magnolia Warbler 73
Cape May Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 48
Yellow-rumped Warbler 25
Black-throated Green Warbler 10
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 2
Palm Warbler 240
Palm Warbler (yellow) 15
Blackpoll Warbler 14
Black-and-white Warbler 39
American Redstart 52
Ovenbird 2
Northern Waterthrush 6
Common Yellowthroat 32
Hooded Warbler 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Scarlet Tanager 3
Savannah Sparrow 15
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 1 (in Cape May Point)
Song Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal X
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 3

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

CMBO Villas WMA walk- 9/30/07

George Myers sent this note to me about the CMBO Villas WMA walk, which was held this morning.


"It was a morning for Palm Warblers! They were constantly overhead and in the trees. Lesser numbers of Yellow-rumps and a few Blackpolls. Northern Flickers continued to be numerous.

Other goodies:
2 Red-headed Woodpeckers
8+ Red-breasted Nuthatches
4 White-breasted Nuthatches
4 Eastern Phoebes
2 Hairy Woodpeckers
3 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers
1 Blue Grosbeak
2 Indigo Buntings
1 Cooper's Hawk
5 Sharp-shinned Hawks
4 Osprey
1 Peregrine Falcon
10 Wood Ducks

On a butterfly note: One Willow Oak had at least 2 dozen Red Admirals roosting in it.
Also, White-throated Sparrows (2) in the yard."

CMBO Beanery walk

This report was emailed to me from Karl and Judy Lukens. Found a couple of seconds between customers to post.

"Nice birdy day at the Beanery (Rea Farm) after the cold front and NW winds. Numerous raptors, a number of fly over warblers with enough sitting down to give us good views."

Remember, tomorrow looks just as good!!!!!!

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP

9/29/2007 ~ in Beanery ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 58 seen

Great Egret 6
Snowy Egret 3
Green Heron 1
Mute Swan 1
Canada Goose 100
Wood Duck 8
Mallard 6
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 8
Osprey 4
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5
Cooper's Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawk 6
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Kestrel 8
Merlin 1
Killdeer 2
Great Black-backed Gull 1
American Herring Gull 1
Laughing Gull 5
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 10
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 25
Eastern Phoebe 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Carolina Wren 2
Gray Catbird 3
American Robin 2
Carolina Chickadee 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 10
Fish Crow 1
European Starling8
House Sparrow 4
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Goldfinch 2
Magnolia Warbler 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 4
Palm Warbler 50
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 3
American Redstart 4
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 4
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 2
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Common Grackle 1

I HOPE you are not reading this right now......

That is to say that I hope you are out birding, at least if you are in the mid-Atlantic. There is one heck of a hawk flight taking place right now over Cape May. My guess is that pretty much any eastern hawk watch site in the mid-Atlantic region is good right now and will continue over the next day or two.

That's the good news, if you were not able to make it to Cape May for the flight today. Tomorrow looks like it should be just as good. The winds are supposed to die down tonight which will be more conducive to passerines, though there were way more birds today than I anticipated with the strong winds over night.

Sorry, I don't have time to extol of the wonderful sightings we had today (loads of Palm warblers) on the CMBO Birding Optics walk. The store is shoulder to shoulder with members/customers. Such is the life of being the Sales Manager, I suppose. I think you'll get a good feel for how the flight has been between my list, what Don may post and the seasonal count info. to be posted later.

Suffice to say, if you can rearrange your schedule GET OUT BIRDING TOMORROW!! Enjoy the migration.


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/29/07
Notes: CMBO Birding Optics walk
Number of species: 63

Canada Goose 145
Mute Swan 6
Wood Duck 8
Gadwall 6
American Wigeon 8
Mallard 25
Blue-winged Teal 52
Northern Shoveler 4
Green-winged Teal 8
Double-crested Cormorant 45
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 3
Turkey Vulture 4
Osprey 8
Northern Harrier 10
Sharp-shinned Hawk 75
Cooper's Hawk 15
Broad-winged Hawk 4
American Kestrel 145
Merlin 4
Killdeer 10
Greater Yellowlegs 32
Lesser Yellowlegs 95
Sanderling 35
Pectoral Sandpiper 7
Stilt Sandpiper 6
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Wilson's Snipe 1
Laughing Gull 125
Herring Gull 40
Great Black-backed Gull 35
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 25
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 20
Tree Swallow 200
Carolina Chickadee 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird 25
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 2
Magnolia Warbler 6
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 125
Palm Warbler 5
Blackpoll Warbler 3
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 5
Common Yellowthroat 8
Scarlet Tanager 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Indigo Bunting 3
Bobolink 2
Red-winged Blackbird 45
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 15

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

Front finally oozes through, good raptor flight today, and go birding tomorrow!

I called Glen Davis, who was the interpretive naturalist on morning flight duty this morning, at 7:00 a.m. to find out what landbirds were flying. Answer: none. The winds were still southwest at Cape May at dawn, and passerines of any sort were pretty much absent. Sam Galick, however, reported several Dickcissels at the meadows a.ka. the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, which are open again, though TNC reported that their gate there is having some issues, hopefully to be fixed soon.

Based on Glen and Sam's reports, I started today's workshop at the Beanery, where a female Blue Grosbeak posed for scope views, a few Bobolinks presented themselves, but the main show was raptors - in onesies and twosies, kestrels, sharpies, ospreys, Cooper's Hawks, and even Peregrines made appearances.

The front cleared by about noon, and with the ensuing northwest winds the hawk flight at the state park really picked up. The count totals will be posted under View from the Field soon. Kestrels and Sharp-shinneds were in constant view all afternoon, and our workshop group saw at least 10 Peregrines, many Cooper's Hawks, many Merlins, and a few Bald Eagles and Broad-winged Hawks. About 40 Lesser Yellowlegs continue on Bunker Pond, with a few Greater's, about 6 Pectoral Sandpipers, and a very few peep. It will be interesting to see if these shorebirds vacate by tomorrow, I'm guessing they will given the favorable migration conditions. Several Caspian Terns have been flying about Cape May Point, and dabbling duck numbers continue to grow. Two Pied-billed Grebes and two immature Little Blue Herons were on Lily Lake this morning as well.

To quote David LaPuma's Birding Forecast, "Tonight we should expect a massive flight across the Eastern Flyway, with a heavy influx of birds into the East Coast."

Go birding tomorrow!

Falcons and Accipiters Workshop - a few of each in the fog

Day one of the workshop dawned cloudy, foggy, and with southeast winds, but both perched Merlin and flyby Peregrine made things auspicious. We later saw another Peregrine nearly take a Wilson's Snipe, plus the almost usual Bald Eagle swiping a fish from an Osprey, and several more Merlins, a few Sharp-shinneds, three Caspian Terns, and the usual shorebird suspects. This morning's list is below.

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/27/07
Number of species: 55
Canada Goose 20
Mute Swan 5
American Wigeon 10
Mallard 25
Blue-winged Teal 10
Northern Shoveler 5
Northern Pintail 2
Green-winged Teal 25
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 5
Tricolored Heron 1
Osprey 10
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk 20
Merlin 5
Peregrine Falcon 3
Killdeer 2
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 40
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 5
White-rumped Sandpiper 2
Pectoral Sandpiper 6
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Wilson's Snipe 1
Laughing Gull 50
Herring Gull 25
Great Black-backed Gull 75
Caspian Tern 3
Common Tern 10
Forster's Tern 10
Royal Tern 10
Black Skimmer 25
Rock Pigeon 35
Mourning Dove 5
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 10
Eastern Phoebe 2
American Crow 10
Fish Crow 5
Carolina Wren 5
House Wren 1
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Brown Thrasher 4
European Starling 2
Palm Warbler 5
Common Yellowthroat 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 10
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 20
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Higbee on Tuesday, and of Cooper's Hawks and bats

Karl Lukens reports from Higbee Beach yesterday:

"A couple of pockets of warblers produced B&W Warblers, Redstarts, Magnolia, Parula, BT Green, and Red-eyed Vireo, on a day we expected birding to be very slow. Still many Flickers going in all directions, numerous Blue Jays, and 1 Red-headed Woodpecker fly-over. It was a treat to watch an Osprey and Bald Eagle interacting (no apparent fish involved) as a Peregrine Falcon also flew by."

Karl et. al.'s Higbee list is below.

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP
9/25/2007 ~ in Higbee Beach ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 46 seen


Double-crested Cormorant 1
Little Blue Heron 3
Canada Goose 1
Osprey 2
Bald Eagle 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 8
Merlin 2
Peregrine Falcon 1
Greater Yellowlegs 4
Great Black-backed Gull 2
American Herring Gull 1
Laughing Gull 10
Royal Tern 1
Rock Pigeon 4
Mourning Dove 8
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 30
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Tree Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 1
Carolina Wren4
Gray Catbird 5
American Robin 1
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Blue Jay 8
American Crow 10
European Starling 10
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Goldfinch 1
Northern Parula 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 3
Eastern Towhee 1
Northern Cardinal 6
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 1

Thanks to the current "Bermuda high," the hawk watch was quiet yesterday morning, with just an occasional small falcon or sharpie, at least early-on. An interesting bird went over the parking lot, though - George Myers got on it from the platform, and I from the center of the lot, at about the same time. It was a passerine, probably a sparrow, completely backlit for me but George said it had white outer tail feathers. Its call is what called it to my attention, no pun intended - very brief, sweet, medium high, a "tst" or quick "seet." Lark Sparrow? Vesper Sparrow? Who knows.

Up in Bucks County yesterday evening, at Peace Valley Nature Center, an interesting report was delivered to the Bucks County Birders (I was there giving a talk) - a Cooper's Hawk captured a small bat outside the center earlier in the evening. Amazing birds, Coop's are. My favorite Coop catch came some years ago, when an apparent female blew out of a stand of trees near a pond and plucked a Ring-necked Duck from a flock flying at full speed, which means probably 40 miles an hour or so.

TNC property still closed, state park hawks, shorebirds, few passerines, and a butterfly/dragonfly report

The TNC Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, a.k.a. the Meadows, remains closed, so our walk this morning diverted to Cape May Point State Park. Not a bad thing, I think the 20 or so participants would agree - plenty of hawks were in the air, for one thing. Jessie Barry summed it up at 9:30: "A couple hundred hawks, mostly sharpies and kestrels, were in the air around the point in the first hours of the watch this morning." We watched an adult Bald Eagle evict the Laughing Gulls from the rips in a kind of rare offshore fishing expedition for our national bird, at least in these parts.

There were shorebirds and ducks aplenty in Bunker Pond, including a White-rumped Sandpiper with a sadly injured leg that will likely be Merlin fodder before the week is out. The Lesser Yellowlegs flock continues to grow, with at least 35 around, along with the attending odd Stilt Sandpipers and a few Greaters. 10 Pectoral Sandpipers flew into the pond while we watched. Tom Parsons noted that we missed only Eurasian Wigeon and Black Duck among the dabblers; the latter might seem a strange miss for coastal NJ but we don't get many south of the canal this time of year.

Anyone looking for passerines on the ground (or in the trees) is likely to struggle until the next front passes, but we did manage a few Palm Warblers and my first Savannah Sparrows and American Pipits of the fall, among others.

After the walk I lingered on the hawk watch platform with many happy folks enjoying the flight. CMBO is lucky to have some excellent counters and interpreters this fall; I'll introduce them in a post soon, but in the meantime don't hesitate to wander by the hawk watch, sea watch, or morning flight platform to observe, learn, and just hang out with some very fine people.

This morning's list is below, as is a butterfly list from Sunday's Cape May Point exploration provided by Will Kerling, along with some very interesting comments by Will. CMBO is offering butterfly walks on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, as well as Monarch tagging demos every day except Tuesdays and Thursdays - check the Naturalist's Calendar on this site for details.

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/24/07
Notes: CMBO's Monday walk, diverted to the meadows.
Number of species: 68
Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 7
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 2
American Wigeon 10
Mallard 15
Blue-winged Teal 8
Northern Shoveler 2
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 10
Double-crested Cormorant 35
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Osprey 5
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 50
Cooper's Hawk 5
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 10
Merlin 5
Killdeer 2
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 35
Sanderling 20
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 5
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 10
Stilt Sandpiper 3
Short-billed Dowitcher 3
Laughing Gull 800
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 35
Common Tern 50
Forster's Tern 10
Royal Tern 10
Black Skimmer 20
Rock Pigeon 35
Mourning Dove 10
Belted Kingfisher 2
Northern Flicker 10
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 10
Fish Crow 10
Tree Swallow 100
Barn Swallow 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 10
Carolina Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 10
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 5
American Pipit 3
Yellow Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 5
Palm Warbler 20
Savannah Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 5
Indigo Bunting 5
Bobolink 5
Red-winged Blackbird 50
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 20
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

From Will Kerling: "Here is a brief summary of our Butterfly and Dragonfly Walk in Cape May Point on September 23, 2007, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. This clear, sunny morning, 25 people turned out to see bugs. The best find of the day came from the young boy who located a well hidden jade-colored Monarch chrysalis within the lacy green leaves of a mature fennel plant. We saw a praying mantis capture a worn skipper. We also saw Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper’s Hawk, Osprey, Turkey Vulture and songbirds during our walk.

"NOTE: After the walk, emerging from the Bella Vita Café at about 2:00 p.m., Chris and I observed lots of Red Admirals streaming in from the east. We went over to the harbor and then to Poverty Beach and saw Red Admirals, Common Buckeyes and Monarchs coming in off the water and heading west in large numbers (hundreds of each species), and among them were several of each of the following species: Clouded Sulphur, Orange Sulphur, Cloudless Sulphur, Question Mark, Mourning Cloak and Fiery Skipper butterflies.

"Butterfly List:
Cabbage White
Orange Sulphur
Cloudless Sulphur
Gray Hairstreak
Variegated Fritillary
American Lady
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
Common Buckeye
Monarch
Silver-Spotted Skipper
Fiery Skipper (quite a few)
Sachem
Zabulon Skipper

"Dragonfly List:
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Black Saddlebag
Eastern Pondhawk"

Higbee Beach

Sorry, I don't have much time to expound on today's birding. Much of the flight continued high over head. I heard that the Morning Flight was quite good. As has been typical in the last little while, the land birding was difficult. There were birds around but deep in the woods or zipping past. Highlights were loads of Red-breasted nuthatches, lots of Sharp-shinned hawks and a Philadelphia vireo. The list of species seen is below.

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/24/07
Number of species: 39

Double-crested Cormorant 12
Osprey 4
Bald Eagle 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 35
Cooper's Hawk 3
Killdeer 2
Mourning Dove 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 45
Eastern Phoebe 2
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Blue Jay 15
American Crow 4
Carolina Chickadee 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 21
Carolina Wren 10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 6
Brown Thrasher 2
European Starling 35
Cedar Waxwing 28
Northern Parula 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 5
Blackpoll Warbler 6
American Redstart 15
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 6
Northern Cardinal 10
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3
Indigo Bunting 4
Bobolink 10
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 6
American Goldfinch 1

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

CMBO Villas WMA walk- 9/23/07

This note was sent to me from George Myers about yesterdays CMBO Villas WMA walk. Don't know where the Villas WMA is located, look at the Cape May Birding and Butterfly map (Cape May County side), letter H.

"There were a lot of call notes heard from the wooded areas and a number of passerines passing overhead in the first hour."

1 Wilson's Snipe
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
30 Bobolinks
50 Northern Flickers
2 American Kestrels
4 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 chasing a Blackpoll Warbler
1 Cooper's Hawk
2 Palm Warblers
5 Blackpoll Warblers
1 American Redstart
1 Northern Waterthrush
1 Belted Kingfisher

Higbee Beach and Morning Flight.....

Were both pretty good this morning. I arrived at the Higbee parking lot to find that, not that many birds seemed to be flying over or calling from the trees. Since I was there to bird with a couple of friends I tried to keep a positive attitude. Sometimes the winds seem right but the birds just aren't there.

That did not happen this morning. I did take a little walk around the first field and first tower filed (looking for a Connecticut, no luck) before meeting up with my fellow WSB team member and I found that after about 15 minuets in the field, birds started to drop in out of the sky. Most, predominantly kept flying over toward the Morning Flight Project area.

Soon we were on our way to the dike to find quite a good flight of songbirds taking place. While I was there we had Northern parula, Am. redstart, Blackpoll, Black-throated green and Tennessee warblers, along with Black-throated blue and Palm warblers. This is just to name a few. Also a couple of E. wood-pewees, an oriole and Scarlet tanagers. I'll leave it up to the View from the Field report for all species counted this morning.

After an hour of observation it was time to hit the woods again to see what might be moving through the trees. Since I am on limited time (having to get into the store at the Northwood Center) we figured that we'd have some good luck with birds in the fields. Well, not so much. The birds continued to pour over head for a little while but not much was sticking in the trees.

One "crowd pleaser" (Dale, this bits for you!) was a very cooperative Yellow-throated vireo. This bird, uncharacteristically, sat in a locust tree for some time giving all there excellent views from almost every angle possible. What's more, the bird obliged us with pretty much the exact angle view as last months photo quiz (go take a look and you'll see what I mean). What a great way to reinforce what I learned from Michael's answer explanation!

Now, one disclaimer, the species totals and diversity below in my list are severely affected by the fact that I was not keeping record of birds observed from the dike. I only took note of those observed on our wander before and after out Morning Flight visit. NOTE: I just over heard a member in the store mentioning to Amy that the hawk watching is "fabulous" today. Amy mentioned that folks are out front of the Northwood Center warbler watching. Looks like it might be a good idea to hang around out front for a little while.

That being said, tomorrow is looking like it could be yet another excellent day of birding. I haven't been out to the hawk watch today but I bet Jessie is having one heck of a flight today. Tomorrow should be good for hawk watching as well, but the winds are forecast to switch to the NE. Land birding should be excellent again as the winds are supposed to continue to be N-NW over night and not be too strong. Keep an eye on the birding Forecast as David La Puma continues to keep us abreast of the weather conditions for the mid-Atlantic region.

The list from Higbee this morning is below.

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/23/07
Number of species: 29

Sharp-shinned Hawk 15
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Least Sandpiper 8
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 25
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
American Crow 6
Tree Swallow 910
Barn Swallow 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 9
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Gray Catbird 4
Cedar Waxwing 12
Northern Parula 3
Yellow Warbler 2
Palm Warbler 2
Blackpoll Warbler 2
Black-and-white Warbler 1
American Redstart 4
Common Yellowthroat 3
Scarlet Tanager 1
Northern Cardinal 8
Indigo Bunting 5
Bobolink 25
American Goldfinch 3

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

Also, the list from yesterdays CMBO Birding Optics walk at the Cape May point State Park

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/22/07
Notes: CMBO Birding Optics walk
Number of species: 36

Canada Goose 65
Mute Swan 4
Gadwall 4
Mallard 10
Blue-winged Teal 12
Northern Shoveler 12
Green-winged Teal 3
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 2
Green Heron 2
Osprey 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 28
American Kestrel 1
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Semipalmated Plover 11
Killdeer 5
Solitary Sandpiper 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 12
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 12
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Laughing Gull 200
Herring Gull 15
Great Black-backed Gull 55
Caspian Tern 1
Common Tern 5
Forster's Tern 2
Royal Tern 8
Rock Pigeon 45
Carolina Wren 4
Yellow Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 4
Bobolink 25
House Sparrow 15

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

Weak front looses morning flight and hawk flight

The weak dry cold front cleared Philadelphia around 2 a.m. this morning, and seemed to clear Cape May around dawn - it was difficult to tell exactly what the front was doing, but by sunrise the air was much cooler and less humid, and the winds were north - northwest - northeast.

A few birds were moving south along the Delaware Bayshore in the wee hours of the morning (as heard over Del Haven), but at Cape May Point near St. Peters an hour before dawn there was a significant northbound flight audible overhead, including a number of warblers and Swainson's Thrush, Veery, and a few Gray-cheeked type notes. These birds, as we assume for our morning flight passerines in general, were re-orienting after finding themselves over the ocean or bay as dawn approached.

Morning flight at the Higbee dike was strong, with Palm Warblers, Blackpolls, and redstarts dominant but a very full mix of other species, including at least 3 Connecticuts and at least 19 species. The list below is intentionally very low on the dominant species, since Sam Galick will be posting morning flight results to e-bird and we'll have his results up on this site soon. My sense was that morning flight exceeded one thousand birds but not five thousand. It should be noted that shorebirds are accumulating in the spoil ponds at the dike. Sam told me this morning that White-rumped Sandpiper and Dunlin were there, along with the other species listed below.

The general feeling among birders I met was that though there were lots of flyovers, few passerines pitched into the trees at Higbee or elsewhere. Glen Davis, one of our interpreters, did pick a Clay-colored Sparrow out from the morning flight platform at Higbee.

The front also launched an excellent flight of hawks - sharpies in particular peppered the sky at the state park, with plenty of Cooper's Hawks and kestrels thrown in, along with a few broad-wingeds and some of the less common species. Three adult Bald Eagles sailed over, with two providing a close-range show of chasing and clashing. The first big flock of skimmers I've seen at the point appeared as well, 75 strong, and a number of skimmer birds-of-the-year foraged in Bunker Pond. A Buff-breasted Sandpiper spiced the nice shorebird mix at Bunker Pond as well.

Lists for Higbee and the state park are below, again note that Sam and Jessie will be providing the full count results for morning flight and the hawk watch later on under "View From the Field." My hawk counts are only estimates for three hours I was at the state park, and are quite conservative.


Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/23/07
Notes: Counts are intentionally VERY conservative for the abundant species since Sam Galick will be ebirding a full count for the morning.
Number of species: 67
Canada Goose 10
Green-winged Teal 20
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Great Egret 5
Snowy Egret 15
Osprey 10
Bald Eagle 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 20
American Kestrel 5
Merlin 5
Semipalmated Plover 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 40
Ruddy Turnstone 5
Semipalmated Sandpiper 20
Least Sandpiper 5
Pectoral Sandpiper 5
Stilt Sandpiper 5
Laughing Gull 25
Ring-billed Gull 5
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Caspian Tern 3
Mourning Dove 10
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 35
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
Eastern Kingbird 2
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 10
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 5
Tree Swallow 500
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 20
Carolina Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
European Starling 10
Cedar Waxwing 25
Tennessee Warbler 2
Nashville Warbler 1
Northern Parula 10
Yellow Warbler 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Cape May Warbler 5
Black-throated Blue Warbler 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Black-throated Green Warbler 5
Blackburnian Warbler 5
Pine Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 50
Blackpoll Warbler 50
Black-and-white Warbler 5
American Redstart 30
Northern Waterthrush 5
Connecticut Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat 2
Scarlet Tanager 5
Northern Cardinal 1
Indigo Bunting 10
Bobolink 20
Red-winged Blackbird 5
American Goldfinch 10
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/23/07
Number of species: 62
Canada Goose 50
Mute Swan 2
American Wigeon 2
Mallard 25
Blue-winged Teal 10
Northern Shoveler 10
Northern Pintail 2
Green-winged Teal 10
Double-crested Cormorant 25
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 10
Snowy Egret 5
Black Vulture 10
Turkey Vulture 25
Osprey 25
Bald Eagle 5
Northern Harrier 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk 500
Cooper's Hawk 50
Broad-winged Hawk 25
Red-tailed Hawk 5
American Kestrel 50
Merlin 25
Peregrine Falcon 3
Semipalmated Plover 10
Killdeer 1
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Semipalmated Sandpiper 20
Least Sandpiper 5
Pectoral Sandpiper 5
Stilt Sandpiper 2
Buff-breasted Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Laughing Gull 50
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 20
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Common Tern 20
Forster's Tern 5
Royal Tern 10
Black Skimmer 75
Rock Pigeon 30
Mourning Dove 10
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Blue Jay 5
Fish Crow 10
Tree Swallow 50
Red-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 25
Cedar Waxwing 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Bobolink 5
Red-winged Blackbird 10
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 25
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

CMBO Sunset Birding at the Meadows......make that Cape May Point State Park walk

Below is a note from Karl and Judy Lukens about the CMBO Sunset Birding at the Meadows walk which is held on Friday evenings.

"Walk moved to the CM State Park from the (closed) TNC SCMM ("Meadows"). Beautiful evening with good shore bird and duck variety. Fly by Caspian and multiple Royal Terns, but smaller terns were scarce. "

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP

9/21/2007 ~ in Cape May Point ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 39 seen

Great Blue Heron 1
Mute Swan 6
Canada Goose 40
American Wigeon 8
Gadwall 3
Green-winged Teal 6
Mallard 20
Blue-winged Teal 12
Northern Shoveler 15
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 1
Merlin 1
American Oystercatcher 2
Semipalmated Plover 6
Killdeer 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Sanderling 10
Semipalmated Sandpiper 8
Least Sandpiper 8
Pectoral Sandpiper 6
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Great Black-backed Gull 20
American Herring Gull 5
Laughing Gull 40
Caspian Tern 1
Royal Tern 8
Black Skimmer 500
Rock Pigeon 6
Mourning Dove 6
Northern Mockingbird 1
American Crow 1
European Starling 10
House Sparrow 10
American Goldfinch 2
Palm Warbler 4
Northern Cardinal 1

Merlins and Mod-gods

I was actually intending to fish this evening, but hordes of people at my two favorite spots in Stone Harbor made me think better of it, so I spun the truck around and headed back into the thunderstorms approaching from the west. About a quarter mile south of the free bridge to Nummy Island, a group of birds on my left (ocean side) caught my attention. Biggish, mostly grayish, but there were a few bigger, buffy-brownish ones. . . hmmm.

I flipped the truck around, and sure enough, there were the 50 or so Western Willets from a couple nights ago, and with them, 9 Marbled Godwits. And a Tri-colored Heron, which gave me pause for a moment as I compared it to the willets and godwits. It didn't look big enough, so here's a question to ponder: how much bigger than a Marbled Godwit is a Tri-colored Heron?

The answer is, hardly bigger at all. Both birds weigh in at 13 ounces, according to Sibley, though the heron is 8 inches longer than the godwit's 18". Who would have thunk. . .

If you bird Stone Harbor, check the salt marsh pans on Nummy around high tide, and the flats/mussel beds from the free bridge beginning about 2 hours after high tide, as more habitat is exposed and birds of interest shift from their high-tide roost spots to the feeding areas near the channels exposed by the falling tide.

In the absence of any sort of front, the morning's birding from the hawk watch at Cape May Point State Park was slowish by front-standards, but who can complain about a half-dozen American Kestrels in view at once, plucking dragonflies from the sky? And then there was the Merlin which selected a juvenile Semi-palmated Sandpiper from the shorebirds on Bunker Pond, pursued it relentlessly, and plucked it from the sky. Vince Elia pointed out that it was probably one of the slower, less agile semi-palms, and I agree - at least, it was slower and less agile than the Merlin!

Who says you can't have good birding in Cape May on easterly to southerly winds?

Considering I was only out for about an hour and forty minuets, I'd say I had a pretty good morning. Take a look at this list below, I think you'll agree.

One of the highlights of the morning were the three male Cape May warblers flitting in a tree at the first "shrub island" in the first field at Higbee. While at first glance and given the unfavorable winds, Higbee seemed to be quite dead. That is until you actually stopped and listened. There were numbers of zeeps, zips and such going over head. One of those days that might have been better to be at the Morning Flight Project. But, if you actually tried looking deeper in the woods there were flocks of warblers and vireos moving deep in the forest. This made the birding quite tough and I suspect many folks walked away feeling that there were very few birds around, when in fact, the opposite was true.

The best spot (for me and a few others at least) was the first bit of woods on the right hand side just into the second field. It was on my way back to the parking lot that I happened upon a nice flock moving through these woods. In evidence was a Philadelphia vireo, Blackburnian, Black-throated blue, and Blackpoll warblers, American redstarts and a few Red-eyed vireos amongst other species. All in all, a fine day in the field; for a day when I started out questioning myself for why I was bothering to get out of bed. I'm glad I did.

On a quick side note, CMBO's Northwood Center woods continue to delight members and customers alike. Today there have been at least two Cape May warblers viewed and one hanging around being seen readily. Also a Philadelphia vireo, Blackburnian and Tennessee warblers along with Northern Parula and a few Red-breasted nuthatches.

The moral of this story, just because the winds don't seem to be right for migration, doesn't mean that the birding will be poor. Sometimes you just have to look a little deeper in the woods to find the birds you seek.

As usual, the list of species seen this morning is below.


Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/21/07
Number of species: 43

Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 8
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 7
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 9
American Crow 1
Tree Swallow 28
Carolina Chickadee 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 3
Carolina Wren 8
House Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Veery 1
American Robin 8
Gray Catbird 7
European Starling 25
Cedar Waxwing 47
Northern Parula 14
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Cape May Warbler 3
Black-throated Blue Warbler 8
Blackburnian Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 6
Black-and-white Warbler 10
American Redstart 2
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 7
Northern Cardinal 8
Indigo Bunting 6
Bobolink 59
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Common Grackle 3
American Goldfinch 1

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

A brief note on this "hawk-watching thing," reports from here and there, and a note on the Cape May Meadows closure

I've been in the north the past couple days, as in north of Cape May. Wednesday I had the pleasure of hawk-watching from Montclair much of the day, with the ace counter there, namely Bruce McWhorter, and the ace-est of counters and morale-boosters there, namely Else Greenstone, with her husband Wayne and a host of other NJAS'ers. The flight was, to put it politely, on the slow side, but we did observe passage Sharp-shinneds, Broad-wingeds, harriers, kestrels, and the local red-tails and coops. Montclair had a 4,000+ day Sunday, but the east winds have pushed the broad-winged flight to western sites.

Somebody asked me about the whole hawk-watching business - I guess it is a bit puzzling at times, getting excited about infrequent pin-dot views of migrating raptors. And then there are the micro-dots and nano-dots. . .

It either hooks you or it doesn't, I guess. Those dots are raptors, the kings and queens of the sky, and yeah they're far away, but they have also come from far away, and have far to go. To one high sharpie I called out for the benefit of the crowd, "Where'd you come from?" And then joked that it answered: "Northern Ontario." Which very well might be true.

Our current weather, with the stationary high, has produced somewhat stationary birds, and only good birding, rather than exceptional.

Karl Lukens reports from Hidden Valley:

"Slow land birding this morning with highlight being the Black-throated Blue Warbler, a couple of Red-eyed Vireos and Field Sparrows, and brief looks at 2 Green Herons. We do need another cold front."

Karl's Hidden Valley list:

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP
to 9/20/2007 ~ in Hidden Valley ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 34 seen

Great Egret 5
Green Heron 2
Canada Goose 100
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 6
American Herring Gull 1
Laughing Gull 3
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 4
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 10
Tree Swallow 8
Barn Swallow 2
Cedar Waxwing 6
Carolina Wren 4
House Wren 1
Gray Catbird 3
Northern Mockingbird 8
American Robin 8
Carolina Chickadee 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 10
European Starling 15
Red-eyed Vireo 3
American Goldfinch 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 1
Field Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 4
Bobolink 8
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 2

Bert Hixon remarks of Cape May Point today:

"The highlight was a (possible American) Crow killing and decapitating a peep of undetermined species in Bunker Pond. Very few terns, both Teal, N. Shoveler, lots of A. Kestrels and Osprey about, though."

Finally, this just in from Brent Burke, one of our friends at The Nature Conservancy:

"The Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge will be closed at minimum through the end of the week and there is a possibility that the closure may last through a portion of next week."

Higbee: field i.d. of fruits and nuts

About 25 eager people gathered for this morning's Higbee Beach walk - not to mention the 40 or so other birders wandering about hopefully apart from our group. We encountered the same group of gents with scopes that were spotted during our workshop over the weekend - they were from Sweden, seemed very keen, and their assessment matched mine: very slow day.

Not empty, just slow. Warblers flew over the first hour, but little touched down in the woods, and mid-way through the walk we sort of shifted gear to field identification of nuts and fruits - the botanical kind, I mean. Walnuts, hickories, persimmons, sassafras berries, grapes, rose hips - those things that birds and other wildlife depend on, and that are so abundant at Higbee.

A female Pintail that had appeared on Bunker Pond since yesterday was being pointed out by Anna Harris, one of CMBO's interpreters, when I wandered over to the hawk watch after the walk to deliver some materials.

In the t0tally-useless-to-you-but-still-interesting department, I've added three yard birds at my home along the bayshore, 10 miles north of Cape May, since yesterday: Eastern Screech Owl whistling away last night in response to my neighbor yelling at his kids, plus a female Black-throated Blue Warbler this morning, and a Purple Finch "pinking" overhead. Six months here (and almost never actually here at home), I'm inching toward the 100 mark, though numbers mean so much less than birds.

No cold fronts on the horizon, and tomorrow I'll be hawk-watching in north Jersey from NJAS's lookout in Montclair, where, I hope, at least I'll get a hug from Else Greenstone, which nearly everyone who is a return customer to Montclair gets, and which is perhaps the best form of "Vitamin E." Today's list from Higbee is below.

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/18/07
Notes: CMBO's Tuesday Higbee Beach walk. Cloudy, winds generally northeast. Figure 100 unidentified warblers overhead, mostly 7-8 a.m.
Number of species: 35
Mallard 6
Osprey 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 10
Broad-winged Hawk 1
American Kestrel 2
Merlin 1
Laughing Gull 5
Herring Gull 2
Great Black-backed Gull 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 20
Eastern Kingbird 5
Red-eyed Vireo 5
American Crow 10
Tree Swallow 50
Carolina Chickadee 10
Tufted Titmouse 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 10
Carolina Wren 5
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 20
Cedar Waxwing 20
Tennessee Warbler 1
American Redstart 10
Common Yellowthroat 5
Scarlet Tanager 1
Field Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 10
Bobolink 25
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 10
American Goldfinch 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Butterfly walk report from Sunday, September 16

Will Kerling, Associate Naturalist, sent the following report from the Butterfly and Dragonfly Walk in Cape May Point from Sunday, September 16, 2007, 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 noon. This walk is held every Sunday through October 14, and meets at the Pavilion Circle Gardens in Cape May Point - more information under Programs on this web site.

Butterfly List:
Black Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Cabbage White
Orange Sulphur
Cloudless Sulphur
White M Hairstreak
Gray Hairstreak
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Pearl Crescent
American Lady
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
Common Buckeye
Monarch
Silver-Spotted Skipper
Horace's Duskywing
Least Skipper
Fiery Skipper
Sachem
Zabulon Skipper

Dragonfly List:
Black Saddlebags
Eastern Pondhawk

Damselfly List:
Bluet species

We saw Red-breasted Nuthatches, Common Yellowthroat, Sharp-shinned Hawks and Osprey. It was a great sunny, breezy morning with thirteen people (3 members, 6 non-members and 4 life members) in attendance, some from Delaware and New York. The White M Hairstreak was a great find in an urban setting, nectaring on sedum."

Where and how do you bird Cape May on a fall flight day?

Answer:

Sunrise to ~ 10:00 a.m: Higbee Beach for passerines. Consider a mid-morning shift to the Beanery or Hidden Valley.

10:30-noon: Cape May Point State Park Hawk Watch.

Lunch: optional.

Afternoon: Stone Harbor Point and Nummy Island (or stay at the state park and bird the ponds and the rips, as well as the hawk watch).

That's pretty much what we did for the third day of the CMBO Fall Migration workshop, and since we totalled roughly 110 species today while making absolutely no effort to specifically run up a big species list, I reckon it's a pretty good plan.

It used to be I'd have worked the TNC Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, a.k.a. the Meadows, into the mandatory hit list of locations, but the meadows are still recovering from restoration work and seem not to be attracting and holding birds the way we would all like. Give it a year for the vegetation and invertebrate fauna to build back up, and I'm guessing the meadows will be better than ever. However, if the passerine flight seems iffy, or if you're going to bird until dusk, definitely consider the meadows for your morning or late afternoon/evening plans.

This whole discussion sends one ruminating on what makes a good day of birding. My view on that subject is to pursue quality views of quality species, hopefully with some interesting behaviors thrown in, plus an overall abundance of birds and some understanding of what they are doing and why. All that trumps some dumb big daylist total.

Let's start with Higbee. There is a certain tension at Higbee in the morning during a potential flight day. Part of it comes from the simple question, can I find a parking spot? At 7:00 a.m. today there were easily 100 cars there, and the first field was ringed with birders, reminding me of photos of British twitchers surrounding some American rarity in the Scillies.

Speaking of Brits, there was a group of perhaps 12 birders all armed with scopes at Higbee who I didn't have the opportunity to speak to, but my group asked me about them. Why do they all have scopes at Higbee (where, generally, the birds don't sit for such equipment)? I answered that the gentlemen were probably European, they were probably very serious, and probably knew more about the birds they were here to see than I did. And that I was being a kind of lazy leader today, and should have had my scope along in case we needed it .

Another tension at Higbee comes from the question, "Should I be here now, or over in the corner of the second field, or up on the dike, or maybe we should have stayed in the parking lot where the two Cape May Warblers perched first thing?" You always feel like you're never in the right place, especially when the morning flight is still going on and you're resigned to trying to convince the group that flyover warblers still provide good views, saying things like "See, that female Black-and-white really looks white-headed, doesn't it?" All the while you yourself are salivating for something, anything, even just a redstart, to perch somewhere where you can clearly see it.

I don't know the answer for how best to cover Higbee, and I do know the answer changes day to day and whether or not you get it right is mainly luck, but I think the best plan is enjoy where you are, cover the key areas slowly and thoroughly, and recognize that no person or party is seeing everything. After our great views of Cape May's namesake warbler in the lot today, we struggled until almost 9:00 a.m. before we hit a feeding pocket, and begin to hit the quality views again: male and female Blackburnian, a Bay-breasted still with some bay, a Wilson's, both Black-throated's, Northern Parula's and others. Luckily, raptors (albeit mostly sharp-shinneds) were constant.

Some of us saw bird's that others, mainly due to unlucky positioning, did not: the Philadelphia Vireo, "Traill's" Flycatcher, and others. It's part of the game. But the quality views ruled.

Today's hawk flight was very different than yesterday's, a normal happening the second day after the front. Falcon's ruled yesterday, accipiters and buteos today - a nice change of pace.

Stone Harbor in the afternoon was marvelous - 8 Marbled Godwits, 50 Western Willets, and a host of other shorebirds. Try the south base of the free bridge as the tide falls and the mudflats and mussel beds are exposed, and roosting birds return to feeding areas.

About the interesting behaviors: two adult Bald Eagles dueling at the hawk watch, oystercatchers predictably returning to the mussel beds, Tree Swallows balling up at the passing of a Northern Harrier, and perhaps funnest of all, a non-avian sighting: a roosting Red Bat at Stone Harbor point, which, we all agreed, was colored exactly like some of the dead leaves in the Bayberry it chose for the day.

Our lists from Higbee and Stone Harbor are below, Jessie Barry's hawk flight numbers and Sam Galick's morning flight totals will be up on "View from the Field" soon.

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/16/07
Notes: CMBO's fall migration workshop, day 3. front passed yesterday, winds northeast at dawn. Morning flight early, scattered groups of warbers et al later in the morning
Number of species: 72
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Egret 1
Osprey 5
Bald Eagle 2
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 10
Cooper's Hawk 2
American Kestrel 5
Merlin 1
Semipalmated Plover 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Laughing Gull 10
Forster's Tern 5
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 20
Willow Flycatcher 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 5
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 5
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 5
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 10
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Veery 1
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 10
Cedar Waxwing 40
Tennessee Warbler 1
Northern Parula 5
Yellow Warbler 5
Magnolia Warbler 2
Cape May Warbler 10
Black-throated Blue Warbler 5
Black-throated Green Warbler 5
Blackburnian Warbler 2
Prairie Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 5
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 5
Black-and-white Warbler 10
American Redstart 20
Northern Waterthrush 5
Common Yellowthroat 5
Wilson's Warbler 1
Canada Warbler 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
Field Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 5
Blue Grosbeak 1
Bobolink 25
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
Baltimore Oriole 5
Purple Finch 1
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 10
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)


Location: Nummy Island
Observation date: 9/16/07
Notes: CMBO's fall migration workshop, from 2nd ave and the base of the free bridge, falling tide 2 hr past high.
Number of species: 42
Double-crested Cormorant 150
Great Egret 5
Snowy Egret 10
Little Blue Heron 2
Tricolored Heron 2
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 10
Northern Harrier 5
Black-bellied Plover 25
Semipalmated Plover 5
American Oystercatcher 20
Greater Yellowlegs 10
Lesser Yellowlegs 20
Willet 50 all western
Marbled Godwit 8
Ruddy Turnstone 10
Red Knot 20
Sanderling 25
Semipalmated Sandpiper 25
Stilt Sandpiper 5
Short-billed Dowitcher 10
Laughing Gull 25
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 25
Caspian Tern 2
Royal Tern 25
Common Tern 25
Forster's Tern 5
Black Skimmer 50
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 10
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 5
Tree Swallow 1000
Barn Swallow 5
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 10
Yellow Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 5
Song Sparrow 1
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
House Sparrow 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Nummy Island...think Stone Harbor walk on Tuesday, 9/18

Just received a call from Gail Dwyer who reported four Tri-colored herons, 2 Pied-billed grebes, a load of Willets and 6 Marbled godwits from Nummy Island. Keep these birds in mind if you are thinking about joining the CMBO Sunset Birding at Stone Harbor Point walk at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. This is definitly a walk that anyone who comes to Cape may should go on.

I've also head that there was a Western Kingbird around today. Originally seen by Richard Crossley at the Cape May point State Park. The bird was relocated at the Beanery later in the morning. No further word about this species.

Additionally, there was an Olive-sided flycatcher seen on the CMBO Villas WMA walk today. again, no further word.

I spent some time up on the dike with a couple of WBS team mates (Jared and Zach Parks) who were visiting for this great birding weekend. While with the winds having switched to NNE the main portion of the songbird flight was behind the dike which makes identification even more of a challenge, for me at least. There were a good number of birds flying past though. One highlight was a imm. Red-headed woodpecker which flew past and an adult Bald eagle when we stepped out of the car.

After a while we decided to take a quick jaunt around Hidden Valley before I headed into work at the Northwood Center. We figured that since Higbee was loaded with birders we might have some luck at the "valley." Well I was wrong in my assumption, we did have some good birds but diversity and numbers were not stellar. Really I was hoping that a Connecticut warbler would have popped up in front of us to give a show. Still looking though.

The second list you'll see is the list we had from Walking around Cape May Point on Friday morning. Since the store has been so busy I haven't had a chance to post any of the sightings I've had on my walks. There were not huge numbers of birds around and not many migrants around. We mostly tallied resident birds but those count too. The best part of the morning for me was the fact that we stepped out of the car and put bins around out necks to have a Cape May warbler drop into a cedar tree over head. We didn't get good looks but enough to id the bird as a cape may.

The third list is from yesterday morning at the hawk watch. Since I didn't have any takers for my Birding Optics walk I spent a little while birding and chatting with friends. The best bird of the morning yesterday was a Clay-colored sparrow that Jessie picked up sitting at the top of a little dead shrub right in front of the hawk watch platform. Clay-colors are such great looking birds. Every time I see one (not often enough) I'm reminded of my days in Wisconsin at school.

Well, I think that there has been another pretty good hawk flight today. Haven't been outside to verify. I'd imagine since there were a pretty good number of hawks tooling about from the dike. Not sure of the weather for the rest of the week. Last I saw not much to get excited about. If you'd like to be sure, check out the Birding Forecast.

Location: Cape May - Hidden Valley Ranch
Observation date: 9/16/07
Number of species: 37

Turkey Vulture 2
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 3
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 31
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 8
American Crow 12
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 9
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
American Robin 8
Gray Catbird 3
Cedar Waxwing 40
Northern Parula 2
Yellow Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 5
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 5
American Redstart 7
Northern Waterthrush 4
Common Yellowthroat 6
Canada Warbler 1
Field Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 6
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 4
Bobolink X
Common Grackle 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 4
American Goldfinch 1

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

Location: Cape May Point
Observation date: 9/14/07
Number of species: 37

Canada Goose 6
Mute Swan 10
Mallard 12
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Osprey 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Laughing Gull 40
Royal Tern 5
Forster's Tern 1
Rock Pigeon 47
Mourning Dove 36
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 15
American Crow 1
Tree Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 8
Red-breasted Nuthatch 3
Carolina Wren 9
Veery 1
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 3
European Starling 7
Cape May Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
American Redstart 5
Northern Cardinal 7
Bobolink 35
Red-winged Blackbird 7
Common Grackle 8
Purple Finch 1
House Finch 16
House Sparrow 26

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

Location: Cape May Bird Observatory Hawk Watch Site
Observation date: 9/15/07
Number of species: 25

Mute Swan 3
Northern Shoveler 4
Green-winged Teal 8
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Osprey 3
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 20
Least Sandpiper 15
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 25
Royal Tern 12
Forster's Tern 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Tree Swallow 15
Barn Swallow 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Yellow Warbler 3
Clay-colored Sparrow 1

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

Front flings falcons, plus Black Terns and Monarchs

[Monarch butterflies accumulated near the hawk watch pavilion today. Click to enlarge. Photo by Don Freiday.]

The Cape May dawn broke cloudy and flat calm after pre-dawn downpours, and we began our day looking at an excellent concentration of terns and gulls on the beach at Cape May Point State Park. "We" means the participants in the Fall Migration Workshop, the same we that yesterday anticipated the passage of the approaching front.

We were not disappointed, though the front's passage around 9:30 a.m. at Cape May Point had us taking shelter under the hawk watch pavilion, with CMBO's counters and interpreters, until it cleared. The front itself wound up producing little rain, but these fast-moving cold fronts send the warm air ahead of them high into the sky, with downpours often the result, so we played it safe.

Pre-front, the beach yielded a kazillion Common Terns alternately roosting and flying about, depending on what the Peregrines and Merlins were doing - both falcons were present, so the terns were on their toes. With the Commons were 3 Black Terns and more than a score of Royals, as well as a smattering of Forster's. The rips were alive with Laughing Gulls, but not a jaeger could be found by us. We also inspected the State Park trails for passerines, and found them in onesies and twosies - 2 Yellow Warblers, 1 Magnolia, 1 Black-throated Green, and so forth.

Post-front, the kestrels started pouring by, as did the Merlins - Jessie counted over 150 Merlins on the day, and close to 500 kestrels. We watched an adult Bald Eagle steal a fish from an Osprey while we walked the state park trails, and later saw the same scene repeated while we hawk-watched from the platform. Glen Davis said it was third such incident of the day.

While walking the trails, we came upon an immature Peregrine perched literally right over our heads, maybe 15 feet up. The bird allowed time for close looks before rocketing off.

Later we checked the Meadows, where we could find a Merlin anytime we wanted. Two young eagles soared over, and a patch of skimmers came in to bathe and drink. Later still, after the workshop day ended, small falcons continued to fly past the platform, including a Merlin that plucked a Semi-palmated Sandpiper from Bunker Pond.

I hear from Michael O'Brien that the Villas WMA held a couple feeding flocks of warblers this morning, a useful tidbit of information given that there was little in the way of a passerine flight last night - perhaps Villas holds migrants.

Today's State Park list is below.

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/15/07
Notes: CMBO's Fall Migration Workshop, Day 2 - morning and part of the afternoon. Cold front passed about 10 a.m.
Number of species: 77
Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 5
Gadwall 2
American Wigeon 4
Mallard 25
Blue-winged Teal 25
Northern Shoveler 10
Green-winged Teal 10
Hooded Merganser 1
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 1
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 15
Bald Eagle 5
Northern Harrier 3
Cooper's Hawk 2
Broad-winged Hawk 1
American Kestrel 50
Merlin 25
Peregrine Falcon 3
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 25
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Whimbrel 1
Ruddy Turnstone 5
Sanderling 25
Semipalmated Sandpiper 40
Least Sandpiper 10
Pectoral Sandpiper 5
Stilt Sandpiper 15
Short-billed Dowitcher 15
Laughing Gull 800
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 40
Great Black-backed Gull 50
Royal Tern 50
Common Tern 300
Forster's Tern 25
Black Tern 3
Black Skimmer 30
Rock Pigeon 30
Mourning Dove 10
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Crow 15
Fish Crow 5
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 20
Barn Swallow 20
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 5
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 10
Cedar Waxwing 10
Yellow Warbler 3
Magnolia Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 15
Blackpoll Warbler 2
American Redstart 5
Common Yellowthroat 2
Northern Cardinal 5
Bobolink 10
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Common Grackle 10
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 15
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

First good hawk (and Monarch) flight of the season, happening right now!

Just went up to the hawk watch for a few (way to few) minutes to see what the NW winds have blown down to the Point. While I was there a steady stream of American kestrels were flying past, along with Merlin, Sharp-shinned hawks; a Northern harrier or two and some Osprey.

So far, it seems that Jessie has counted about 250 or so kestrels, about 75 sharp-shin's and about 100 Merlin.

I would expect that with the winds continuing to maintain strength and staying from the NW that the flight should last a good long while into the day. If you were thinking about getting down to Cape May to do some hawk watching, now would be a good time.

Tomorrow should be good as well, at least in the morning. The winds were projected to switch to the NE at some point on Sunday.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that there is also a good flight of Monarch butterflies happening as well. In scanning the skies two species were very obvious, kestrels and monarchs.

Of Merlins and terns, and waiting for the front

"Oh, you lucky people," I said to the 35 participants in our Fall Migration - Full Spectrum workshop as the national weather map played across the big screen at our Goshen center. The map revealed a big ol' cold front headed our way, predicted to pass tomorrow (Saturday) during the day.

"Cold front: learn this term." I told folks that at the start of the workshop. Raptors will fly in the afternoon tomorrow, and on Sunday, everything. Sunday's the last day of this three day workshop, which I'm co-leading with Michael O'Brien and Louise Zemaitis. We divide the group up for the field portions of the workshop, then group up for the indoors stuff.

This afternoon, we went over the best approach to identify any bird (a program I'll be repeating at the Autumn Weekend/Bird Show), and then Michael reviewed how to separate the dowitchers, Empidonax flycatchers, and Bay-breasted vs. Blackpoll Warblers in flight, among other things. . .we'll get to the hard stuff tomorrow, we joked.

Today we had east winds, and spent our time looking at Royal, Common and Forster's terns roosting on the beach, and picking a single distant Parasitic Jaeger from the foraging flocks off the Bunker at Cape May Point State Park. Like I told the workshop participants, "It's the dark falcon-like one beating the heck out of the others."

The other dark, falcon-like one of the morning was Merlin - we saw several, including one that tried, and tried, and tried, to do something with the pigeons that roost and nest on the Bunker. Those pigeons have been trained for years by tundra Peregrines, so a Merlin, fast as the species is, has little hope of success. I've only ever seen one of these resident pigeons killed by a raptor - an adult female Peregrine came over the dune, drove the pigeon flock into the air, did a full loop-de-loop and took one of the flock on the downswing like she did it all the time. God, I love Peregrines.

We saw one of them, too, today, later over at the Beanery - where some jerk vandalized the signs last weekend, by the way, we'll have them ship-shape in a little while (thanks, Sheila, Marleen and Dave!). A Sharp-shinned Hawk was hassling with a group of crows, and the P-bird came in to hassle with everyone. With winds not condusive to migration, we saw plenty of raptors today but they all had time on their hands, so to speak - drifting around, hunting, playing, but not much migration going on.

The state park held a few shorebirds, including plenty of Stilt Sandpipers, but I'm pretty sure the Baird's and Buff-breasted Sandpipers of the previous few days have left town, and we'll need a replenishment this weekend. Which, with the front, I predict we'll get, though the season is leaning towards late for both those species.

I heard about a Common Nighthawk roosting at the far end of the first field at Higbee, but we couldn't locate it. A few passerines were flying in the early morning, but not so many were available for study later.

Tomorrow Michael and Louise are taking their portion of the group to the Villas WMA, a.k.a. Ponderlodge, hopefully for a few of the landbirds which were scarce today. My group will begin again at the state park, perhaps to seawatch at the rips, perhaps to patrol the state park trails for landbirds, I haven't quite decided, and think it will be a little from column A, and a little from column B.

Today's list for the State Park is below.

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/14/07
Notes: CMBO's Fall Migration Workshop, east winds.
Number of species: 55
Canada Goose 15
Mute Swan 3
Mallard 5
Blue-winged Teal 15
Northern Shoveler 10
Green-winged Teal 5
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 5
Tricolored Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5
Cooper's Hawk 5
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 10
Merlin 5
Peregrine Falcon 1
Semipalmated Plover 1
Killdeer 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Sanderling 25
Semipalmated Sandpiper 40
Least Sandpiper 5
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
Stilt Sandpiper 15
Short-billed Dowitcher 10
Parasitic Jaeger 1
Laughing Gull 100
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 20
Royal Tern 40
Common Tern 100
Forster's Tern 20
Black Skimmer 10
Rock Pigeon 40
Mourning Dove 10
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
American Crow 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 5
Cedar Waxwing 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 10
Northern Waterthrush 5
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 1
House Finch 1
House Sparrow 5
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Good flight this morning, looking better for Sunday

Sorry for the lateness of this post but the Northwood Center was packed today.

Went up to the dike this morning as it was evident that good numbers of birds were moving over night. I sat out on my back porch for a few minuets around 5:00 a.m. to listen to the birds flying over head. Actually was able to add a couple that I could identify to the yard list. Easy birds, Swainson's thrush and Veery. Also had a Great horned calling which was nice. Loads of zeeps, zips and others that I could not tell. Did hear what I was sure was a tanager but I forgot to ask Michael about what I heard, the sound to verify.

While there were good numbers of birds seen from the dike, the larger portion for the flight seemed to continue high over head. Sam pointed out that you could scan the sky as if you would hawk watching, and at times you couldn't help but pick up tens of birds at a time.

There were a few Connecticut warblers flying past. What kills me was the first one flew by, close, and before anyone called it out I was thinking to my self, this could be a Connecticut warbler. Just then Richard called out the bird and I have still yet to get the look I am looking for. Maybe on Sunday.

So, if you were not able to get out today, make plans to get out Sunday! I haven't looked at the weather yet today but it's looking promising.

After the dike I took a very quick spin around the first filed at Higbee's. As I suspected not much hanging in the trees. I did hear that there were at least a couple of Connecticut warblers found in the woods today. It's that time! So, it seems that some out there had a good day of watching some birds.

The list from my very short (40 min.) walk at Higbee is below.


Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/13/07
Number of species: 25

Laughing Gull 3
Mourning Dove 2
Northern Flicker 1
Least Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 4
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 6
House Wren 1
Veery 4
American Robin 2
Cedar Waxwing 4
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 6
Black-and-white Warbler 5
American Redstart 12
Ovenbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Field Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 4
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 35
Common Grackle 6

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

Holy Common Nighthawk Batman!

Wow, what a day! A day like today is one of the many reasons I love Cape May. This might be a little longer than usual, just to warn you.

We started out the day at Higbee.....about an hour later than I'd have liked. I turned off the alarm in my sleep and woke up late. It sounded like there might have been a pretty good push of birds in the morning. When we arrived things had slowed considerably. All in all the diversity was not huge but we had some good looks at birds. A Black-throated green warbler for instance. I always like to see these birds, reminds me of my years on Hog Island at the Audubon Camp in Maine. They nested everywhere up there.

I did hear that the dike had at least a couple of Connecticut warblers fly past. Still a nemesis bird for me. Though, I will not vow to see one here, I did that with Cerulean warbler and I didn't see one this August.

Either way, the winds are supposed to be WNW- NW tonight so no matter where you may be in New Jersey, get out and do some bird watching tomorrow. There should be a good flight. I would expect that the hawk watch will be good again tomorrow. Also included in this post is numbers from our time on the hawk watch platform in the late morning. Some good looks at American kestrels and Sharp-shinned hawks. A harrier or two about and a juv. Bald eagle were highlights of my time there. Check out the View from the Field section for more detailed information on what the flights were like at the hawk watch and the morning flight.

The first list you see with be the numbers form tonight's CMBO Twilight Watch walk at TNC's CMMBR. Twenty-seven of us were treated to an amazing evening. THE major highlight of the night was a Common nighthawk that flew over head while we were discussing a few things in the parking lot. Later down the trail we saw two more night hawks. I was thinking, wow, this could turn out to be a pretty good nighthawk night. Little did I know. We hit the top of the dune after finding a Northern pintail on the little plover pond to the west of the trial. Once we got to the top of the dune we saw hundreds of Laughing gulls flying over the dune grasses hawking insects. If you looked toward the setting sun through your binoculars, the air was thick, almost as far as the eye could see with flying insects.

Soon someone noticed another Common nighthawk flying with the gulls. The another.... and another and more. As we scanned the sky opposite the sunset we could see many nighthawks between us and the town of Cape May. I counted as best I could given that I had to sort through hundreds of gulls and the nighthawks were moving about feeding so much that they continually mixed. My best count was about 45 individuals which is pretty darn good for Cape May. Sibley's Birds of Cape May indicates a fall maxima of 200 in Sept. of 1934. A far cry from a record but something we don't see all that often here. In fact, hardly ever. With the numbers of nighthawks dwindling, we should all feel lucky that we witnessed this evening's events.

As we continued around the loop I kept picking out nighthawks. Up on the new platform I counted at least 15 more birds. My 62 that I entered into my eBird account is a conservative estimate. I would guess that there were no less than 100 Common nighthawks over Cape May tonight. Who knows how many more moved in as the night fell.

One last note, it seemed as though there might be some heron movement tonight. Or, birds getting up testing the waters. We had no less than 13 Green herons flying around and, high. Not like birds that are heading to roost. One particular bird was flying in circles as if getting it's bearings. And for the batman portion, we did have three Red bats flying about near the platform this evening. When you are at the hawk watch platform early in the morning, look for these guys to come in off the ocean. You can see them in small numbers on a good night flight.

So, the moral to the story. Get out, you'll see more things that way. Also, check the Birding Forecast and then get out birding in the morning. Me, I'll be on the dike, it should be a good morning for it.

Location: South Cape May Meadows
Observation date: 9/12/07
Notes: CMBO Twilight Watch walk
Number of species: 37

Canada Goose 125
Mute Swan 16
Wood Duck 1
Gadwall 24
Mallard 35
Northern Shoveler 6
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 52
Hooded Merganser 1
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 13
Black-crowned Night-Heron 6
Black Vulture 3
Osprey 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
American Kestrel 2
American Oystercatcher 8
Lesser Yellowlegs 16
Least Sandpiper 8
Short-billed Dowitcher 3
Laughing Gull 725
Herring Gull 15
Great Black-backed Gull 75
Black Skimmer 95
Mourning Dove 3
Common Nighthawk 62
Chimney Swift 3
American Crow 8
Tree Swallow 24
Barn Swallow 6
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 12
Common Yellowthroat 2
Song Sparrow 1
House Sparrow 18

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

Location: Cape May Bird Observatory Hawk Watch Site
Observation date: 9/12/07
Number of species: 28

Canada Goose 35
Mallard 2
Northern Shoveler 3
Green-winged Teal 13
Great Blue Heron 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 34
Cooper's Hawk 4
American Kestrel 36
Merlin 6
Peregrine Falcon 1
Semipalmated Plover 6
Lesser Yellowlegs 16
Whimbrel 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 15
Least Sandpiper 25
Pectoral Sandpiper 6
Stilt Sandpiper 4
Chimney Swift 12
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Tree Swallow 100
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 15
Northern Mockingbird 2
Bobolink 37
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 15

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

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/12/07
Number of species: 27

Double-crested Cormorant 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 3
Chimney Swift 6
Eastern Wood-Pewee 2
White-eyed Vireo 8
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Tree Swallow 4
Carolina Chickadee 4
Carolina Wren 7
Veery 8
American Robin 8
Gray Catbird 2
Cedar Waxwing 17
Northern Parula 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
American Redstart 20
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 8
Northern Cardinal 7
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Blue Grosbeak 1
Bobolink 17
Baltimore Oriole 1
American Goldfinch 6

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

Zugenruhe, Morning Flight (or is that swarm) - not a day to spend indoors

Last night American Redstarts and Yellow Warblers fed actively in my cherry tree until dark, at least when not chasing each other in whirling loop-de-loops. These birds, I thought, were surely going to migrate tonight. They displayed classic Zugenruhe, a German term meaning "migration restlessness."

And they did migrate - along with many thousands of others, I'm sure. This morning's flight at the Higbee Dike was proof - Sam Galick, our migration counter, was clicking Redstarts off in 10's. Around 7:30 a.m. Sam showed me his redstart clicker - it read 71, as in 710 Redstarts. Second in abundance was probably Northern Parula, though Black-throated Blue and Northern Waterthrush vied for that title while I was there. Some goodies spiced the mix - several Connecticuts, a few Blackburnians, a solo Dickcissel, and an immature Parasitic Jaeger migrated down the bay in front of the Higbee Dike.

Birding from the dike is a different, exciting, and sometimes frustrating experience - the low-angle light makes everything look yellow, the birds pass rapidly in waves, darting this way and that, and yes, they are fall warblers, and yes, people are identifying them in flight. It's fun even if you can't identify most of the birds - where else can you see a few thousand warblers in a morning?

I haven't had the good fortune to spend much time watching Cape May's morning flight, and decided this morning that the first thing you learn at the Higbee dike is that if you thought you were quick before, you need to learn a whole new version of quickness: quickly spot the bird, quickly and normally naked-eye decide if it is something "different" (meaning, this morning, not a redstart) , quickly get your bins on it, quickly focus, and quickly absorb what you can see. That's really your first order of business when you try to i.d. ephemeral targets - get fast while staying careful. Some birders are naturally quicker than others, but I think it's as much training as talent.

Sometimes what you can see is the same stuff you use on a bird in the woods - streaks and an eyebrow on a Northern Waterthrush, for example, or wingbars on a "baypoll." Other times, you get only a gloss of pattern, like Connecticuts are big and hooded. And out on the edge, you use stuff not really in books - Blackpolls are streamlined, almost bullet-like in shape with very long wings and, even, a powerful chest. A powerful chest on a warbler? On that one, yes, and it makes sense since Blackpolls migrate so far.

Michael O'Brien, Vince Elia, and others have said the only way you can learn to bird the dike is to bird the dike, or bird from the platform where CMBO has an interpreter stationed. Some of the birds do perch briefly, before winging northward to find suitable habitat.

Then there's the business of calling out birds. Part of the problem is if you talk, you can't hear flight notes and can't concentrate, so this morning we were mostly silent, most of the time. Then there's the different-bird problem: I call out Blackpoll and you're looking at a Redstart, thinking I've lost it.

And of course, there's the bravery problem. Do you have the guts to sing out Connecticut Warbler on a fly-by 40 yards away, in front of a group of other birders, including some of the best anywhere? It's instructive to note that every single person on the dike this morning that named some birds out loud got a few wrong, at least initially, and commonly heard words included "I'm not sure," "Did you get anything on that bird?" and simply, and perhaps wisest, "I don't know." Mistakes are expected, and you can't learn without them.

I haven't heard any reports on how the woods birding was this morning, but I'm guessing it was excellent, and at the hawkwatch a few kestrels and accipiters were already evident at quarter to nine. Chris Brown, our "swing counter" (he pulls duty at the hawk watch, sea watch, and occasionally morning flight) reported a good morning passerine flight from the hawkwatch, too.

Shorebirding at the point continues to be excellent. Yesterday a Wilson's Phalarope paused briefly at Bunker Pond, seen from the hawkwatch platform. That bird, unfortunately, left after about 20 minutes with a group of yellowlegs and apparently didn't come back. Baird's and Buff-breated Sandpipers have been steadier, as have Stilt Sandpipers, White-rumpeds, and all the regular common species.

Word is Sabine's Gulls are showing up in New York State, perhaps that will be our next rarity. But rarities or no, 'tis the season to be in Cape May.

Changes in paradise: new birds, new ages along the bayshore

I recently concluded a meeting with some of our CMBO associate naturalists by asking, "Do you people know how good the birding is down here?" Meaning, in Cape May, compared to northern NJ (where I've lived most of my life) and the rest of the North American continent, where I've spent a lot of time and miles looking for and at birds.

I just got back from Wyoming, where we saw many great things, but after unpacking and doing laundry and picking up mail and doing all the things one must do after being away for two weeks, I wandered down to the Delaware Bayshore at sunset to see what was going on.

The tide rose and neared high, leaving just the elevated spits for birds to roost on. Ten Royal Terns, mostly adults with attending fledged chicks, adorned one spit with a single Black Skimmer and a smattering of Forster's Terns. The typical "shore shorebirds" were present - Sanderlings, Semi-palms, and a turnstone, but the age distribution has changed decidedly, with many more juveniles present. A juvenile Western Sandpiper was with the semis, and a kingfisher flew past.

I chatted with a man cast-netting for mullet for a time. The inshore waters of Cape May County in September are rich in baitfish, and thus fish-eating birds. Mullet, bunker, and spearing are the chief species, and these are avidly pursued by bigger fish like striped bass and bluefish, as well as by terns and herons.

The most unusual species tonight was a flyby Surf Scoter, a juvenile type to my eye, which means it was an arrival from somewhere in Canada rather than a summering bird. Fall has begun, and with it Cape May at its best. Tonight's full list, just a half hour from one place:

Location: Norbury's Landing
Observation date: 9/10/07
Notes: half hour at incoming tide, about 2 hours to high.
Number of species: 14
Canada Goose 2
Surf Scoter 1 juvenile by light belly and seemingly shorter bill/steeper forehead
Semipalmated Plover 10
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Sanderling 25 about half juvs
Semipalmated Sandpiper 25 about half juvs
Western Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 5
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 10
Royal Tern 10 mostly parents with attending young
Forster's Tern 20
Black Skimmer 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)