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Sunday, September 30, 2007

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/)

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