Cape May Point State Park and Lake Lily- 12/18/07

I took a walk around the Cape May Point State Park yesterday morning in hopes of spying a few of the corssbills or redpolls that had been reported recently. No luck on the winter finches other than purple finch. I did hear about a Northern goshawk and a Yellow-breasted chat which had been seen at the back side of the state park (the area which adjoins TNC's CMMBR). There seems to have been at least one Baltimore oriole present at the park with the possibility of there being more than one. Probably my favorite part of the morning was the number of Long-tailed ducks which were flying east toward the Delaware Bay. Sure you can see good numbers of these birds most all winter but I never tire of them. Maybe it's all that time I spent winter birding in Maine.

On my way into Northwood I stopped by Lake Lily to see what ducks were about. No drake Canvasback but there was one hen in evidence. The usual other ducks were around with a nice group of American coot at the northern end of the lake.

I wanted to post the list yesterday but due to some server maintenance at Cornell (it has to happen sometime), eBird was unavailable during the time I had to enter my sightings. So, I bring you yesterdays list, today.

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 12/18/07
Number of species: 46

Gadwall 8
American Wigeon 18
Mallard 45
Northern Pintail 4
Lesser Scaup 3
dark-winged scoter sp. 10
Long-tailed Duck 43
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Common Loon 1
Northern Gannet 4
Great Blue Heron 2
Black Vulture 1
Merlin 1
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Rock Pigeon 12
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 4
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 12
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 1
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 12
Winter Wren 1
Hermit Thrush 10
American Robin 10
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 200
Cedar Waxwing 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 75
Eastern Towhee 2
Song Sparrow 5
White-throated Sparrow 25
Dark-eyed Junco 15
Northern Cardinal 5
Red-winged Blackbird 130
Common Grackle 175
Brown-headed Cowbird 110
Baltimore Oriole 1
Purple Finch 11
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 20

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

Location: Cape May - Lily Lake
Observation date: 12/18/07
Number of species: 8

Canada Goose 6
Mute Swan 14
Gadwall 8
American Wigeon 32
Mallard 26
Canvasback 1
Ruddy Duck 45
American Coot 8

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