I did some birding with a rather distinguished group of familiar Cape May faces this afternoon, including: 1) Chris Brown, the 2006 Avalon Seawatch counter and 2007 "swing" counter,
2) Sam Galick, the 2007 Morning Flight counter, and 3) Steve Bauer, the now-famous discoverer of New Jersey's first Lesser Nighthawk last November at the State Park.
The weather around the point this afternoon was, in a word, raw. Temperatures were in the 40s, but felt much colder when coupled with a stiff breeze off the ocean. We poked around the State Park first, with highlights including 15-20 Pine Warblers, 5-6 Chipping Sparrows, 3 Eastern Phoebes, a dozen Yellow-rumped Warblers, 2 Golden-crowned Kinglets and a Red-breasted Nuthatch along the "back" portion of the yellow trail. Many of these were feeding right on the path, sometimes less than 6 feet from us, affording superb looks. A single Ruby-crowned Kinglet was singing in the cedars at the beginning of the Yellow Trail, the first any of us had heard doing so this year. 4 Ring-necked Ducks were nice, as was the vocal but naturally invisible Winter Wren along the first bend in the Red Trail.
A brief tour around the Meadows only seemed to reinforce the fact that the weather was less than ideal for birding purposes, but we still put together a decent collection of birds, including an uncooperative Wilson's Snipe along the west path, a few Shovelers and Gadwall in the center impoundments, 5 Forster's Terns offshore and 2 American Coots along the east path.
We ended at the old Magnesite Plant and Davey's Lake, accessed via the Wildlife Management Area parking lot off of Sunset Boulevard, on the right just before you reach the parking lot at Sunset Beach. Davey's Lake itself was devoid of birds, and most of the action was offshore, including great looks at several close Northern Gannets and some very fine-looking Forster's Terns that have just attained their sharp black caps and flashy silver upperparts. A few Savannah Sparrows were skulking around between the parking area and the lake as well.
Lists included-
Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 3/30/08
Number of species: 46
Snow Goose 2
Canada Goose 2
Mute Swan 2
Mallard 8
Northern Shoveler 5
Green-winged Teal 2
Ring-necked Duck 4
Northern Gannet 15
Great Blue Heron 1
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Ring-billed Gull 2
Herring Gull 12
Great Black-backed Gull 2
Mourning Dove 3
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 2
Eastern Phoebe 3
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 12
Fish Crow 6
Tree Swallow 2
Carolina Chickadee 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 2
Winter Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 12
Gray Catbird 3
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 25
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 25
Pine Warbler 20
Chipping Sparrow 6
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 2
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 9
Common Grackle 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 6
Location: South Cape May Meadows
Observation date: 3/30/08
Number of species: 24
Canada Goose 6
Mute Swan 2
Gadwall 4
Mallard 6
Northern Shoveler 10
dark-winged scoter sp. 15
Red-throated Loon 4
Northern Gannet 9
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Wilson's Snipe 1
Ring-billed Gull 3
Herring Gull 25
Great Black-backed Gull 9
Forster's Tern 5
Rock Pigeon 1
Mourning Dove 2
American Crow 3
Fish Crow 1
European Starling 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Song Sparrow 1
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Location: Cape May - Magnesite Plant
Observation date: 3/30/08
Number of species: 23
Mallard 2
Green-winged Teal 30
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 1
Northern Gannet 50
Great Egret 1
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 6
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Sanderling 10
Wilson's Snipe 1
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Forster's Tern 12
Mourning Dove 2
American Crow 3
Northern Mockingbird 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Savannah Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
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