Wed. 3/26: Changing of the guard at Jake's Landing

I decided that my impending pile of work was no match for the gorgeous spring weather on the Cape today, so I took an evening stroll at Jake's Landing. There was a nice mix of both "winter-type" birds and "summer-type" birds, as evidenced in the list at the end.

Pine Warblers continue to file in; I counted at least 7 singing between the bend in the road and the marsh edge. However, I couldn't dig up any Yellow-throated Warblers. I bumped into CMBO Associate Naturalist Janet Crawford, who reported that a tour of Belleplain with fellow A.N. Karen Johnson this morning also failed to reveal Yellow-throated Warbler or Louisiana Waterthrush. Light west winds are predicted for tonight with only a small chance for precipitation, so perhaps tomorrow will be the day. Some other highlights in the woods included an Eastern Phoebe calling from the top of a Red Maple, an elusive Winter Wren and an equally elusive Brown Creeper.

I spent a few minutes scanning from the marsh edge, which produced 1 Short-eared Owl hunting on the south side of Dennis Creek. It was neat to see Short-eared Owl and hear Pine Warbler at the same time, a sign of the "changing of the guard" that will continue to unfold over the next several weeks, as wintering birds depart and breeding birds arrive. A silhouette of a Bald Eagle perched in the marsh off to the west, a few Laughing Gulls flying out toward Delaware Bay, and a distant perched Osprey rounded out the other highlights of my marsh-scan.


List included-

Location: Jake's Landing
Observation date: 3/26/08
Number of species: 37
Canada Goose 2
American Black Duck 6
Mallard 2
Green-winged Teal 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 6
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Clapper Rail 2
Laughing Gull 3
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 20
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Mourning Dove 2
Short-eared Owl 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue Jay 1
Carolina Chickadee 2
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 2
Winter Wren 1
Marsh Wren 1
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 4
European Starling 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 9
Pine Warbler 7
Seaside Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 15
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
American Goldfinch 1

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