Friday Morning at Higbee - Baltimore Oriole and a fine collection of raptors

This morning's CMBO walk at Higbee Beach WMA was greeted with some nice weather and some even nicer birds. Some of the highlights included 4 Scarlet Tanagers seen migrating over the parking lot before the walk began, a showy Baltimore Oriole that gave us a close fly-by, and a nice collection of raptors, including one each of Harrier, Sharp-shin, Coop, and Broad-winged Hawk.

It wasn't a super morning for passerine migrants, even though there were a fair number on the move last night. Conditions have been favorable for migration during most of the week, but there haven't been any significant weather events to serve as roadblocks, so many birds have been sailing over the Cape without pausing- and rightly so...after all, there is business to be taken care of for these little gems, the likes of which probably don't include posing at Higbee Beach for birders.

But there were of course some migrants, including a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a small flock of Swamp Sparrows in the second field, several groups of Savannah Sparrows, and a couple pockets of "Yellow" Palm Warblers. We received a second-hand report of a Chestnut-sided Warbler, and I heard an American Redstart sing just once along the 1st field.

List includes all birds seen/heard-

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 4/25/08
Number of species: 61
Canada Goose 2
Mallard 2
Common Loon 1
Double-crested Cormorant 69
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 3
Osprey 2
Northern Harrier 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Willet 10
Laughing Gull 17
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 4
Forster's Tern 3
Mourning Dove 9
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 4
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
White-eyed Vireo 6
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 7
Fish Crow 9
Tree Swallow 6
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee 10
Tufted Titmouse 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 12
House Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4
American Robin 9
Gray Catbird 8
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 15
Cedar Waxwing 29
Yellow Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 4
Palm Warbler (Yellow) 7
American Redstart 1
Common Yellowthroat 5
Scarlet Tanager 4
Eastern Towhee 3
Chipping Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 6
Savannah Sparrow 12
Swamp Sparrow 8
White-throated Sparrow 9
Northern Cardinal 16
Indigo Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 15
Common Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 4
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 2

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