Pages

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Must be May in Cape May: Common Eider, Gull-billed Terns, Bobolink, Summer Tanagers

Here's a brief run-down of some of my birding highlights from Saturday:

  • Excellent numbers of terns were feeding in "the rips" off Cape May Point this morning, with well over 300 Forster's Terns, and increasing numbers of Common and Least Terns. At least 1 Parasitic Jaeger was occasionally creating chaos, as well. 17 Purple Sandpipers graced the groin just north of the Coral Avenue dune-crossover, and a female Common Eider, a great bird for May, was on the water nearby.
  • A gorgeous male Boblink was singing his heart out at the Woodcock Trail tract of Cape May NWR along the bayshore this morning. My first Bobolink of the year.
  • New Bridge Road in Belleplain State Forest (the road that leads away from the "Sunset Triangle") was brimming with breeding birds during the early evening...Hooded, Worm-eating, Yellow-throated, Blue-winged, Prairie and Black-and-white Warblers, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush, Acadian Flycatcher and Summer Tanager, just to name a few!
  • 2 Gull-billed Terns were hunting at Beaver Swamp WMA, where Bald Eagles were showing well, and a Solitary Sandpiper was nervously poking around in the vegetation near the beginning of the walking dike.

Hopefully time will allow for a more detailed report tomorrow, but for now scouting, studying and sleep are all calling my name. A Chuck-will's-widow is calling along Reed's Beach Road at this moment, and there is a fair passerine flight occurring overhead. If it's Sunday morning and you happen to be reading this, all I can say to you is,

Go birding!

No comments:

Post a Comment