A nice mix of early-August birds in the State Park

Karl Lukens, Judy Lukens and Tom Parsons led this morning's CMBO walk at Cape May Point State Park, and came up with the following:

"Good mix of shorebirds, waders, and land birds on this morning's CMBO Cape May Point Walk at the State Park. The second plover pond was the best place for shorebirds. Nice scope views of Green Heron and Northern Waterthrush."

The winds shifted to the northwest this afternoon, and the birds seemed to take note. Two small groups of Eastern Kingbirds briefly stopped by the marsh edge in Reed's Beach around 7pm, an Orchard Oriole followed suit shortly thereafter, and at least 9 Yellow Warblers were giving their flight calls and zipping from tree to tree along Reed's Beach Road during my evening run. The kingbirds and oriole (and quite possibly some of the warblers) were headed north, indicating that they had already assessed the 10-12 mile crossing of Delaware Bay, and like many autumn passerine migrants, chose another route.

Yellowlegs, dowitchers and peeps are now abundant in bayshore marshes and pools. Post-breeding wading birds are becoming more evident, Royal Terns are arriving from points south, and congregating swallows continue to increase in the skies and on the wires.

In short- go birding.


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/6/08
Number of species: 65

Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 5
Mallard 30
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 1
Semipalmated Plover 3
Piping Plover 1
Killdeer 10
American Oystercatcher 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 4
Sanderling 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 8
Short-billed Dowitcher 5
Laughing Gull X
Ring-billed Gull 2
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Least Tern 30
Common Tern 5
Forster's Tern 25
Royal Tern 3
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 8
Chimney Swift 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Eastern Kingbird 4
White-eyed Vireo 1
American Crow 1
Fish Crow 1
Purple Martin 50
Tree Swallow 15
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 5
Carolina Chickadee 3
Carolina Wren 5
House Wren 1
American Robin 5
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 20
Cedar Waxwing 5
Yellow Warbler 4
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 3
Song Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 10
Indigo Bunting 3
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
Orchard Oriole 1
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 5

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