Magnificent Frigatebird over Cape May

(Photo courtesy of Bob Fogg, www.keekeekerr.com)

Who says that TS Hanna didn't bring much in the way of storm driven birds? It would seem that even though most of the tern and shearwater activity was to our south and west, that it took just one more day for the big surprise to fly over. At about 9:30 a.m. there was group of birders hanging around trying to re-find and adult male Golden-winged Warbler which Laura and I had seen earlier. Luckily we could not re-find it as when we were all headed away from the area, a visiting birder from the UK, Leslie, pointed to a bird flying over head a with a few Osprey.

As it turns out it was a female Magnificent Frigatebird which at the time was headed in a westerly direction. It all to quickly disappeared behind some trees until someone relocated the bird back from the are where we had been looking for the Golden-winged Warbler. The bird was above the tree line for a short appearance and then off again in a southwesterly direction.

There have been no further sightings (that I know of) of this bird since the initial discovery.

Edit: I suppose I should have included Laura's and my list from Higbee this morning. It seems by looking at View from the Field, that Sam had a pretty darn good day at the morning flight. A couple of Connecticut warblers, 22 warbler species in all and a flyby Golden-winged Warbler. I'll be interested to hear if Seth at the hawkwatch had a good flight. Check out the View from the Field section to keep up on the happenings at the seasonal counts. Other highlights for us were two Philadelphia Vireos, 25 Veerys all around Higbee. In fact we went back into the wet woods on the east side of Higbee and had about of Catharus thrushes, most probably being Veery but ultimately unidentified. We did have one Gray-cheek thrush in this wet woods area.

All in all a good morning.

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 9/8/08
Notes: 3193 steps = approx 2.5 miles
Number of species: 60

Magnificent Frigatebird 1
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey 4
Cooper's Hawk 5
Laughing Gull X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Chimney Swift 3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's) 5
Empidonax sp. 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 3
Eastern Kingbird X
White-eyed Vireo 4
Philadelphia Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 75
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Purple Martin X
Tree Swallow X
Barn Swallow X
Carolina Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
Carolina Wren 15
House Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Veery 25
Gray-cheeked Thrush 1
Catharus sp. 13
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
Cedar Waxwing 65
Golden-winged Warbler 1
Northern Parula 6
Yellow Warbler 10
Chestnut-sided Warbler 8
Magnolia Warbler 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler 4
Black-throated Green Warbler 4
Blackburnian Warbler 2
Black-and-white Warbler 18
American Redstart 175
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Ovenbird 1
Northern Waterthrush 8
Common Yellowthroat X
Wilson's Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Northern Cardinal X
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 4
Indigo Bunting X
Bobolink 100
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Baltimore Oriole 30
House Finch X
American Goldfinch X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2