White-winged Crossbills over Cape May

After birding around West Cape May this morning, I heard from Tom Magarian that he had heard some White-winged Crossbills flying over Cape Island Preserve. Those birds were headed south ~9:45 AM so I figured I'd walk around Cape May Point with hopes that the birds will stop somewhere before the bay. It actually paid off, and ~10:25 AM I heard two White-winged Crossbills getting closer and finally fly over my head at Lincoln Ave and Cape Ave headed east towards St Mary's Church. One was a male and the other was an immature/female.

Later on, I rode my bike along beach drive checking the ocean for waterbirds. I didn't have my scope, but I had a few interesting birds at Poverty Beach including an adult Great Cormorant, a Horned Grebe, and a small bird sitting high on the water behind the grebe that showed a lot of white. It was hard to tell how much white the bird acutally showed since it was distant, but after seeing it pop up a few times I realized it was an alcid and tried to alert a few people with scopes. Unfortunately, after using the phone, the bird wasn't relocated despite a few people checking.


There were also 20 Snow Buntings on the beach at Cape May Point State Park yesterday, a dull Redhead (above) and a Lesser Scaup still continue on Lily Lake, and at least one if not both Rufous type Hummingbirds are still visiting the feeder at 711 New England Rd.