Gulls around Cape May

Bird activity over the water has been picking up over the past couple weeks around Cape May Point! Up until a couple weeks ago, the beaches around the point hosted a handful of Herring Gulls, scattered Bonaparte's Gulls, Ruddy Turnstones, Purple Sandpipers and Sanderling. Scoters were milling around far from the beach and Red-throated Loons were even hard to come across. Just a few days ago, numbers have started to increase and birds have been feeding more actively in the surf. Herring Gull numbers around the jettis have more than doubled from last month and large numbers of Long-tailed Ducks were exiting the bay over the past few days. This past weekend hosted the first concentrated group of ~60 Bonaparte's Gulls at the Concrete Ship, and quite predictably this Black-headed Gull showed up with the mix. I heard from Vince Elia that he was watching the bird this morning so I headed down there to have a look. He also saw the bird the other day, but it only made a brief appearance before heading out into the bay. There was also a Lesser-black Backed Gull hanging around the area which looked like the same bird that has made random appearances along the beach through December and January.