Seth's Back - at Sandy Hook! Plus a "normal" good walk at Cape May Point

Today is the start of the Spring Migration Watch at Sandy Hook, Monmouth County, sponsored by NJ Audubon's Sandy Hook Bird Observatory, and the counter is someone familiar - Seth Cutright, the official hawk counter at Cape May last fall!

If you're in the area and want to stop by and see Seth, the Sandy Hook Migration Watch is manned daily from 9-5 through May 15, weather permitting, and is open to the public. The watch takes place from the observation platform near parking area K at Sandy Hook.

Another familiar face from last fall stopped in at CRE in Goshen yesterday - Lizzie Condon, our popular interpretive naturalist at Morning Flight and the Hawk Watch. Lizzie's working in Washington for the Wilderness Society at the moment, and will be heading up to Alaska for work this summer.

Karl Lukens et. al. reported a nice variety of ducks and land birds yesterday on CMBO's 8:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Saturday field trip at Cape May Point. No Snowy Owl or anything else extreme, but considering it's March, the list reveals how good the birding can be here any time of year:

Location: Cape May Point
Observation date: 3/14/09
Notes: CMBO Trip -Karl, Judy, Kathy, Roger, Tom, Steve - Cloudy, 38, wind E4.
Number of species: 44

Canada Goose 10
Mute Swan 10
Gadwall 20
American Wigeon 20
Mallard 15
Northern Pintail 1
Green-winged Teal 12
Ring-necked Duck 4
Black Scoter 6
Common Loon 1
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Turkey Vulture 5
Killdeer 6
American Oystercatcher 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 2
Rock Pigeon 6
Mourning Dove 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 8
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 10
Fish Crow 2
Horned Lark 2
Carolina Chickadee 12
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 4
Eastern Bluebird 6
American Robin 4
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler 10
Eastern Towhee 1
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 7
White-throated Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 6
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 6
Boat-tailed Grackle 1