Black-necked Stilt Continues at The Meadows

[Black-necked Stilt at the Meadows this morning. Photo by Karl Lukens.]

This morning's CMBO walk at the South Cape May Meadows (Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge) was highlighted by one, and possibly two, Black-necked Stilts:

"CMBO Walk at the Meadows with Pete. Cold, windy, spitting rain, but birdy. Lots of shore birds moving through. A nice fly-over American Bittern, and a Black-necked Stilt in the Plover Pond. Whoa! a Black-necked Stilt on the "gull Island" along the east trail! We didn't go back to see if it was the same bird or 2 different birds. Interesting! Also 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the beach and a FOS Common and Least Tern for many."

- Karl (Pete, Judy, Tom)

There were six Red Knots at the north end of Reed's Beach this morning- the first I've seen this spring. I also ventured out to Belleplain for a short while around noontime, and as would be expected given the weather and the time of day, there wasn't a whole ton of activity. The Kentucky Warbler sang briefly near the "triangle" area on Sunset Road, and Acadian Flycatcher and Broad-winged Hawk were both being vocal near the campground entrance.

A first-cycle "Nelson's" Gull (Herring x Glaucous Gull hybrid) was noted at Two Mile Landing this morning (off of Ocean Drive, between Cape May and Wildwood Crest).

This morning's list from the Meadows included below-

Location: South Cape May Meadows
Observation date: 5/4/09
Notes: CMBO Trip-PD,K,J,T,+20.Showers,51, E16.
Number of species: 59

Canada Goose 8
Mute Swan 4
Mallard 6
Northern Gannet 10
Double-crested Cormorant 3
American Bittern 1
Great Egret 4
Snowy Egret 2
Glossy Ibis 18
Turkey Vulture 6
Osprey 3
Merlin 1
Black-bellied Plover 2
Piping Plover 1
Killdeer 1
American Oystercatcher 1
Black-necked Stilt 1 /p
Solitary Sandpiper 5
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Willet 14
Lesser Yellowlegs 4
Whimbrel 4
Sanderling 3
Semipalmated Sandpiper 3
Least Sandpiper 2
Dunlin 12
Short-billed Dowitcher 36
Wilson's Snipe 1
Bonaparte's Gull 11
Laughing Gull 12
Ring-billed Gull 6
Herring Gull 15
Lesser Black-backed Gull 2
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Least Tern 1
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 30
Black Skimmer 1
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 4
Chimney Swift 3
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 1
Purple Martin 3
Tree Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 3
Carolina Wren 2
European Starling 5
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat 3
Savannah Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 10
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
House Finch 1
House Sparrow 2

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