An evening visit to Heislerville was highlighted by a single Caspian Tern lounging on the sandbar in the middle of the main impoundment. Caspians are scarce spring migrants in the Cape May area, as most choose more inland migratory routes. Also on this sandbar were 175 Black Skimmers (give or take a few).
Shorebird numbers were much reduced from a week or two ago, but we were still able to tally about 5,000 Semipalmated Sandpipers shortly after high tide. In amongst the throngs of Semi-P's were also at least 18 White-rumped Sandpipers, including one mini-flock of seven. White-rumps are rather late migrants, and many of my higher spring counts have actually occurred during the first few days of June. Numbers will likely be reduced again tomorrow, as south winds are in place for tonight, and we witnessed several large flocks of shorebirds heading north, high over Delaware Bay- quite possibly birds that have packed their bags.
A full list from Heislerville is included below-
Location: Heislerville WMA
Observation date: 6/1/09
Notes: Nice count of White-rumps.
Number of species: 39
Canada Goose 12
Mute Swan 8
American Black Duck 6
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 8
Black-crowned Night-Heron 12
Osprey 4
Clapper Rail 1
Black-bellied Plover 12
Semipalmated Plover 60
Killdeer 2
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Willet (Eastern) 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5000
Least Sandpiper 2
White-rumped Sandpiper 18
Dunlin 50
Short-billed Dowitcher 20
Laughing Gull 100
Ring-billed Gull 4
Herring Gull 6
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Caspian Tern 1
Forster's Tern 6
Black Skimmer 175
Mourning Dove 2
Eastern Kingbird 2
Fish Crow 2
Purple Martin 1
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 6
American Robin 3
European Starling 6
Red-winged Blackbird 12
Common Grackle 2
Boat-tailed Grackle 3
House Finch 1
House Sparrow 4
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
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