Two Migrants

"Wait a minute, I know that sound. . . ".

It's funny, we're "never not birding," but when you are focused on something else, like fishing, it sometimes takes a minute for a bird to click. So this morning out of Norbury's Landing along the bayshore I had two double-takes from my kayak, one for the half-dozen Bank Swallows foraging over the marsh north of the landing (they don't breed in Cape May County, at least not regularly) and another for three Bobolinks boink-ing overhead. Southbound.

The Bob's were probably adults, maybe failed breeders or the first departing males. Bobolinks have not been confirmed as breeders in Cape May County; during the NJ Breeding Bird Atlas, the closest confirmed nesting was northern Salem County. Southward migration begins in late June, but they are not encountered in numbers most years until early August.