Avocets, Black Terns, Teal, Another Olive-sided, & a Prediction

The Higbee Beach dike, and presumably the trails, were not nearly as busy as they were yesterday, but at the dike a few redstarts et al. were flying, and a lovely male Scarlet Tanager flew out of the woods, then flew back again. Even better, a pair of American Avocets (which dropped in there yesterday for about 45 seconds) dropped in again, and stayed for a few minutes. It should be noted that the trail up to the top of the dike is muddy, slippery, and not recommended. Observing Morning Flight can be done quite well from the platform next to the dike, and that's where CMBO will have our interpretive naturalist stationed beginning next week.

Other birds around/from the dike included Blue Grosbeak, several Empids, Northern Waterthrushes, Chestnut-sided Warblers, gnatcatchers, plenty of Baltimore Orioles, and occasional explosions of Eastern Kingbirds. We were getting a real kick out of this one juv Semiplamated Sandpiper that vehemently defended his territory along the mucky edge from all other peep that came near. When a Spotted Sandpiper landed nearby, the semi flew at the spottie but then thought better of taking on the bigger bird.

I caught up with the meadows walk in time to see, and hear about, the great Black Tern show there - adults and juvs, at least 8 birds apparently. I misquoted Vince Elia yesterday, by the way, he had a half dozen Black Terns, not a full dozen. Six Green-winged Teal flew up out of the meadows, and a few Blue Winged Teal were sometimes visible behind the "gull island," that being the island east of the east dike.

Last night while walking the dogs at Villas WMA I noticed a big-headed flycatcher atop a snag along the trail on the east side of the proeprty. There were plenty of Eastern Wood-pewees around but bins revealed this was an Olive-sided Flycatcher. We also saw a Canada Warbler at Villas.

High pressure is over the area now, with south winds forecast for today but apparently changing to west and then northwest for a little while early Tuesday morning, which could produce some birds in Cape May if it happens. NOAA has another cold front clearing Cape May sometime in the dark hours Thursday morning, so (if NOAA is right, a big if with the unsettled pattern of late) birds moving on the back side of that front could appear Thursday morning.

One of my favorite weather sites is the NOAA national surface pressures and fronts loop. Your best bet when trying to figure Cape May weather is to skip the TV weatherman and look at the frontal systems, plus checking the local details on the NOAA weather forecast site for Cape May. In particular, look at the local radar loop, and the hourly graphical forecast (I love this because it forecasts wind speed and direction hour-by-hour) to make your own weather (and birding) forecast. The weather in southern New Jersey can be wildly different than forecasts from Philadelphia or even Atlantic City.