Baird's, Terns; Migration Tonight

I've decided Swamp Darner (NJ's largest dragonfly) may be my new favorite creature, specifically the one patrolling my backyard meadow and keeping the mosquitos off me as I listened to the local Great-horned Owls.

With the heavy rains of late, the juvenile Baird's Sandpiper that had been frequenting the plover ponds at the state park shifted to the meadows yesterday and today, since the plover ponds at the moment have almost no shorebird habitat at their edges. This morning the Baird's was an easy bird to find, on the [now] tiny island east of the main/west path at the meadows just south of the bridge. Black Terns and Common Moorhens were other meadows highlights, the latter including an adult and a juvenile which had climbed itself a few feet up into a shrub, both east of the east path. The juv moorhens that have been around of late pretty much confirm nesting by this species at the meadows this year.

We also saw an adult White-rumped Sandpiper at the meadows this morning, which a Semipalmated Plover quite horrifingly grabbed by the flank feathers and held, like a pit bull, until the white-rumped spread its lengthy wings and pulled free. Apparently the white-rumped encroached on the plover's feeding territory.

Michael O'Brien had Roseate and Sandwich Terns at Cape May Point yesterday, but this morning despite picking through 400+ terns I found neither. There were, however, about 10 Black Terns, 15 lingering Least Terns (mostly juveniles) and quite a few Royals amid the predominant Commons and common Forster's Terns. Ruddy Turnstones and Sanderlings, including a few juveniles, were around the jetties and on the beach respectively, and a distant western Willet refused to transmogrify into a Hudsonian Godwit despite my best efforts. I was viewing from near Coral Avenue at the time, but the flocks move around the point.

A little hawk flight materialized in Cape May today with the northwest winds, featuring Broad-winged Hawk, Sharp-shinneds, Bald Eagle, a Peregrine, a Coop, and Ospreys.

The warm and humid air seems finally to be clearing out of Cape May, and I have to think a good passerine flight will be underway over night. Cameron had a few migrants this morning, and I've got a feeling tomorrow will be pretty happening, in Cape May and elsewhere, as this high pressure system builds into the area and we get northwest winds most of the night, going to north in the early a.m. hours. I heard about a Mourning Warbler at Higbee today.