First, for you offshore observers, the storm-petrel: Dick Veit sent the following note: "My students Tim White and Holly Goyert had a White-faced Storm-petrel yesterday 'at the shelf break east of Cape May'."
I hear this morning's Hidden Valley walk had a great look at Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 6 warbler species including Blue-winged, and numbers of Blue Grosbeaks.
Despite the oppressive weather, substantial migration was evident at Cape May Point this morning. I'll be curious to find out how Cameron Cox did at Morning Flight. While Bob Fogg, Dave Lord, Tom Parsons and I were standing around waiting for the 8:30 walk to start, we had a Dickcissel come in overhead and land briefly near the hawk watch before taking off again. Several Northern Waterthrushes, Yellow Warblers, and American Redstart flew over as well, and there were many Eastern Kingbirds in the air.
An adult Bald Eagle gave us a great show as it pursued an Osprey over the beach, inducing it to drop its fish. The eagle then sat on the Osprey platform at the third plover pond for a while before heading inland.
We only this's and that's in the shorebird department, including a few peep, both yellowlegs, and a Solitary Sandpiper. Bob told me Pond Creek Marsh has been very good for shorebirds lately.
Lots of Royal Terns were around, not so many other terns. The full list is below, but before that note the latest forecast, and make plans to bird Sunday, and sounds like, especially Monday and maybe Tuesday; it all hinges on when the front passes and how quickly:
A WEAK FRONTAL BOUNDARY NEAR PORTIONS OF OUR AREA WILL LIFT
NORTHWARD TODAY AS A WARM FRONT. A STRONGER COLD FRONT IS FORECAST
TO GRADUALLY MOVE THROUGH OUR REGION SATURDAY AS HURRICANE BILL
MOVES WELL EAST OF OUR AREA SATURDAY NIGHT INTO SUNDAY. HIGH
PRESSURE, INITIALLY WELL NORTH AND WEST OF OUR AREA SUNDAY, WILL
BUILD OVER THE REGION LATE MONDAY AND TUESDAY.
Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/20/09
Notes: CMBO Bird Walk for All People
Number of species: 56
Mute Swan 10
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 20
Northern Pintail 1
Brown Pelican 2
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Glossy Ibis 20
Osprey 5
Bald Eagle 1 Pursued Osprey w fish
Semipalmated Plover 10
American Oystercatcher 3
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Willet (Western) 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Sanderling 5
Semipalmated Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 5
Laughing Gull 75
Herring Gull 20
Great Black-backed Gull 50
Common Tern 10
Forster's Tern 5
Royal Tern 10
Black Skimmer 10
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 5
Chimney Swift 15
Eastern Kingbird 75
Fish Crow 15
Purple Martin 75
Tree Swallow 300
Barn Swallow 20
Carolina Chickadee 3
Carolina Wren 5
House Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 2
Northern Mockingbird 5
European Starling 5
Cedar Waxwing 15
Yellow Warbler 5
American Redstart 1 pre-walk flyover
Northern Waterthrush 3 pre-walk flyovers
Common Yellowthroat 1
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Indigo Bunting 1
Dickcissel 1 pre-walk flyover
Bobolink 15
Red-winged Blackbird 20
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 10
No comments:
Post a Comment