White Pelican News; Meadows Report

I learned second hand that a (the?) White Pelican was seen circling in a thermal at Cape May Point State Park yesterday.

This morning, pre-meadows walk, I stood at the Coral Avenue Crossover for a bit. A Brown Pelican adult flew past, and I heard a call I initially i.d.'s as a Horned Lark. It call twice more, and my i.d. didn't change, so that's what I'm calling it. I never found the bird, apparently overhead somewhere. Horned Lark is one of those sounds that you can cross up with other things - like pipit, which we don't have to worry about until September, or even a distant, off swallow or something.

Highlights at the South Cape May Meadows/TNC Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge included a hunting juvenile Cooper's Hawk, Caspian Tern, an adult Prairie Warbler, and the usual cast of interesting characters, all totalled 70 species today. The Least Bittern flew over the center pool, and later was heard calling - the krik-krik-krik call.

Location: South Cape May Meadows
Observation date: 8/17/09
Number of species: 70

Canada Goose 75
Mute Swan 25
Wood Duck 3
Gadwall 10 hen with well feathered young
Mallard 66 clicked by Janet Crawford
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Least Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 1 juv
Great Egret 5
Snowy Egret 5
Green Heron 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Glossy Ibis 10
Osprey 5
Cooper's Hawk 1 juv
Common Moorhen 1
Semipalmated Plover 3
Killdeer 2
American Oystercatcher 2
Spotted Sandpiper 3
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Sanderling 75
Semipalmated Sandpiper 2
Least Sandpiper 15
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 100
Ring-billed Gull 10
Herring Gull 40
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 40
Least Tern 10
Caspian Tern 1
Common Tern 70
Forster's Tern 25
Royal Tern 15
Black Skimmer 50
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 10
Chimney Swift 10
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Eastern Kingbird 5
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 10
Purple Martin 100
Tree Swallow 300
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 20
Barn Swallow 35
Carolina Chickadee 1
Carolina Wren 3
House Wren 1
Marsh Wren 2
American Robin 5
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 10
Cedar Waxwing 20
Yellow Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 37
Red-winged Blackbird 100
Baltimore Oriole 1
House Finch 10
American Goldfinch 15
House Sparrow 10