Sea Ducks, Little Blue, and it's No Longer "the" Crane

Tom Reed was out birding the Atlantic side of the peninsula yesterday, and found 2 Harlequins and a White-winged Scoter with 38 Common Eiders at the 8th Street jetty in Avalon. Tom also had a Little Blue Heron hanging on along Ocean Drive across from the Coast Guard Ponds, i.e. near Two Mile Landing.

Karl Lukens had 2 Sandhill Cranes behind Lucky Bones Restaurant, on the right fronting Cape Island Creek as you come into Cape May on the big/parkway bridge. One wonders about the origin of the Cape May cranes of late, and observers should check them carefully for signs of Common Crane (look especially for black on the crown), which would tag them as members or descendants of the resident Cumberland County flock. There is an article about this flock in New Jersey Birds spring 2009 issue by Bill Boyle and Laurie Larson.

A morning stroll down Cook's Beach Road yesterday yielded a bay frozen nearly to the horizon, and a frozen marsh inhabited by a half-dozen Boat-tailed Grackles. The woods were fairly lively, with Eastern Towhee, Fox Sparrows, Hermit Thrushes, Winter Wren, and Brown Thrasher among the more common winter regulars.