Storm Hawk, Lark Sparrow, King Eider

[Immature Northern Goshawk on Mallard, Brigantine NWR yesterday at 4:00 p.m. For anyone who wonders if size is a good field mark on gos. Click to enlarge all photos.]

You could tell weather was on the way yesterday afternoon at Brigantine NWR, with Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Black Ducks and wild Mallards feeding heavily on a marsh flooding with a storm tide under dense gray skies. A / the Northern Goshawk (as I later learned, one has been at Brig for a few days, apparently possibly even since December) made the air a whole lot heavier for one Mallard, then fed on it for over an hour 40 yards off the south dike.

[After feeding for an hour, the gos flew back to the trees, crop distended. Undoubtedly it is now perched under the canopy, waiting for the rain to subside.]

Jim Dowdell detected a Lark Sparrow north of the canal which was later enjoyed by many yesterday. It was at the junction of Shunpike and the "ferry road, " i.e. the road leading to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.

An elusive distant immature male King Eider is south of the coast guard jetty, viewable by those with good scopes, persistence, and possibly a little imagination from Poverty Beach. Common Eiders, Great Cormorants and Horned Grebe can also be found there.

[Yesterday's Lark Sparrow, photo by Karl Lukens.]