Birding on a windy day

Cape May rarely fails to surprise and this morning's Cape May Point State Park walk was no exception. A very windy morning didn't bode well, with thoughts of no visible migration taking place and the few birds that were around lurking in the undergrowth. As it turned out though, we had a great time and saw some great birds. Sheltered spots among the trees gave us great views of singing male Black-and-white Warblers busily working the tree trunks, a Blue-headed Vireo showed very briefly and later we chanced upon a mixed feeding flock which consisted mostly of White-throated Sparrows but with Chipping, Savannah and Field Sparrows, American Goldfinches and a female Indigo Bunting all in the mix. Several Great and Snowy Egrets and Great Blue Herons graced the edges of the ponds and a fly-over Cattle Egret was a nice surprise find.


The plover ponds gave us some great up-close-and-personal views of Least Sandpipers, as well as a very spotty Spotted Sandpiper. We'd had so much to look at that we ran out of time to check for seabird offshore, but Tom Parsons had taken a look and reported few birds moving out there in these high winds.
For the full list of species seen on this and all of our walks, go to our field reports section.
Elsewhere, Don Freiday reported Scarlet Tanager, Black-and-white Warbler, Chipping Sparrow and Yellow Warbler from the Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary and had 16 Great Blue Herons flying in off the ocean.

David Lord reports an American Redstart at Peaslea's WMA up in Cumberland County.