Expect The Unexpected

In the same way that November is recognised as the month for fall rarities, June can be the month for a late spring wanderer. At a time of year when birding is going quiet for a while as local birds get on with the process of rearing this year's batch of youngsters, it's is still worth being out there with your binoculars. Though rewards are very thin on the ground compared with the peak of migration, there are birds out there to be found. A male Wilson's Phalarope graced the South Cape May Meadows (TNC's Migratory Bird Refuge) yesterday, while a call from an excited visiting birder to the observatory lunch time today revealed a young Sandhill Crane was at the Meadows, present for around a half hour before it flew off in the direction of the Rea Farm on Stevens and Bayshore.

Second calendar year Sandhill Crane at The Migratory Bird Refuge on Sunset Boulevard. N ow we have to work out what this bird was is doing in South Jersey in Mid-June! [Photo by Mike Crewe]