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Saturday, June 5, 2010

Wilson's Phalarope, MIKI, King Rail, Southern Breeders, Baltimore Oriole

Vince Elia found perhaps the nicest bird of the day, that being a female Wilson's Phalarope at Cove Pool in Cape May, a.k.a. Mt. Vernon Crossing, a.k.a the east side of TNC's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, a.k.a. the South Cape May Meadows. Go to the end of Mt. Vernon Ave. and walk out to the top of the dune, checking the pool to your right, which has been good for shorebirds this spring. The bird apparently was found later in the day in the main part of the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge.

Dave La Puma found a Mississippi Kite at Villas WMA today. The MIKI flew off a perch and over the main pond there.

First thing in the morning I dug around the Great Cedar Swamp Division of the Cape May NWR near Tuckahoe long enough to save several road-crossing Diamond-backed Terrapins from roadkill death, and also long enough to hear the deep, low, loud "stuck pig" (my name) call of a King Rail. Tuckahoe WMA itself was rich in southern breeding birds - though I didn't detect Kentucky or Hooded Warblers or Summer Tanager, a bike ride in the Tuckahoe Lake area yielded 6 Acadian Flycatchers, 6 Yellow-throated Warblers, 5 Worm-eating Warblers, 5 Prothonotary Warblers, 3 Hairy Woodpeckers, and a really good chance to test my Bug Tamer gear on strawberry flies. . . Dragonflies were active as well, more on those later,

Finally, the veenk note of a Baltimore Oriole in the sycamore near my home in Del Haven at dawn this morning was a surprise enough to make me track down the bird, an adult male. Baltimores, though common migrants, are uncommon nesters in Cape May County, usually found north county. According to eBird, only 2 have been reported so far in Cape May in June, this one and one found by Will Kerling at TNC's Lizard Tail Swamp.

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