Thursday, September 30, 2010

Jaegers in the Rips + SATURDAY

An adult Pomarine Jaeger was soundly reported in the Cape May Rips this afternoon, along with 3 Parasitic Jaegers, which are the much more expected jaeger from shore.

Dave La Puma and I were just perusing the weather forecast models (which conflict a bit). It looks like the current messy weather from successive low pressure systems won't clear out in time tonight to allow much landbird movement into southern NJ for Friday morning, thanks to rain and strong southerly winds. But, high pressure will move in Friday and solid northwest winds at 10-15 mph are forecast from Friday afternoon all the way through sundown Saturday!! Watch for Zugenruhe in your local patch Friday night, and Saturday will be one of the best days of fall.  There certainly will be a substantial morning flight of songbirds, but that doesn't always translate into good viewing of warblers in trees at places like Higbee, Hidden Valley, the Beanery or Lily Lake. Things less inclined to fly out, like thrushes, sparrows and kinglets, should be common, and I bet the Northern Flicker show at Higbee Saturday will be worth the trip to Cape May all by itself. Peregrine Falcons should be in the 100's for the weekend, and it wouldn't surprise me if the former single day Peregrine record (298) falls. Sunday should also be excellent for Peregrines, with northeast winds generally the best for these notoriously over-water migrants.

And finally, any weird southern thing that moved north of Cape May with these lows is going to be coming south this weekend, with the west winds to push it to the coast. Which reminds me. . .isn't it time for that White-tailed Kite in Connecticut to come south?

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