Black-headed Gulls Remain; More Redpolls

At least one Black-headed Gull was seen again this morning along the Delaware Bay in Town Bank, as per Vince Elia. The bird was near the bulkhead at the end of Emerson Ave, a couple streets south of Town Bank Rd. Tony Croasdale and company sent word of one or more Common Redpolls in the same area. There were multiple sightings of Redpolls at the State Park yesterday--definitely a species to look for right now.

Black-headed Gull photos

1 of 2 adult Black-headed Gulls - Town Bank, Cape May County, NJ - 19 January 2011

Black-headed Gulls - Town Bank, Cape May Co.

At about 12:30 PM, Don Freiday found two adult Black-headed Gulls on the beach on Delaware Bay where Townbank Road hits the water. The gulls were very confiding, so I'm sure that photos will follow on this blog in the near future. As I was leaving, one of the birds flew past me, wheeled, and landed at my feet to gulp down a tiny invertebrate that it picked off the sand. Perhaps these birds will take up residency as they did last year in the greater Villas/ Town Bank area of the Delaware Bayshore.

What's afoot at Cape May?!

Last Friday evening I went along to the opening of the latest display of local wildlife photography at the Sluice Creek Gallery at our Center for Research & Education at Goshen. There was some fabulous examples of local work there (so do go along and have a look!), much of it by my talented friends and colleagues that I get to spend time with. But that nasty green monster known as jealousy reared its ugly head when I saw a wonderful black-and-white piece by CariAnne Slotterback. It was of a young raccoon, close up and personal, a full face shot and well worth the asking price!

Less than a week later, I got my chance to allay that jealousy; at last, I had a raccoon before me - good light and camera in hand. Perfect!! I snuck up to the tree and took my first shot:

CLICK!!! The perfect shot of - well, errr, umm, I'm not sure. Look's like someone in hairy pantaloons!!!

OK, so getting the perfect shot isn't so easy after all - let's have another go:

Nahh, still didn't get it - back to the drawing board!!

So what was this raccoon up to? Well, I think he'd been out late with his mates and had a few too many burgers as it took nearly 10 minutes to squeeze into his daytime hideaway in a tree at Cape May Point! He just hung there, head in the hole, back legs catching the breeze, until finally he struggled in and disappeared for the day.

Bird news today was thin, with half the Cape's birdwatchers heading for the Space Coast Bird Festival in Florida, but Don Freiday reported four American Tree Sparrows at the CMBO Goshen feeders and three XXXX** Sparrows on the corner of Bayshore and Stevens, right by the Rea Farm in West Cape May. I also had an American Tree Sparrow with a flock of 25 Dark-eyed Juncos at the state park this morning and a look at Sunset Beach revealed a small movement of Long-tailed Ducks out of the bay early morning.

**Luckily I spotted Don's post before I put this up so I quickly hid the bird name here - we'll let Don reveal all in due course!! My quizz photo was to be the one above, but I went for a different tack in the end!

A Bit of a Quiz

Right, then, so I understand that Mike Crewe has a quiz photo in the waiting for you. In the meantime, have a go at this one:

[Why study birds once you know what they are? One reason is that, when you have a less than optimal view, you can still sort them out. (You can tell from my language I spent some time chatting with Mike this afternoon at CMBO-Northwood, enjoying his U.K.-based turns of phrase. . . ) The bird and farm machinery were both at the junction of Stevens Street and Bayshore Road in Cape May this afternoon. Click to enlarge.]

Cape May Birding Hotline 1-27-11

Hotline: Cape May Birding Hotline
To Report: call (609) 884-2736, or email sightingsATbirdcapemay.org
Coverage: Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic Counties , NJ
Compiler: David Lord, Cape May Bird Observatory
URL: http://www.njaudubon.org ; http://www.birdcapemay.org

This is the Cape May Birding Hotline, a service of New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory. This week's message was prepared on Thursday, January 27th, 2010. Highlights this week include sightings of RED CROSSBILL, LINCOLN’S SPARROW, BLACK-HEADED GULL, CACKLING GOOSE

A fly-by RED CROSSBILL was observed heading north over the Cape May Point State Park on Monday, January 24th, 2011.

A LINCOLN’S SPARROW continues to be seen near the first parking lot of the Cape May Point State Park, and was last reported there on Monday, January 24th, 2011.

A first year BLACK-HEADED GULL was seen flying south from Mt. Vernon Ave. on Friday, January 21st, 2011.

A CACKLING GOOSE was seen over Route 47 in Goshen on Monday, January 24th, 2011.

-For up-to-the-minute Cape May sightings information, photos and downloadable birding maps and checklist of Cape May, visit www.birdcapemay.org . Follow rarity sightings, many spring arrivals, and spectacles on www.twitter.com/CMBObirds -



ANNOUNCEMENTS:

******CMBO WINTER HOURS are as follows: Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point is every day except Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30am to 4:30pm; closed Sundays and Mondays. ******

The Cape May Birding Hotline is a service of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory and details sightings from Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic Counties. Updates are made weekly. Please report sightings of rare or unusual birds to CMBO at 609-884-2736. Sponsorship for this hotline comes from the support of CMBO members and business members, and should you not be a member, we cordially invite you to join. Individual membership is $39 per year; $49 for families. You can call either center to become a member or visit. Become a member in person and you'll receive a FREE gift (in addition to member discounts in the stores).

Good Luck and Good Birding!

Murre correction

After more analysis and discussion with others, I'd like to correct a mistake I made on this blog last week. I labeled a mostly black-headed murre from offshore Cape May County waters as a Thick-billed Murre when instead it was actually a Common. Some things that are more consistent with Common Murre include bill shape, the shape of the hood/ chest boundary, a bit of white behind the eye, and flank streaking. While this bird was the only dark-headed murre we saw that day (out of 27 total murres), a few more days at sea this week have revealed lots of molting Common Murres (and even some in almost full alternate plumage). Given what I've seen over the last few weeks, which has increased my experience with Common Murre in the mid-Atlantic quite a bit, I think we might have a bit more to learn and explore in trying to accurately resolve the status and distribution of these two species. A few things seem clear - Thick-billed Murre is the much more likely species to be seen from shore in the northeastern US in winter (though any murre is rare), and Common Murre is relatively much more common in a strip of water between 5 and 20 miles offshore (at least from Long Island south through the mid-Atlantic) during the same period. It seems important to be extra careful when reporting the [seemingly much rarer here] Thick-billed Murre from inshore waters off of New Jersey. Along these lines, here's a photo that I took on Saturday off of Belmar, NJ of a molting Common Murre:

At a glance we can tell that this is a large alcid by the body bulk and wing shape. We can get to murre over Razorbill by the pointy front end, the blunt rear end, obvious feet in flight, and dusky "wingpits". One thing that I've noticed recently is that murres consistently tend to have lumpy body shapes, especially when they have their wings raised in flight; Razorbills seem to have smoother contours to the bellyline, though they can definitely carry more weight toward the rear of the body, imparting a bit of a murre-like potbelly. This particular bird can be identified as a Common Murre because of the white pattern in the face including some feathers above and behind the eye (vestiges of the distinctive basic plumage), the slim, pointed bill, and the dark flank striping (or, as Tony Leukering might say - it's a Common Murre because it hatched from a Common Murre egg).

Bluebirds, yellow birds. . .

[Eastern Bluebird considers his options atop a shriveled Pokeweed at Villas WMA Monday afternoon. One consequence of the epic flight of October 29-31, 2010 is that food resources for wintering birds were depleted by the hordes. Click to enlarge photos.]

It's a quiet time of year, relatively speaking. We always say migration happens year round, and it does. . .but not much in mid-January. Nonetheless, the Cape May County 2011 list is up to 162 species, according to eBird. That's a pretty fair total, e.g. the next closest NJ county (Monmouth) has 128 species for the year entered in eBird. Lest we get feeling too proud: while there is no easy way to ask eBird what county has the most species, at least not that I am aware of, I guessed Los Angeles County, California, and the report yielded 280 so far this year.

While we're on the subject, in all of 2010 Cape May birders eBirded 334 species; the next closest NJ county was again Monmouth, with 288 (NJA happens to have its Sandy Hook Bird Observatory in Monmouth, think there could be a connection?) How about L.A., you ask? 401 on the entire year, 2010. Some of this has to do with how many people use eBird in a particular area, not solely how many birds there are. And of course, species lists represent but a fraction of the birding experience.

Back to the birds. Bob and Stephanie Brown and Will Kerling had the year's first (I believe) Black-headed Gull last Friday, seen from the Mt. Vernon meadows crossover. Tom Reed and Mark Garland were out on Monday and had a flyover Red Crossbill at Cape May Point State Park as well the continuing Lincoln's Sparrow there, near the entrance. Tom Johnson had a wintering Black-crowned Night-heron and a Short-eared Owl in the marshes along Rio Grande Avenue where it runs into Wildwood Crest.. It seems to be a fairly good year for Short-eared Owls, we're up to about 18 on the Winter Marsh Raptor Survey conducted last Saturday, with not all observers reporting in yet.

[These Eastern Bluebirds at Villas actively foraged at the edge of a mostly frozen pond, apparently pursuing minute insects.]

[She's still there, "she" being the hen Northern Pintail wintering at Lake Champlain in the Villas. Someone should name this bird - Nancy, maybe? Note the white bar in the wing - formed by the tips and edges of the secondaries, it's a great field mark for pintail when you can see it, which isn't all the time. How visible the white is on a standing or swimming bird depends on how the wing is laying in relationship to the tertials above and the flank feathers underneath, which sometimes cover the wing.]

[Here's where the white is on the female Northern Pintail in flight. Pintails are early northbound migrants, so she'll probably leave Lake Champlain by mid-late February. Pintails stage in large numbers in the tidal marshes of Delaware Bay in Cumberland and especially Salem Counties. It's worth the trip there in late February.]

[Mark Garland and Tom Reed had this Yellow-breasted Chat feeding on a paper wasp nest at Cape May Point State Park Monday. Photos by Mark Garland.]

Pelagic birding in the New York Bight

I was fortunate to head out this weekend on the See Life Paulagics trips in the New York Bight from Belmar, New Jersey (Saturday) and Freeport, New York (Sunday). We had great sightings both days, with 3 close Humpback Whales and a Harbor Porpoise (off Belmar) and tons of alcids and unusual gulls as highlights. Over 30 Common Murres were recorded each day, and both trips found Thick-billed Murre as well. Here are some photos from the weekend.

Black-legged Kittiwakes are present in low density offshore from fall through early spring. We saw lots of them this weekend, primarily adults like this sharp-looking individual.

"Kumlien's" Iceland Gulls are uncommon along the coast, but are typically present in small numbers every year. We had highly cooperative Iceland Gulls this weekend, with an adult off Belmar and a second cycle bird off Freeport that followed the boats for hours.

Razorbills are the default large auk species near shore in the New York Bight. Their evenly keeled bodies, long tails, blocky heads with large bills, and totally white underwing coverts help identify them.

Common Murres are actually fairly common offshore in the New York Bight right now. We encountered them frequently in ones and twos, tallying over 30 each day (and another new state maximum count for NJ on Saturday!). Their largely white faces (in basic plumage), rear-heavy bodies, obvious feet, overall brownish upperparts, and oily markings on the flanks and near-body underwing coverts help separate them from Razorbills.

A Cold Winter Raptor Survey

[Short-eared Owls are one of our two primary targets on CMBO's Winter Marsh Raptor Survey (the other, of course, is Northern Harrier.) This one was at my survey site at the mouth of the Cohansey River Saturday night. Click to enlarge photos.]

We dodged the bullet by having our Winter Raptor Survey Saturday night, when the winds were calm though the temperatures were cold, instead of our back-up night tonight (Sunday) in the rather harsh wind. Survey methods require wind less than 12 mph (Beaufort 3), with no precipitation. Full results will be posted on View From the Field as soon as all observers check in; volunteer observers do simultaneous point counts at 15 sites in Cape May, Cumberland, Salem and Atlantic Counties. I hear from Tony Leukering that 3 Short-eared Owls and a young Red-shouldered Hawk were at Jake's Landing for Saturday's survey, and Tanya and Lena Usyk and Dave Lord recorded 4 Short-eared Owls and 26 Northern Harriers at perennial hotspot Turkey Point. Angi Walters and Joe Delesantro had a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk at Forsythe NWR. Scott Whittle came up with 12 Northern Harriers at Bivalve.

My spot for the past three years of the survey has been the mouth of the Cohansey River, viewed from the north side at the end of Ragged Island Road. Three Short-eared Owls hunted there Saturday, and three Bald Eagle nests are scope-able from there, too (though two are very far). Not to mention 3 "Gray Ghosts," and 7 female-plumaged Northern Harriers, and at least 3 Great-horned Owls.

[This immature Red-tailed Hawk was on a freshly dead Snow Goose in northen Cumberland County on Saturday. Did it kill the goose? I don't know, but lean towards yes. I watched an adult RTHA consume nearly the entire breast of an Atlantic Brant at Forsythe NWR  in December, and wonder too, did the hawk kill the brant or just scavenge it?]

[Bald Eagle nest in the Cohansey watershed Saturday, with deer underneath. Most south Jersey eagles will be on eggs by the end of the month.]

View from the Cape Photo Exhibit Open

[March Moon: Red-winged Blackbird. This 11"X17" print is one of over 25 exhibited at CMBO's Center for Research and Education along Route 47 north of Goshen.]

The Cape May Bird Observatory is hosting a particularly interesting exhibit for the first show of the new year in their on-site Sluice Creek Gallery. Called “A View from the Cape ,” the show features a variety of juried photographs depicting the natural beauty of the Cape May area. The exhibit will run for 6 weeks, and the public is cordially invited.Sluice Creek Gallery's normal hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 to 4:30. CMBO is located at 600 Route 47 [near mile marker15.8], just north of Goshen, N.J.

A total of 25 works from the the following photographers are featured: CariAnne Slotterback, Karl Lukens, Kevin Karlson, Mike Hannisian, Nancy Watson, Scott Whittle, Tony Leukering, Will Kerling and Don Freiday.

All work in the show is by volunteers or staff from CMBO, a non-profit conservation organization. Photos will be for sale, and a portion of the profits will be donated to CMBO. In addition the wildlife gallery will offer a folk art component comprised of work done by a number of professional New Jersey carvers.

For more information please contact exhibit designer/coordinator Susan Zipper at (609) 861-0700 ext. 38.

CORE Blimey!**

The text message from Sam Galick said "core at grsp spot"; complete gobbledegook to most, but birders at Cape May instantly knew that he had found a Common Redpoll. When, just a few minutes later, the next message said "Make that 4 core feeding on goldenrod", I knew that this wasn't just another fly-over, single-observer sighting and I had to find an excuse to shoot over to the beach near Cove Pool. When I got there, Sam was still present and the redpoll count had increased to six! After a while Karl Lukens joined us and we were able to get excellent views of the birds as they fed on the copious amounts of Beach Goldenrod seed.

Common Redpolls choose to winter well north of Cape May in most years, but occasionally their winter wanderings (usually due more to food availability than weather) bring them down to the point. This winter has seen a fair scattering of reports of one to two birds, but almost always involving fly-overs or birds that moved quickly on and didn't stay to be enjoyed by the masses. This time though, this little party allowed close approach and it was even possible to name them to subspecies. These birds were of the more-expected nominate race flammea, a widespread form which breeds in northern birch and spruce forests around the globe, from Alaska eastward to, well, Alaska! There is something of a gap in the range, however, with different races breeding in Greenland and Iceland. The Greenland race, rostrata, has, according to Sibley's Birds of Cape May, been recorded just once at Cape May, with all other birds that could be assigned to race, being considered to be flammea. Greenland birds are typically large and chunky and clearly much browner and more smudgily marked than flammea. They have slightly heavier bills, a larger black bib under the bill and usually far less white on the rump - but (of course!) there are a few birds that seem somewhat intermediate and defy strict classification.

Common Redpoll, Cape May. Ageing and sexing redpolls is notoriously difficult, unless dealing with a full-blown, rose-pink adult male. Birds with no pink below may be adult females, or first-winter birds of either sex. Due to molt timings of the various age-classes, generally the only safe ageing criterion is based on the shape of the tips of the tail feathers. I never really got an ideal look at this one, but it deem seem quite pointed and a little abraded, indicating that it is probably a first-winter bird. [Photo by Mike Crewe].

The same bird as above. Common Redpolls of the form flammea are usually intermediate in every way between the dark, heavy-billed rostrata birds of Greenland and the small-billed, frosty snowballs that are Hoary Redpolls [Photo by Mike Crewe].

One useful fieldmark for separating Common and Hoary Redpolls is the presence or absence of dark shaft streaks on the under tail coverts. The broad-based, dark streak seen here would typically not be found in a Hoary Redpoll (and this photo shows that this is not an easy thing to assess in the field!) [photo by Mike Crewe].

The pink flush on the chest of this individual rules out a first-winter female Common Redpoll, but adult females can be this rosy so we are not much wiser on this one... [photo by Mike Crewe].

This bird has an extensive pink wash on the underparts, extending well down onto the flanks and indicating that it is almost certainly a male [photo by Mike Crewe].

Another look at the same bird as in the last picture; note that the pink flush extends well up onto the face too [photo by Mike Crewe].

These birds were feeding in the scrubby dune area to the back of the beach, just west of the beach cross-over at Mount Vernon Ave.; we would ask anyone going to look for the birds to please stay off the banked ridge at the back of the site (which was put in as part of coastal protection and should not be walked on to avoid un-necessary erosion) and to be sympathetic to the habitat wherever there are coastal plants growing.



**Wikipedia has a page wonderfully titled 'List of British words not widely used in the United States', under which you will find this phrase!!

Cape May Birding Hotline 1-20-11

Hotline: Cape May Birding Hotline
To Report: call (609) 884-2736 , or email sightingsATbirdcapemay.org
Coverage: Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic Counties , NJ
Compiler: David Lord, Cape May Bird Observatory
URL: http://www.njaudubon.org ; http://www.birdcapemay.org

This is the Cape May Birding Hotline, a service of New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory. This week's message was prepared on Thursday, January 20th, 2011. Highlights this week include sightings of WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILL, LINCOLN’S SPARROW, GRASSHOPPER SPARROW, COMMON REDPOLL, REDHEAD

Five WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS were observed at the Villas WMA on Wednesday, January 19th, 2011.

A LINCOLN’S SPARROW was located at the first parking area in the Cape May Point State Park on Saturday, January 15th, 2011, and was last reported on Sunday, January 16th, 2011.

A GRASSHOPPER SPARROW was found at the boardwalk on Mt. Vernon Ave. in West Cape May on Saturday, January 15th, 2011. It was found again at the same location on Thursday, January 20th, 2011, as were six COMMON REDPOLLS.

A female REDHEAD was originally found in the eastern portion of Lighthouse Pond in the Cape May Point State Park on Saturday, January 15th, 2011. It was located again on the west path of the Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge (“Meadows”) near the bridge on Sunday, January 16th, 2011.

-For up-to-the-minute Cape May sightings information, photos and downloadable birding maps and checklist of Cape May, visit www.birdcapemay.org . Follow rarity sightings, many spring arrivals, and spectacles on www.twitter.com/CMBObirds -



ANNOUNCEMENTS:

******CMBO WINTER HOURS are as follows: Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point is open every day except Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30am to 4:30pm; closed Sundays and Mondays. ******

The Cape May Birding Hotline is a service of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory and details sightings from Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic Counties. Updates are made weekly. Please report sightings of rare or unusual birds to CMBO at 609-884-2736. Sponsorship for this hotline comes from the support of CMBO members and business members, and should you not be a member, we cordially invite you to join. Individual membership is $39 per year; $49 for families. You can call either center to become a member or visit. Become a member in person and you'll receive a FREE gift (in addition to member discounts in the stores).

Good Luck and Good Birding!

Follow the Titmouse Down the Prairie Dog Hole: What Bird Sounds Mean

[Tufted Titmouse in a short flight to a new patch of trees along Delaware Bay.]

srEErEE....srEErEE...srEErEE...

That's what I heard as I stepped from my truck, parked near the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge Songbird Trail on Kimble's Beach Road. Rapidly slurred, very high pitched and squeaky.

I recognized a Tufted Titmouse's voice in the sounds, indeed have heard them give this vocalization often, though it seems not to be described in any of the standard field guides. No big deal - if you hear a bird in woodlands and don't know what it is, it's a Tufted Titmouse, right? If you go to this page and scroll down, you can listen to the sound, or one like it, and see a spectrogram - it's the high-pitched recording for Tufted Titmouse made in March in PA.

It turns out that several different pairs, or small groups, of titmice were making this call at the Songbird Trail today as (because?) I arrived. I found one pair, perched near each other, repeatedly vocalizing. "Why are you doing that?" I asked. They did not answer. No worries, I thought, BNA Online will know.

Well, BNA online didn't know, in fact didn't even mention this vocalization. SORA (Searchable Ornithological Research Archive) didn't know, or I couldn't find an article about it. I don't have my copy of Donald Kroodsma's The Singing Life of Birds at hand, but that's the next place to check.

So, in the meantime, on to what in some senses is still the court of last resort on bird behavior: Arthur Cleveland Bent's Life Histories of North American Birds.  Haven't been there in a while, where  we can read about the titmouse in the 1946 Life Histories of North American Jays, Crows and Titmice: ". . .He presents many claims to the rank of first nobleman of the forest realm. His presence is genial and pleasing, his plumage attractive, his alertness conspicuous, and his habits are good." Now that's what I call nature study!

Even Bent has nothing about this srEErEE business, though he says, "The notes of the Tufted Titmouse are many and varied, mostly loud and generally pleasing; it is a noisy bird."

Along about now folks might be wondering, what does all this have to do with prairie dogs? More than you'd think. This morning I tuned in to NPR to find an astonishing story on Prairiedogese - if that link doesn't work, go to http://www.npr.org/ and search the site for "Radiolab Prairiedogese."

The story is based on the work of Professor Con Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University . The professor studies Gunnison's Prairie Dog (Cynomys gunnisoni; if you're a mammal nut like me you want to know which prairie dog we're talking about.) The radio show plays different sets of prairie dog vocalizations, which to the NPR announcer and most normal people all sound alike, but to a serious ear birder the sounds are quite different, something easily revealed in a spectrogram. It turns out the prairie dogs use different vocalizations to warn of different predators, but it goes farther than that. The prairie dogs DESCRIBE the predators, e.g. they use different vocalizations for approaching humans if they are tall or short, or wearing red or blue shirts!!!

Now back to Bent and the titmouse: "Dr. Dickey tells me that they are 'seen to react to the voices and noises made by road workers, drillers and farmers. They hurry forward from shelter in twos or threes. Even when a visitor calls at the door of a house and starts to talk, then the titmouse arrives, evidently curious at a stranger in its habitat. I sometimes hesitate to wonder if such birds do not discriminate between the natives and strangers, for they have a sagacity that is hard to fathom.'"

Just what were those titmice saying when I arrived at the Songbird Trail this morning? Courtship? Alarm? Conversation?

Villas Merlin + Tuckahoe Report

[This Merlin, photogaphed yesterday by Karl Lukens, is wintering at Villas WMA.]

Karl Lukens reports that at Tuckahoe yesterday there were many Tundra and Mute Swans, 5 Common Mergansers, and 1 dark morph Rough-legged Hawk, as well as Northern Harriers and a Bald Eagle.

On the White-winged Crossbills yesterday, there were more than one but I couldn't get an exact count, so consider it 5-ish.

White-winged Crossbill at Villas WMA

Don Freiday texted at 7:43 that he saw five White-winged Crossbills in the pines in the NW part of Villas WMA that then flew SW toward the large pond. If we get further word, we'll pass it on.

Good Forsythe NWR Birds

 [Ann Morrison captured the wintering Edwin B. Forsythe NWR Golden Eagle, and its shadow, on Sunday. Click to enlarge.]

Birders heading up to Edwin B. Forsythe NWR have regularly been getting great looks at some fancy wintering raptors, including Rough-legged Hawks and at least one Golden Eagle. Also at Forsythe of late have been Tundra Swans, Common Mergansers, Eastern Meadowlarks, and "Ipswich" Savannah Sparrow.

[Same day, light morph Rough-legged Hawk. Photo by Ann Morrison.]

[Marvin Hyett had this Ipswich Savannah Sparrow at Forsythe NWR on Saturday, January 15.]

Pelagic birding off Cape May

Yesterday (16 January), Tony Leukering, Michael O'Brien, Sam Galick, David La Puma, Melissa Roach, and I headed offshore on the Atlantic Star on a cod fishing trip to see what birds we could find. After a great report from waters off the north shore of NJ on Friday by Mike Fritz, Paul Guris, et al. (see JerseyBirds archives for the post), we had high hopes of numbers of alcids. Well, we found them! The trip set a new NJ high count of Common Murre (26) and found three other species of alcids, including a spectacular Thick-billed Murre that flew by the boat just after sunset at very close range.

And now for a shameless plug for a friend of CMBO... if you're looking to get in on this pelagic birding action soon, Paul Guris and company at See Life Paulagics are running two trips this weekend (January 22 and 23) off northern NJ and Long Island, NY. With really good reports recently, many birders are getting psyched about the possibilities for the coming weekend. There is still space on the trips - check out the See Life Paulagics website for more information.

Our eBird checklist from yesterday, compiled and annotated by Michael, follows:

Location: Cape May County offshore waters
Observation date: 1/16/11
Notes: Cod fishing trip aboard the Atlantic Star, visiting several wrecks up to ~40 miles offshore. Most birds were seen in transit from one wreck to another with no detouring to look for birds. Also seen were 2 unidentified whales (either Humpback or Atlantic Right) and several pods of Common Dolphins.
Number of species: 10

Red-throated Loon 4 mostly closer to shore
Common Loon 6
Northern Gannet 32
Black-legged Kittiwake 24
Herring Gull (American) 60
Great Black-backed Gull 18
Dovekie 8 mostly farther offshore
Common Murre 26 Apparently a new state high count. All singles, widely distributed. Mostly flying in the morning; on the water later in the day.
Thick-billed Murre 1 Seen at 5:09 pm, on the way in. Mostly dark head with a few pale flecks on throat. (edit 27 Jan 2011 - photos show that this was actually a Common Murre in mostly breeding plumage)
Razorbill 25 mostly closer to shore; all in small flocks
large alcid sp. 16 Most/all of these were singles and quite likely Common Murres.

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Common Murre was certainly the bird of the day - we had great looks in flight and on the water, including this bird that popped up just as the boat was anchoring at an offshore wreck. (photo copyright Tom Johnson)

All of the Common Murres we saw appeared to be fully in basic plumage with lots of white in the face. In flight, the very white face, tapered appearance, and heavy back end are good ID points for this species, though they are tough to separate from Thick-billed Murre and Razorbill at a distance. (photo by Tom Johnson)

Black-legged Kittiwakes were sparsely distributed offshore; we had a few very nice looks alongside the boat throughout the day. (photo copyright Tom Johnson)

This mostly black-headed Thick-billed Murre popped up over the horizon alongside the Atlantic Star AFTER the sun had set and we were still ~20 miles offshore. This set all of the birders aboard into quite a frenzy. Somehow, Michael managed great photos even in the low light conditions. (photo copyright Michael O'Brien)
(EDIT - this is actually a Common Murre - see post on this blog from 26 January 2011 for the correction)

Just as it was getting light in the early morning, we started to find alcids, including several flyby flocks of Razorbills. All of our Razors yesterday were in flocks of 2-9 individuals; all of the single large alcids that we identified offshore ended up being Common Murres... interesting! (photo copyright Michael O'Brien)

We had spectacular flight views of this Dovekie, one of 8 for the day, as it flew up our wake and passed just off the port side of the Star. (photo copyright Michael O'Brien)

A Cold But Busy Weekend

It remains pretty chilly at Cape May with the weekend's blue skies having given way to gray and overcast weather, but there's plenty of birds out there to tempt us all out into the field. Don did a good job summing up the highlights of the weekend locally, to which I would add the results of our two-day Winter Specialties Workshop, which I have just posted on our Field Trip Reports page. It was good to have an excuse to make a winter trip up to the top end of the county, somewhere I don't get too often and it's a fair bet that there's plenty of good birds lurking up there and still waiting to be found. In particular, such birds as American Tree Sparrows and Tundra Swans are there to be enjoyed and there should surely be the odd Golden Eagle or Rough-legged Hawk to be found!!

The week has so far started pretty quietly, but Karl Lukens just sent me this great shot of the female Redhead that has variously been reported from the state park and the meadows at Cape May Point.

Purple?

 [If you get the light just right, and use your imagination. . . Purple Sandpiper, 8th Street Jetty in Avalon today. Click to enlarge photos.]

Avalon had a neat flock of sea ducks this morning, as it has all winter. Among the Surf and Black Scoters were a drake Harlequin, a hen Greater Scaup, and plenty of Long-tailed Ducks. Purple Sandpipers and Ruddy Turnstones populated the jetty at 8th street, Common Loons fed on crabs nearby, and many, many gulls took advantage of a low tide to extract blue mussels from the rocks.

Bill Boyle re-located the continuing Lincoln's Sparrow at the entrance to Cape May Point State Park, near the fence. There was no word today on either the Grasshopper Sparrow or the Orange-crowned Warbler found initially by Jim Dowdell at "Cove Pool" yesterday; Cove Pool is the east portion of the meadows accessed from the Mt. Vernon. Ave. dune crossover.  A female Redhead has been trading around between the limited open water in Cape May, having been seen both at Lighthouse Pond east in Cape May Point State Park and in the South Cape May Meadows.

[Purple Sandpipers do indeed have a purple sheen on some feathers - Tony's bird below shows it, as does this one. Same photo as above, zoomed in close.]

[Greater Scaup female leads female and male Surf Scoters at Avalon today. Note how the wing stripe extends well out onto the primaries, and boldly.]

[This adult Cooper's Hawk sat unafraid along Second Avenue in Stone Harbor today. Sharp-shinneds seldom, if ever, sit on an open utility line like this.]

[Yellow-rumped Warbler near an extremely important fall and winter food source: Poison Ivy berries. Nummy Island today.]

Announcing View From the Cape Photo Exhibit!

[Tony Leukering made this great picture of a Purple Sandpiper at Avalon last year.]

The Cape May Bird Observatory will present a particularly interesting exhibit for the first show of the new year in their on-site Sluice Creek Gallery. Called “A View from the Cape ,” the show will feature a variety of juried photographs depicting the natural beauty of the Cape May area. The exhibit,which runs for 6 weeks, will open Friday January 21st with a reception from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.

“Cape May hosts some of the most beautiful wildlife and landscapes on earth,” observed Don Freiday, photographer and CMBO Director of Birding Programs. “It is truly a ‘target rich environment’ for outdoor photographers.”

A total of 25 works from the the following photographers will be featured: CariAnne Slotterback, Karl Lukens, Kevin Karlson, Mike Hannisian, Nancy Watson, Scott Whittle, Tony Leukering, Will Kerling and Don Freiday.
All work in the show is by volunteers or staff from CMBO, a non-profit conservation organization. Photos will be for sale, and a portion of the profits will be donated to CMBO. In addition the wildlife gallery will offer a folk art component comprised of work done by a number of professional New Jersey carvers.

Light refreshments will be served at the opening reception on Friday, January 21st from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m.

The public is cordially invited to attend. CMBO is located at 600 Route 47 [near mile marker15.8], just north of Goshen, N.J. Sluice Creek Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 to 4:30. For more information please contact exhibit designer/coordinator Susan Zipper at (609) 861-0700 ext. 38.

Cape May Birding Hotline 1-13-11

Hotline: Cape May Birding Hotline
To Report: call (609) 884-2736 (609) 884-2736 , or email sightingsATbirdcapemay.org
Coverage: Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic Counties , NJ
Compiler: David Lord, Cape May Bird Observatory
URL: http://www.njaudubon.org ; http://www.birdcapemay.org

This is the Cape May Birding Hotline, a service of New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory. This week's message was prepared on Thursday, January 13th, 2011. Highlights this week include sightings of CACKLING GOOSE, VESPER SPARROW, EURASIAN WIGEON, LAPLAND LONGSPUR

A CACKLING GOOSE was seen heading south from Avalon on Thursday, January 13th, 2011.

Three VESPER SPARROWS were observed along Paper Mill Road in Eldora on Sunday, January 9th, 2011.

A female EURASIAN WIGEON was observed in the Cape May Harbor, viewed from the Lobster House parking lot, on Sunday, January 9th, 2011.

A LAPLAND LONSGPUR was seen associating with Snow Buntings at Stone Harbor Point on Thursday, January 13th, 2011.

-For up-to-the-minute Cape May sightings information, photos and downloadable birding maps and checklist of Cape May, visit www.birdcapemay.org . Follow rarity sightings, many spring arrivals, and spectacles on www.twitter.com/CMBObirds -



ANNOUNCEMENTS:

******CMBO WINTER HOURS are as follows: Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point is open every day except Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30am to 4:30pm; closed Sundays and Mondays. ******

The Cape May Birding Hotline is a service of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory and details sightings from Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic Counties. Updates are made weekly. Please report sightings of rare or unusual birds to CMBO at 609-884-2736. Sponsorship for this hotline comes from the support of CMBO members and business members, and should you not be a member, we cordially invite you to join. Individual membership is $39 per year; $49 for families. You can call either center to become a member or visit. Become a member in person and you'll receive a FREE gift (in addition to member discounts in the stores).

Good Luck and Good Birding!

Coop and Coot

 ["There seem to be hardly any birds at my feeder. . ." Anyone who's worked in a nature center has heard this from someone, and the number one explanation is a hawk that's made the feeding station a regular stop. Like this lovely but annoying Cooper's Hawk, which has haunted my Del Haven feeders all winter, here on Sunday. She's eyeing a clucking robin here. Click to enlarge photos.]

[Ice-skating American Coot displaying its unique lobed toes on "Lake Champlain" in the Villas Sunday. The Northern Pintail hen continues there, and a couple American Wigeon could be found as well.]

Woodcock addendum

At least some of the woodcock are doing just fine in all the snow, like this little guy who pulled several earthworms out of a Cape May Point yard while I watched from the roadside. Check out Tony's writeup below for more on the woodcock spectacle tonight at a snowy Land's End.

Woodcock Watch

Shortly after 4 pm, Tom Johnson texted that there were "lots of woodcock out hunting worms on roadsides in Cape May." Shortly thereafter, I saw his car drive by the O'Brien-Zemaitis residence where I was getting a lesson on picture framing. I called Tom to rag on him for not stopping by, so he turned around for a quick visit. We decided to go out and do a good American Woodcock count at dusk, as my lesson was finished. We drove down Stevens St., to Sunset Ave. to near the west end, then back to Cape Ave., down through the circle in Cape May Point, to the State Park, out Sea Grove Ave., then along a variety of roads in West Cape May. In that little bit of mileage (probably less than 15 miles) that we covered in about an hour, we counted 133 Timberdoodles, even picking a live one up off the double-yellow on Sunset at Bayshore (and placing it in a somewhat safer location off Bayshore).

While these times of snow cover and cold temperatures are excellent for woodcock watching, they are not so excellent for the woodcocks. Tom picked up one dead one before arriving at my framing lesson, and we saw at least three road-killed ones during our census. With much less open and unfrozen ground available for foraging, the plowed and/or melted roadsides offer most of the appropriate habitat for these odd shorebirds at such times and cars can take a large toll. Additionally, the birds often do not get enough to eat to sustain them, with many starving to death or becoming much more susceptible to predation. We saw one woodcock fly off after nearly being pounced upon by a cat and watched that same cat eying a second woodcock. While American Woodcock are normally quite able to avoid terrestrial predators, their extreme focus on simply finding enough food to survive can make them less vigilant, thus the various introduced (cats) and native (Coyotes and foxes) predators can wreak havoc.

Rough-legged Vulture?

After a highly successful visit to the north shore yesterday (see TJ's highlights below), we made a stop at the "Bridge to Nowhere" during our drive back to Cape May. The "Bridge" is a peculiar landmark in the marshes adjacent to Long Beach Island, located off Route 9 at the end of Stafford Avenue, northeast of the town of Manahawkin. It serves as a perfect vista for scanning the surrounding landscape for wintering raptors.

[The "Bridge to Nowhere" at the end of Stafford Avenue,
Manahawkin WMA. Photo by Tom Reed.]

Shortly after arriving, a light-morph Rough-legged Hawk became visible toward the east, methodically hover-hunting in classic Rough-leg fashion. A few minutes later, David La Puma made mention of an apparent "clump of dirt" out in the marsh. A spotting scope helped reveal two "clumps"- one a female Harrier, the other a Rough-leg! The two were taking turns feeding on some sort of carcass, which appeared to be feathered. Canada Goose or Great Blue Heron were the best guesses we could muster for the deceased critter. Maybe you'll come up with another guess after watching the video below (click on the outward facing arrows in the bottom right corner to view full-screen).

North Shore birding

The birding has been hot recently on the North Shore of New Jersey (Atlantic Coast roughly from NYC south to Long Beach Island). A small army of Cape May birders headed north yesterday to check out the show, and were very pleasantly surprised by the birds, especially given the bit of wind that made things extra chilly and gave the ocean a bit more rolling surface area that we like to see when scanning for birds on the water. Anyway, a day with both species of crossbills, 4 species of grebe including Eared, "Common" Teal (Eurasian Green-winged Teal), Pacific Loon, and Rough-legged Hawk in New Jersey is one that I'll remember for a long time.

White-winged Crossbill - presumed SY male at Seven Presidents Park, Long Branch, NJ - this bird spent quite a bit of time singing yesterday!

Red Crossbill - SY male in Deal, NJ - this bird was feeding alongside an ASY (full adult) male; both birds spent time whisper singing while we watched from underneath.

Peregrine Falcon - this bird was supervising the rarities at Shark River Inlet, Belmar, NJ

Eared Grebe - this is one of two rare birds we saw at Shark River - Tom Reed and David La Puma pointed out (with lots of shouting and arm waving) a Pacific Loon off the end of the jetties that we got great looks at while it preened and flapped.

As a footnote - the Eared Grebe and Pacific Loon have been reported by many birders in recent weeks off the North Shore. I'm sure that the New Jersey Bird Records Committee (NJBRC) would be very pleased to receive photos AND written reports of both of these species, which are sufficiently rare in the state as to be deemed "reviewable". Careful documentation of rare birds is one of those responsibilities we carry as birders, and it is a very important one if we want to have a complete and accurate record of the avifauna in New Jersey for years to come. For more information on NJBRC, please go here: http://www.njbrc.net/