Western Grebe and other news

Scott Whittle found a Western Grebe on the bay just off Sunset beach this morning; it seems likely that this bird wintered somewhere in the area and is now reorienting itself. It may even be the bird that that spent the end of last year in Cape May Harbor. An adult Parasitic Jaeger was also present briefly at the same site. It looks like we are in for some showers on Monday and Tuesday so make the best of the sunny weather to scan the Cape May skies for a kite or two - we must be due for a Mississippi Kite around now!

Elsewhere, a gentle trickle of warblers continues to filter through our area. Our Beanery walk had a nice singing Prothonotary Warbler this morning and I heard of an American Redstart at Mays Landing (one was also at Higbee Beach on 25th). If you are really keen on getting a good list up tomorrow, Karen Johnson tells me that her tour of the Belleplain/Peaslee area this morning turned up 17 species of warbler, four species of vireo and both Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, while two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Indigo Bunting and Rose-breasted Grosbeak have all been at her feeders - what a morning! This morning saw a nice steady movement of small parties of egrets and Double-crested Cormorants passing through, Forster's Terns are returning to the Bunker Pond railing and several reports of Red-headed Woodpeckers have come from The Beanery, Cape May Point and Cox Hall Creek WMA. Recent reports of shorebirds continue to be headed by a Wilson's Phalarope which was still present at Heislerville today. One or two Blue Grosbeaks are popping up in scrubby fields around Cape May and a good scattering of Blue-headed Vireos continues to be reported. Cape May Point State Park continues to provide a good swallow show along the dune edge with at least four Cliff Swallows among the Barn, Bank, Tree and Northern Rough-winged Swallows there yesterday and a single Cave Swallow this morning (the latter presumably the continuing bird that has been around on and off for a few days now).

Whimbrels are starting to appear in our back bay marshes now - keep an eye out for the around Nummy's Island, Shellbay Landing and other saltmarsh areas [photo by E J Nistico]

It's amazing what Ospreys will pull out of the water for lunch! This one caught a nice-sized Atlantic Needlefish near Nummy's Island [photo by E J Nistico].

Yellow-rumped Warblers are back in our area and many are looking very smart in their breeding plumage now [photo by Mike Crewe].

Keep an eye out for Red-headed Woodpeckers as a small passage of these birds is taking place through our area right now. This bird was one of two at the Northwood Center yesterday [photo by Mike Crewe].

A few more warblers, a little more warmth

Despite some windy conditions overnight, the past couple of days have seen a steady increase in warmer temperatures and a slow but steady increase in warblers trickling through the area. We still await the first real big push as weather conditions haven't been right to send birds our way in any number yet, but sometimes, slow but sure can be nice - it means that each day you add a little bit more to your birding enjoyment, saving some for the next day.

As the weather warms, there has been a noticeable emergence of butterflies and dragonflies. You may have seen from our Field Trips blog that we notched up Springtime Darner and some nice Uhler's Sundragons on our Belleplain walk on Sunday and today at Cox Hall Creek, we added our first Mantled Baskettail of the year. In the butterfly line, Eastern Tailed Blues have clearly came out big time in the last few days and these dazzling blue jewels can be seen in good numbers flying close to the ground in grassy places now. On 24th I saw my first Eastern Tiger Swallowtail of the year, flying casually down Fulling Mill Road, while dusty brown Juvenal's Duskywings are appearing at more and more locations as the week goes by.

Yesterday's Swallow-tailed Kite seems to have finished its day in North Cape May but was not reported today. Blue-headed Vireos are putting on a good show this year with a good number of birds in song now, while at least three Yellow-throated Vireos were singing at Peaslee WMA on 24th. Small parties of Least Sandpipers are feeding at the plover ponds in the state park, Eastern Bluebirds are busy nest-building at both the state park and Cox Hall Creek WMA and the Northwood Center today provided a steady run of interesting birds, including singing Black-and-white, Yellow and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Also at the Northwood Center was a surprise Pine Siskin yesterday and a superb adult Red-headed Woodpecker today. Further afield, a Wilson's Phalarope was at Heislerville to at least 24th.

The birds are coming!

We're still gathering records of Springtime Darner in Cape May but on present knowledge it appears to be a rather scarce species here, confined to the very north of the county. This individual was seen on our Belleplain Wildlife walk last Sunday [photo by Mike Crewe].

Female Uhler's Sundragon. This species is one of the first dragonfly species to emerge here in the spring and can be found along dirt roads in the Belleplain area [photo by Mike Crewe].

This female Eastern Bluebird has been filling a nestbox at the state park with all manner of twiggy bits and pieces [photo by Mike Crewe].

The purpose-built plover ponds at Cape May Point are currently proving their worth as the local Piping Plovers search the edges for food [photo by Mike Crewe].

A Black-and-white Warbler makes it onto my coffee break list at the Northwood Center today [photo by Mike Crewe].

Today's star turn - a wonderfully colorful Red-headed Woodpecker at the Northwood Center today [photo by Mike Crewe].

One of the highlights of our Wednesday morning walk this week was the point blank view we got of a Cliff Swallow. This bird, along with a gathering of Tree, Barn and Northern Rough-winged Swallows seemed rather sluggish and perched on fences and even the ground. It seems likely that chilly conditions at the point were hitting the insect populations and swallows were struggling to find food [photo by Mike Crewe].

Now that we are well into April, it is finally time to start seeking out some of our native spring flowers. Swamp-pink still grows at a small handful of locations in Cape May County, but unsustainable use of ground water due to ill-advised building development and loss of habitat are just two reasons why we are losing this fabulous harbinger of spring [photo by Mike Crewe].

Swallow-tailed Kite

I had some nice ideas lined up for a blog post today, but it doesn't pay to plan too far ahead when you live at Cape May as the birds can change as quickly as the weather. After our Wednesday morning walk at the point (which produced a really nice set of up-close birds) our post-walk breakfast was interrupted by news of a Swallow-tailed Kite somewhere over The Beanery, seemingly heading West. After a second report of it from the fields between Sunset Boulevard and Seagrove Avenue, we decided to give it a look, not least because it would be a life bird for two of our party.

A lucky glance as we passed the fields along Sunset Boulevard, revealed the bird heading away southward over the trees. We hurried on down to the point and there was our bird, hunting insects over the wood on the north side of Lighthouse Pond. And here it is...

Now normally, I would be over the moon to get such shots of a Swallow-tailed Kite in Cape May. The views were fabulous in good light and, with a bit of careful photoshop work I could crop the photo and bring the bird in closer - very nice. But just occasionally life does deal you one of those nice cards - the queen of hearts I reckon.

My fellow associate naturalists all had other places to be and - happy with our great views and unable to re-find the bird once it drifted off west, we all went our separate ways. An hour later, I had to head off for a 1PM meeting and I too was then heading out of the area. But I made the error of glancing back across the fields along Sunset Boulevard - and there was this wonderfully rakish silhouette, drifting away over the trees. Meeting or no meeting, I had to have one last look, so I whipped round into Seagrove Avenue and there was our kite, hanging in the wind over the farm field there.

It's hard to describe just how spectacular an experience it is to have a Swallow-tailed Kite flying within 20 yards of you, swooping so low that its wing tips are brushing the grass blades then, with a twist of its tail, looping straight up and wheeling back round for another pass. This was one of life's great moments - a Cape May moment no less. So here are some of the results - make sure you are here for the next one!

 

All photos copyright, Mike Crewe

 

Footnote: I was late for my 1PM meeting!!!!

Spring Migration - Keeping Track

Spring migration is certainly well under way now and new arrivals are being reported daily. The very nature of this major natural event produces an overload of information flooding in from all corners of the region and keeping on top of this information and pulling it all together into something useful has always been a big problem for anyone interested in keeping long-term data. It seems to me to be somewhat unfortunate that, as we gain more and more useful technology to record such events, the dissemination of such data appears to get more and more difficult. Time was when your local bird club or society would have someone (often a faithful volunteer) saddled with the job of collating all the information into a readable report but, in recent years, we somehow seem to have lost that centralization and now I seem to have to trawl through any number of websites, data storage locations, text messaging services, twitter links and email chat forums (or is it fora, or fori?!!) just to try and keep up with it all - and still any number of birds turn up locally and manage to fly under my radar (excuse the pun).

It seems to me that if I am having trouble keeping on top of it all, then other people surely are too so, in an attempt to address this, I spent some time today pulling together a list of first arrival dates for spring migrants in the three counties of Cape May, Atlantic and Cumberland. Setting this data out in a readable table does present some interesting results; look how many species make a general arrival into the three counties on the same or at least a very similar date. This is something of a selective list as some species' arrival dates are blurred by regular overwintering individuals so these species have been omitted. Species that have blanks are those for which I have heard no reports - so do let us know if you think you can plug a gap - but be prepared to have the Spanish Inquisition visit you if you've seen anything really amazing!! I'll aim to post an update to this table periodically as Spring continues.

One thing to always bear in mind is that first arrivals are not always a true representation of what the bulk of birds are doing. There often seems to be a hasty individuals that pushes on ahead of the pack, so don't worry if it looks like you're missing all these birds, the main arrival for most species is still yet to come.

	2013 Arrival dates	Atlantic Co	Cape May Co	Cumberland Co
	Cory's Shearwater
	Great Shearwater
	Sooty Shearwater
	Wilson's Storm-Petrel
	Brown Pelican		Feb 3
	Least Bittern
	Little Blue Heron	(Feb 26) Apr 6	(Jan 1) Apr 11	Apr 10
	Tricolored Heron	Apr 13	(Jan 28) Apr 4	Mar 31
	Cattle Egret		Apr 1	Apr 15
	Green Heron		Apr 11	Apr 16
	Yellow-crowned Night Heron	Apr 11	Apr 1
	Glossy Ibis	Mar 31	Mar 31	Mar 30
	White-faced Ibis
	Swallow-tailed Kite		Apr 20
	Mississippi Kite
	Broad-winged Hawk	Apr 14	Apr 13	Apr 13
	Black Rail
	King Rail
	Sora		Mar 30
	Common Gallinule
	American Golden Plover		Apr 2	Apr 12
	Semipalmated Plover		(Jan 1) Mar 30	Apr 13
	Piping Plover	Mar 21	Feb 27
	Black-necked Stilt			Apr 12
	American Avocet
	Spotted Sandpiper		Apr 21
	Solitary Sandpiper	Apr 21
	‘Eastern’ Willet	Apr 10	Apr 10	Apr 13
	Whimbrel	Apr 13	Apr 17	Apr 13
	Hudsonian Godwit
	Red Knot		Jan 1
	Semipalmated Sandpiper			Apr 12
	Least Sandpiper	Apr 8	Apr 17	Mar 30
	White-rumped Sandpiper
	Baird's Sandpiper
	Pectoral Sandpiper		Apr 7	Mar 29
	Stilt Sandpiper			Apr 15
	Short-billed Dowitcher	(Jan 11) Apr 13	(Jan 11) Apr 13	Apr 10
	Long-billed Dowitcher
	Wilson's Phalarope			Apr 19
	Black-headed Gull		Jan 11	Mar 21
	Laughing Gull	Mar 16	Mar 8	Mar 30
	Least Tern
	Gull-billed Tern
	Caspian Tern	Apr 7	Feb 1	Apr 15
	Black Tern
	Roseate Tern
	Common Tern		Apr 17
	Royal Tern
	Sandwich Tern
	Black Skimmer		Apr 2	Apr 18
	Parasitic Jaeger (p)
	Yellow-billed Cuckoo
	Black-billed Cuckoo
	Common Nighthawk		Apr 20
	Chuck-will’s-widow
	Eastern Whip-poor-will		Apr 9
	Chimney Swift	Apr 10	Apr 9	Apr 19
	Ruby-throated Hummingbird		Apr 19
	Eastern Wood Pewee
	Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
	Acadian Flycatcher
	Alder Flycatcher
	Willow Flycatcher
	Least Flycatcher
	Great Crested Flycatcher	Apr 15	Apr 13
	Eastern Kingbird	Apr 19	Apr 13	Apr 17
	White-eyed Vireo	Apr 21	(Jan 6) Apr 10	Apr 13
	Yellow-throated Vireo
	Blue-headed Vireo		Apr 8
	Warbling Vireo
	Philadelphia Vireo
	Red-eyed Vireo
	No. Rough-winged Swallow	Apr 4	Mar 30	Apr 12
	Purple Martin	Apr 1	Apr 1
	Tree Swallow	Mar 20	Mar 1
	Bank Swallow		Apr 20	Apr 13
	Barn Swallow	Apr 1	Mar 30	Mar 30
	Cliff Swallow		Mar 15	Apr 14
	Cave Swallow		Mar 15
	House Wren	Apr 19	(Jan 2) Mar30	Apr 11
	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	Apr 7	(Jan 5) Apr 9	Apr 10
	Veery
	Gray-cheeked Thrush
	Swainson's Thrush
	Wood Thrush		Apr 22	Apr 20
	Ovenbird	Apr 17	Apr 10	Apr 10
	Worm-eating Warbler		Apr 14
	Louisiana Waterthrush		Mar 20	Apr 8
	Northern Waterthrush
	Golden-winged Warbler
	Blue-winged Warbler
	Black-and-white Warbler	Apr 13	Apr 10	Apr 13
	Prothonotary Warbler		Apr 20
	Tennessee  Warbler
	Nashville Warbler		(Jan 1)
	Connecticut Warbler
	Mourning Warbler
	Kentucky Warbler
	Common Yellowthroat	Apr 14	(Jan 1) Apr 11	Apr 11
	Hooded Warbler
	American Redstart	Apr 21
	Cape May Warbler
	Cerulean Warbler
	Northern Parula	Apr 14	Apr 13
	Magnolia Warbler
	Bay-breasted Warbler
	Blackburnian Warbler
	Yellow Warbler	Apr 19	Apr 13	Apr 16
	Chestnut-sided Warbler
	Blackpoll Warbler
	Black-throated Blue Warbler
	Palm Warbler	(Jan 5) Apr 11	(Jan 6) Apr 13
	Pine Warbler	Mar 22	Jan 9	Mar 16
	Yellow-throated Warbler	Apr 8	Apr 1	Apr 8
	Prairie Warbler	Apr 21	Apr 13	Apr 19
	Black-throated Green Warbler
	Canada Warbler
	Wilson's Warbler
	Yellow-breasted Chat		Jan 13
	Summer Tanager
	Scarlet Tanager
	Rose-breasted Grosbeak	Apr 18
	Blue Grosbeak		Apr 17
	Indigo Bunting
	Bobolink
	Orchard Oriole		Apr 19
	Baltimore Oriole		(Jan 1) Apr 19

Migrants can and do turn up in surprising places! I received this photo of a Prothonotary Warbler in Arlington, Virginia last Friday - not a bird you normally see clinging to the side of a brick building! [Photo by Lambert Orkis]