CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE - July 9, 2009

Hotline: Cape May Birding Hotline
To Report: (609) 884-2736, sightings@birdcapemay.org
Coverage: Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic Counties, NJ
Compiler: Tom Reed, 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, July 9th, 2009.

Highlights this week include reports of GRAY KINGBIRD, BRANT, GREATER SHEARWATER, WILSON'S STORM-PETREL, BROWN PELICAN, LEAST BITTERN, CATTLE EGRET, YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON, BLACK RAIL, 'WESTERN' WILLET, LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, GULL-BILLED TERN, BLACK TERN, ROSEATE TERN, SANDWICH TERN, PARASITIC JAEGER, BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO, NORTHERN PARULA, and BOBOLINK. Also, an announcement regarding the re-opening of CMBO's Center for Research and Education in Goshen.

- For more up-to-the-minute Cape May sightings information and a download-able birding map of Cape May, visit www.BirdCapeMay.org. Also follow us on Twitter at CMBObirds (www.twitter.com/cmbobirds - review list/rarities or spectacles only) -

A GRAY KINGBIRD was found along the beach at the South Cape May Meadows/CMMBR on 7/4, and has not been seen since.

The BLACK RAIL at the Meadows was last reported on 7/3.

A ROSEATE TERN was again seen from Cape May Point on 7/3, and a PARASITIC JAEGER was seen from the Meadows on 7/2. A WILSON'S STORM-PETREL was spotted from the same spot on 7/6. Also on 7/6 was an adult BLACK TERN, seen from St. Mary's. GREATER SHEARWATER was seen sporadically from Cape May Point through at least 7/7.

78 ROYAL TERNS, 2 GULL-BILLED TERNS, a SANDWICH TERN and 5 'WESTERN' WILLETS were noted at Stone Harbor Point on 7/6.

A BRANT was seen again this week, this time at Two Mile Landing on 7/6.

2 NORTHERN PARULAS were noted at Higbee Beach WMA on 7/8, and a BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO was seen at the Meadows on 7/3.

The first southbound BOBOLINKS of the season were recorded at Norbury's Landing on 7/5.

3-4 CATTLE EGRETS have been seen in West Cape May during the past week. A YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON visited the Meadows on 7/6, and LEAST BITTERN continues to be reported daily from the same location.

BROWN PELICANS and LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS were noted at Cape May Point and Stone Harbor Point this week.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

**CMBO’s Center for Research and Education in Goshen re-opened on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009. CRE hours will be Tuesday-Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. CMBO's Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point is open Wednesday - Monday, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.**

*CMBO’s Northwood Center will be closed for inventory on July 28th and 29th. CMBO-CRE will be closed for inventory August 27th and 28th.*

CMBO is offering a special to new and upgraded membership renewals. Join CMBO for the first time or upgrade from Individual or Family to The Hundred and receive Charley Harper's Migration Mainline- Cape May lithograph poster, valued at $50. Call either CMBO center to ask an associate about joining today!

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!

Cherry Tree Feastival, Birds of Bear Swamp

Cherry trees of any stripe are bird magnets, and I've got a big one that keys out to Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) in the yard that is currently a war zone of sorts, as American Robins try to keep all the fruit for themselves. The robins have been driving away Common Grackles, Cedar Waxwings, Gray Catbirds and even gray squirrels, but this morning I watched a Red-eyed Vireo turn the tables and chase a robin out of the tree. You wouldn't think a vireo could take on a robin - until you've been bit by a vireo's hooked bill. Vireos are now placed next to shrikes in the checklist for a reason.

[We banded this Red-eyed Vireo in Bear Swamp last weekend. Note the hooked bill. Photo by Don Freiday, click to enlarge.]

Nesting by passerines is still well underway - witness Tom Reed's Marsh Wrens below. In Bear Swamp, Cumberland County, we have yet to catch a hatch-year bird, but everything is of course showing signs of breeding condition. One Prothonotary Warbler seemed almost certainly to be an unmated "floater" male, singing constantly and moving around over a wide range in the forest.

[This male Prothonotary Warbler was a "floater" banded in Bear Swamp last weekend. Photo by Don Freiday, click to enlarge.]

Marsh Wren Nest; Brief State Park Note

Marsh Wrens aren't a common breeding bird in everyone's neighborhood, but mine, Reed's Beach Road, is currently home to over a dozen singing males. I did some investigating this evening in an attempt to find and study a few Marsh Wren nests, and came across three. One is pictured below:

[Marsh Wren nest, by Tom Reed.]

While investigating these nests, I began thinking about Marsh Wren nesting behavior, and realized that I didn't really know that much about a species that literally nests in my own backyard. Kenn Kaufman, in his work Lives of North American Birds, has the following to say about Marsh Wren breeding tendencies (and nest construction):

"...One male may have two or more mates. Adults often puncture the eggs of other birds nesting in the marsh...Male builds several incomplete or "dummy" nests in territory; female chooses one and adds lining, or may build a new one...Nest is oval or football-shaped mass with entrance on side, woven of wet grass, cattails, rushes, lined with fine grass, plant down, feathers."


Additionally, here's a brief note from Karl Lukens regarding this morning's walk at Cape May Point State Park:

"CMBO Walk at Cape May Point. Nothing special this morning. We had nice looks at Indigo Buntings, Orchard Orioles singing both adult and 1st yr. males, and a pair of Oystercatchers with 2 chicks!"

- Karl, (Steve, Patty, Tom, Gary Dutton)


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 7/8/09
Notes: CMBO Trip-K,SW,PR,T,GD,+8,Clr.72,W5.
Number of species: 47

Canada Goose 5
Mute Swan 6
Mallard 12
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Glossy Ibis 30
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 7
Osprey 3
Piping Plover 2
Killdeer 6 four young
American Oystercatcher 4 chicks-2
Laughing Gull 25
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 5
Least Tern 40
Common Tern 3
Forster's Tern 5
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 6
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Downy Woodpecker 1 heard
Northern Flicker 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Eastern Kingbird 2
American Crow 1
Fish Crow 5
Purple Martin 50
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 5
Carolina Chickadee 3
Carolina Wren 5
American Robin 15
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 12
Cedar Waxwing 2
Common Yellowthroat 5
Northern Cardinal 8
Indigo Bunting 4
Red-winged Blackbird 15
Common Grackle 15
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Orchard Oriole 3
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 10

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

Sandwich Tern, Western Willets and Beachnesters at Stone Harbor Pt.

An evening visit to Stone Harbor Point provided many highlights on an incoming tide, a few of which are pictured below. It appears as though many Common Terns and Black Skimmers have moved from Champagne Island to the south end of the Point, as Champagne has largely been reclaimed by the sea again this year. The new colony at Stone Harbor appears rather susceptible to high tides- tonight's full moon tide was edging in on the colony an hour before the scheduled high water mark, and forced me to make a hasty retreat back along the beachfront through standing water.

As would be expected, it appeared as though the majority of birds on eggs were Black Skimmers and Common Terns. I wasn't able to determine whether or not there were any Royal Terns actually nesting, but looking directly into the evening sun, I certainly didn't study the colony as well as I would've liked. While walking- or more appropriately, wading back, a Sandwich Tern flew over and headed up the channel toward the Nummy Island free bridge. 5 "Western" Willets were feeding along the back side of the Point with a single Ruddy Turnstone, and 83 American Oystercatchers were scattered along the western edge of the Point, as well. Many of these are certainly failed breeding birds from various locations along the coast, including the Hereford Inlet complex.

[This Gull-billed Tern was part of a pair that was hunting along the water's edge for the better part of an hour this evening. The pair was also occasionally seen within the nesting colony, but didn't show any serious signs of breeding. Photo by Tom Reed][Here is just one of the almost 80 Royal Terns that came in to Stone Harbor Point by sundown, as more and more arrived with the incoming full moon tide. There were plenty of Royals lounging around the tern/skimmer colony, but very few that looked to actually be nesting. Photo by Tom Reed]

[These three Brown Pelicans flew in off the ocean from the south and continued into Great Channel, at one point flying over the Nummy Island toll bridge before finally settling on the remnants of Champagne Island, where they joined two others. Photo by Tom Reed.]

[A few of the approximately 350 Black Skimmers at the south end of
Stone Harbor Point this evening. Photo by Tom Reed]

Location: Stone Harbor Point
Observation date: 7/6/09
Number of species: 38

Brown Pelican 5
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 1
Osprey 2
Semipalmated Plover 3
Piping Plover 2
American Oystercatcher 83
Willet (Western) 5
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Laughing Gull 800
Ring-billed Gull 8
Herring Gull 150
Great Black-backed Gull 60
Least Tern 26
Gull-billed Tern 2
Common Tern 239
Forster's Tern 7
Royal Tern 78
Sandwich Tern 1
Black Skimmer 334
Mourning Dove 1
Fish Crow 2
Barn Swallow 4
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 10
Yellow Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
House Sparrow 6

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

"Odes" and Purple Martins

If you watch the Purple Martin colony at Cape May Point State Park, you'll notice that, contrary to their biting-fly-and-mosquito-eating reputation, the birds feed their nestlings many "odes" - i.e. dragonflies and damselflies. Sometimes, Laughing Gulls even pirate the big bugs from the martins.

Tony Leukering sent me some of these amazing images and offered to write up what he carefully observed last week. Thanks, Tony! Be sure to click to enlarge these photos.

Purple Martins and Odonata
Text and photographs (all copyrighted) by Tony Leukering

Cape May is well-known for a number of reasons. The one that probably accounts for the most widespread knowledge is the area's beaches and summer resort status. Among birders, of course, it is best known for magical fall days with thousands or, even, millions of birds on or passing over the point. However, there are more than birds among the huge swarms of winged migrants and many of the areas's birders have turned their eyes, and binoculars, onto the insect group, Odonata: the dragonflies and damselflies. The same cold fronts with following northwest winds that bring the birds also, in appropriate seasons, bring the dragonflies.

As northwest winds at virtually any season bring vultures and/or raptors to the Point, so do these winds (in summer and fall) bring huge influxes of dragonflies. The two days of such winds 27-28 June brought such a flight, with literally thousands of Spot-winged (Pantala hymenaea) and Wandering (P. flavescens) gliders arriving along with, probably, an influx of Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) and Common Green Darners (Anax junius). All of these species are well-known as migrants, at least at Cape May, though all also breed here. They are also fairly larger and are particularly good fliers, often found far from water and fairly high up in the air column, up there where the Purple Martins fly.

For a while on the 28th, I attempted photographing Purple Martins around the colonies near the headquarters of Cape May Point State Park, noting that quite a few of the martins were bringing dragonflies to their nestlings. Also noting some red eyes (both glider species have red eyes) on some of the dragonflies, I figured that the martins were taking advantage of this new surfeit of food to feed their hungry youngsters. Indeed, one of the first martins that I photographed had a Wandering Glider.

[Adult female Purple Martin with Wandering Glider, Cape May Point State Park, 28 June 2009. Click to enlarge this and all photos below.]

Thus, when I found myself at the Park on 2 July with my camera and some time to kill, I filled up an 8 gb memory card with pictures of Purple Martins ferrying food. I went into the effort with two suppositions that could conflict with each other: 1) with these most aerial of dragonflies occupying the upper airspace often frequented by Purple Martins, these species would comprise a hefty percentage of the dragonflies brought to the nest and 2) these large dragonflies would be poor options for small nestlings, as such nestlings would not be able to swallow them.

While I did photograph martins with Common Green Darner...

[Adult male Purple Martin with Common Green Darner, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009]

and Black Saddlebags...

[Adult female Purple Martin with Black Saddlebags, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009]

... the vast majority of dragonflies were smaller, less-aerial species common at Bunker Pond in the Park. The species that bore the brunt of martin predation was Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis), with Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) also getting the worst of the martin-dragonfly relationship.

[Adult male Purple Martin with adult male Blue Dasher, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009]

[Adult male Purple Martin with immature male Eastern Pondhawk, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009 (Though I was more interested in identifying the dragonflies, I sure wish that I could have kept this bird entirely within the frame!)]

[Purple Martin (immature male?) with adult male Eastern Pondhawk, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009 (Note that this bird is color-banded. The nestlings at the Park colony are banded each year, but I do not know whether the researchers conducting that effort are also color-banding.)]

Other species that I identified in the beaks of Purple Martins were Common Whitetail (Libellula lydia)...

[Immature female Purple Martin with female Common Whitetail, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009]

Needham's Skimmer (Libellula needhami)...

[Immature female Purple Martin with Needham's Skimmer, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009 ]

Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera)...

[Immature female Purple Martin with female Eastern Amberwing, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009]

Four-spotted Pennant (Brachymesia gravida)...

[Adult male Purple Martin with female Four-spotted Pennant, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009]

and Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina).

[Immature female Purple Martin with Halloween Pennant, Cape May Point State Park, 2 July 2009]

I also photographed one martin with a damselfly that was one of the bluets and was probably - by sheer abundance if for no other reason - Familiar Bluet (Enallagma civile).

This, then, means that most of the foraging for dragonflies by Purple Martins - at least at Cape May Point State Park - may take place low over the water or vegetation where these species typically occur. And, as is so typical of biology, I could not answer a simple question with my simple efforts at obtaining data. Knowing the size of the nestlings being fed has the potential to solving the problem. Do Purple Martins preferentially take less-aerial dragonfly species? Are these highly-aerial dragonfly species more adept at avoiding martin predation? Or, are martins equally skilled at capturing darner, gliders, and saddlebags as they are at catching the smaller species, but that, like terns, they scale their catch to the size of the nestlings they are feeding?

I am honor-bound to note one additional confounding factor: the number of large, aerial dragonflies was noticeably smaller on the 2nd compared to that on the 28th, though most dragonflies in photographed martin beaks were Blue Dashers on that date, too.

Cattle Egret Trio, Yellow-crowned Night-heron

Three Cattle Egrets foraging in a freshly mowed field on the west side of Broadway a short distance south of the West Cape May bridge made for a fine start to the morning.

So did the weather - northwest winds, clear skies - feels like September. And we did bump into a couple obvious migrants during the meadows walk - single Yellow Warbler and immature/female Orchard Oriole flybys, a few Bobolinks high overhead, and, on the beach, maybe 10 Ring-billed Gulls including several full adults.

An adult Yellow-crowned Night-heron flew in over the meadows, headed out over the state park, and eventually came flying back in, making a funny almost-crash-landing on a white pvc pole out in the meadows before winding up finally safe on the ground in the west pool. Tern numbers were very low this morning, I guess it was about high tide and slack when we were looking and that may have had something to do with it. One distant Wilson's Storm-petrel was all we could manage, and we missed the Least Bittern.

The last word of the Black Rail is a report of it calling July 3. That's about fourth hand; the last personal knowledge I have of it is from the last day of June.

The meadows walk list is below:

Location: South Cape May Meadows
Observation date: 7/6/09
Number of species: 64

Canada Goose 220 Fairly accurate count include juvs
Mute Swan 50
Gadwall 8
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 75
Wilson's Storm-Petrel 1
Great Egret 5
Snowy Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Black-crowned Night-Heron 2
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 26 Clicked by Chuck Slugg
Black Vulture 10
Turkey Vulture 20
Osprey 10 Clicked DPF
Cooper's Hawk 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Piping Plover 10 2+ chicks
Killdeer 5
American Oystercatcher 8
Willet 3
Laughing Gull 100
Ring-billed Gull 10 several adults obviously new arrivals
Herring Gull 40
Great Black-backed Gull 40
Least Tern 75
Common Tern 50 low numbers
Forster's Tern 10 very low numbers
Royal Tern 2
Rock Pigeon 10
Mourning Dove 25
Chimney Swift 3
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Kingbird 2
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 20
Purple Martin 50
Tree Swallow 5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 12 clicked by David Lord
Carolina Chickadee 3
House Wren 1
Marsh Wren 3
American Robin 40
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 3
European Starling 50
Cedar Waxwing 15
Yellow Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 5
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Field Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 5
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 2
Bobolink 5
Red-winged Blackbird 50 Clicked by janet Crawford
Common Grackle 25 Clicked by DPF
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Orchard Oriole 1 imm or female flyby, prob migrant
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 30

Two Migrants

"Wait a minute, I know that sound. . . ".

It's funny, we're "never not birding," but when you are focused on something else, like fishing, it sometimes takes a minute for a bird to click. So this morning out of Norbury's Landing along the bayshore I had two double-takes from my kayak, one for the half-dozen Bank Swallows foraging over the marsh north of the landing (they don't breed in Cape May County, at least not regularly) and another for three Bobolinks boink-ing overhead. Southbound.

The Bob's were probably adults, maybe failed breeders or the first departing males. Bobolinks have not been confirmed as breeders in Cape May County; during the NJ Breeding Bird Atlas, the closest confirmed nesting was northern Salem County. Southward migration begins in late June, but they are not encountered in numbers most years until early August.