Cranes + signs of spring

Will Kerling called to report the two Cape Island Sandhill Cranes were foraging in someone's driveway off Seashore Road/Broadway south of the West Cape May bridge.

A Red-tailed Hawk soaring with a fresh pine bough in its talons highlighted my lunchtime walk on Reed's Beach Road, and a Mourning Dove cooed a full, long song. Yesterday a Northern Cardinal was in full song at Beaver Swamp. Spring's coming.

CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4 2010

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 with additions by Don Freiday
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, February 4, 2010. Highlights this week include sightings of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, KING EIDER, HOUSE WREN, EURASIAN WIGEON, REDHEAD, EASTERN PHOEBE, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, VIRGINIA RAIL, RUSTY BLACKBIRD, and an announcement about the cancelled Cumberland County Eagle Festival.

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

A GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE was found in the Tuckahoe WMA impoundments in Northern Cape May County on Thursday, January 28th, 2010. It has not been relocated since the initial sighting.

An EASTERN PHOEBE was seen on a roadside pond near 4065 Bayshore Road on Cape Island on Tuesday February 2nd, 2010

A HOUSE WREN was seen along Sunset Boulevard in Cape May on Sunday, January 30, 2010.

The immature male KING EIDER continues at the Coast Guard Jetty in Cape May (private beach but viewable from a great distance by looking north from Poverty Beach) last reported Monday, February 1st, 2010

Two drake EURASIAN WIGEON and a drake REDHEAD continue on Lily Lake in Cape May Point through Wednesday, February 3, 2010.

A light-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK was seen at the Corbin City WMA from the tower on Sunday, January 31, 2010.

A VIRGINIA RAIL has been seen several times this week in the pool of open water west of Bayshore Road near the railroad tracks at the Beanery. A flock of RUSTY BLACKBIRDS is also there. Be sure to eBIRD all your Rusty Blackbird sightings this month for the Rusty Blackbird Blitz.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

The Cumberland County Eagle festival scheduled for Saturday, February 6 has been cancelled due to expected severe weather. Next year's festival will be Saturday, February 5, 2011.

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!

******CMBO Bookstore WINTER HOURS are as follows: Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point is open Wednesday through Monday, 9:30am to 4:30pm; closed Tuesdays. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30am to 4:30pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. ******

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!

Wildwood Eagles + Negative Data

[This pair of Bald Eagles was along Wildwood Blvd. between the George Reading Bridge leaving Wildwood and Rio Grande. They were on the first of the three Osprey nests on the right just before the entrance to the parkway at Exit 4. Photographed this morning by John Steiger.]

Eagles, eagles everywhere, even without an eagle festival. We'll see them for sure on the Wintering Hawks, Eagles and Owls workshop February 13-15 ( follow the link and scroll down to the workshop list), which has only four openings left.

This morning I walked the North Wildwood seawall overlooking Hereford Inlet, which was unusually sparse in the bird department compared to my last visit. Less than 10 ducks, less than 5 loons, less than 10 Sanderlings, only 1 Black-bellied Plover and that was a flyover, not even 50 gulls. Negative data is still data, so you have to ask about the scarcity, what's up with that?

The best explanation is probably the tide, in this case low tide, which means birds in the coastal system could go wherever they wanted to roost, probe, or find a shallow dive to food. Or maybe food is depleted in Hereford Inlet, so the birds are feeding elsewhere.

An alternative explanation is simple math: in North America, wildlife populations reach their low ebb in late winter/early spring, since no new animals are being recruited (born/hatched) and they've been dying since last summer. Annual mortality in birds is startling high, especially for young of the year, exceeding 75% for first year birds in some species.

A lone American Pipit foraged in a melted patch on the dunes, and an "Ipswich" Savannah Sparrow sat atop some bayberry bushes giving its flight note, which seemed to be "thicker" - more modulated or buzzy) and less descending than a "normal" Savannah's seep. Seemed. This flight call bit is sometimes splitting hairs. You only hear a few calls at a time in winter, so it's a good time to practice.

The other landbirds of interest were robins in periodic waves coming from North Wildwood (or offshore?) and flying northwest, maybe 1,000 in total. What they were doing, I don't know.

Eagle Festival IS CANCELLED; Eastern Phoebe and King Eider

Due to the approaching storm system, we have been forced to cancel the Cumberland County Eagle Festival scheduled for this Saturday, February 6. Opportunities to see Bald Eagles in southern New Jersey still abound this winter, including on many of CMBO's Field Trips.

In fact, there's a viewable eagle nest just up the road from CMBO's center on Route 47 in Goshen, at Beaver Swamp WMA, where I see eagles every day. The nest at Beaver Swamp is so huge that the incubating female is sometimes invisible, or only the top of her head will be sticking up. If we get the 12-20 inches of snow forecast for Friday-Saturday, you wouldn't want to drive down the road into the WMA for quite a few days after.

In other news, Mike Crewe had the King Eider at Poverty Beach, I think that was Monday, and found an Eastern Phoebe by a roadside pond near 4065 Bayshore Road on Cape Island yesterday. This morning an American Kestrel flew north over Kimble's Beach Road.

Ivory Gull Remembered

Wanted: Ivory Gull remembrances. More specifically, we're looking for 1) a birder less than 18 years old who came to see the Ivory Gull last November, and 2) a birder of any age who traveled a long distance from out of state (or country) to see it. Both are invited to join a small cadre of noteable observers to write a ~ 500 word essay on the bird and the impact it had on the writer and in general. The resulting works will be published in the Peregrine Observer, CMBO's annual journal for members, beginning with an interview with Jim Dowdell, who discovered the bird, and including a selection of Ivory Gull photos.

Anyone meeting one of the above criteria who is interested in contributing, or who knows a likely candidate, please send an email by clicking the link at the top of this page for reporting sightings. Initially please just let us know you are interested and offer a bit of information on what you might say. Since we have no idea how many people may respond, please don't be disappointed if we are unable to use your thoughts.

Virginia Rail + Fox Sparrows

[This Virginia Rail is weathering the cold at the Beanery, of late forced into the patch of open water on the west side of Bayshore Road near the railroad track crossing. Photo by Karl Lukens, click to enlarge.]

Karl Lukens sent the following report from yesterday around Cape May Point: "Most all the ducks were on Lily Lake today (the only open water around) with the Redhead and Eurasian Wigeon among them. 6 Tundra Swans still on frozen Bunker pond. Lots of Fox Sparrows in the yard and at the State Park. 4 Horned Larks at the edge of the main Runway at the Cape May County Airport, but could find no Pipits, maybe better when there are some grassy edges . While looking for the Rusty Blackbirds at the watery area near the old Railroad crossing on Bayshore N of the Beanery on the west side, I lucked into the Virginia Rail that Mike Crewe reported there earlier. Not bad for a snow covered day in Cape May."

I'll say not bad!

This morning I poked around Jake's Landing and Old Robbin's Trail. At the horse farm near where Old Robbin's Trail runs off Route 47, sparrows had concentrated under cedars where the horses had cleared patches of ground. Continuing the Fox Sparrows everywhere theme, in a single scan I did an actual count of 25 Fox Sparrows, not a record-breaking number but still pretty significant. Five or ten more were on Jake's Landing Road where it meets the marsh, and a first year Bald Eagle was perched in the snags on the right as you head out the road, and a single American Pipit flew over the marsh.

Winter Birding

[The sign says it all. Chuck and MJ Slugg do a great job with CMBO's bulletin boards, like this one at the Beanery. Photo by Roger Horn, click to enlarge all photos.]

Though there's a limit to how much "car birding" I can stand, yesterday was a good day to slowly drive back roads, looking for birds forced to forage along the roadside by 10" of snow. Today, I bet, will be even better - for those who have it off.

Yesterday, starting at the Cape May County Airport off Breakwater Road, Horned Larks foraged on the newly plowed runways, and a small flock of American Pipits fed among mud clods kicked up by the plows along access roads. Multiple Hermit Thrushes and the common sparrows were easy to find there, too.

[American Pipit, Cape May County airport on Sunday.]

A check of Cape Island's ponds revealed that almost everything is frozen again, packing the birds that remain onto Lily Lake. A pair of Lesser Scaup had joined the flock, which still contains the male Redhead and Eurasian Wigeons, as well as Hooded Mergansers and all the others.

[Eurasian Wigeon follows an American Wigeon over Lily Lake, from one open patch of water to another.]

At the concrete ship, about 20 Bonaparte's gulls foraged in a roiled Delaware Bay. Some of the best birding I found was at a nice little sheltered patch along Sunset Boulevard, where a melted spot attracted a mixed flock of sparrows including Fox Sparrow (they seemed to be everywhere yesterday), plus Gray Catbird, plenty of Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a decidedly cold looking House Wren. Savannah Sparrows foraged along Stevens Street and Bayshore Road in several spots. The Beanery featured a nice flock of Rusty Blackbirds right along Bayshore Road near the railroad tracks, and I hear Mike Crewe found a Virginia Rail there yesterday as well. There was a small pool of open water at the spot.

[Yellow-rumped Warblers fed on eastern redcedar berries, primarily by hover-gleaning to avoid the snow.]

[Between bouts of foraging, this House Wren along Sunset returned to the same sheltered perch repeatedly and adopted this spread-winged and spread-tailed posture, maximizing exposure to the sun.]

Kathy and Roger Horn found all the regular good ducks at Avalon, including one male Harlequin and good numbers of scoters and Common Eiders.

Karen and Brian Johnson braved the Corbin City impoundments (not recommended without four wheel drive and plenty of common sense when there is snow), where a light morph Rough-legged Hawk seen from the platform made the trip worthwhile.