The Spring 2016 Kestrel Express is Now Available Online

The spring 2016 Kestrel Express, CMBO's quarterly publication listing the programs, field trips, workshops, and tours we offer, is now online. We hope to see you in Cape May!

Island Eagle

You know it's going to be a good day when you go over the West Cape May Bridge, glance east, and see this. Undoubtedly the male of the local pair (the female is on eggs).

Every year now CMBO hawk counters have to learn how to tell "our" adult Bald Eagles from the many migrants. Last season, we counted 408 Bald Eagles migrating through Cape May.

Cape May Birding Conditions and Predictions

[This Pine Warbler, a singing male, was an arrival on the early side this morning, March 8, 2016, at Cox Hall Creek WMA, Villas, NJ, just north of the big lake there. Click to enlarge all photos.]

What a great time of year. Every day we can anticipate some new arrival, whether rare or common. Today's was the Pine Warbler pictured above. The PIWA was more or less on time, especially given the weather conditions: warm, west-southwest winds for the next few days are great for early arrivals, including swallows and special birds like Cave Swallow or Swallow-tailed Kite.

Another condition for the next day or two that should be exploited is the new moon tide, which is today, but the tides will be greater than normal for the next couple days. Tidal height is greatest with the new and full moons because the sun and the moon are in a line with the earth; thus both the sun and moon exert gravitational pull in the same direction. For example, at Fishing Creek on Delaware Bay (very near "famous" Miami Beach at the west end of Miami Avenue in the Villas,) tidal height today is forecast to max at 6.21 feet. The "neap" tide with the first quarter moon (which many people mistakenly call a half moon because that is what it looks like)March 15 will peak at 5.8 feet. Tides are heavily influenced by wind, with east winds holding water in the bays. The current westerlies will not do this.

Exceptionally high tides are a good time to look for rails (if any survived the winter) and salt sparrows along marsh edges. Nummy Island and Jake's Landing are two places to consider. Another phenomenon is that wintering shorebirds like Dunlin, Sanderlings, Black-bellied Plovers, and even a few Red Knots are forced to roost on jetties at high tide. The south jetty at the Cape May ferry terminal is particularly good for this, since it often hosts the thousands of shorebirds that winter on the mudflats of lower Delaware Bay. Look for Purple Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, and perhaps a Western Sandpiper or two as well.

[These Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings, and Dunlin were on a jetty in North Cape May today.]

[There were fewer shorebirds on the south jetty of the Cape May ferry terminal than I expected this morning, only a few hundred. This was probably the reason why. . .]

We are at or near the peak of duck migration, more on that on my blog. The South Cape May Meadows, Cape May Point State Park, Heislerville and Bivalve in Cumberland County, and Mannington Marsh in Salem County are all great places to enjoy this phenomenon.

[Great Egret on Lily Lake this morning. This could be a survivor of the winter or a new arrival.]

Finally, herons and egrets will begin trickling in this month and next, adding their splendor to a splendid season.

Morning Flight Was Crowded Today

[Black Vultures on the Morning Flight Platform at Higbee Beach WMA, Cape May, NJ, noon today. Not the usual suspects for the site.]

At noon today two Yellow-rumped Warblers emerged from the trees of Higbee Beach WMA and flew north and high, across the Cape May Canal, to parts unknown. Were they migrating? If not, what were they doing? Still so much to learn. . .

Eagles Everywhere

[Immature Bald Eagle along the Avalon Causeway about a week ago.]

Although the Cumberland County Eagle Festival has come and gone (a great event, by the way), there are plenty of places Bald Eagles can be seen in southern NJ. For example, I see one nearly every day i drive to the CMBO Center for Research and Education north of Goshen. My route is north on Route 47, which crosses lots of excellent bald eagle habitat.

If you are looking for eagles (or any bird), think first about where the food is. For Bald Eagles, this means wintering waterfowl, fish, and carrion (like dead deer). Coastal marshes are excellent for Bald Eagles, because besides the food factor they are inevitably ringed with dead and dying trees, a sad consequence of saltwater intrusion from sea level rise, but one that provides excellent perching sites.

In no particular order, spots to look for eagles include Jake's Landing Road, Dividing Creek/Turkey Point in Cumberland County, and Forsythe NWR in Atlantic County. I recently saw 3 dueling Bald Eagles along the Avalon Causeway, and often see them standing on Delaware Bay mudflats at low tide, particularly at Norbury's Landing and "Miami Beach," the west end of Miami Avenue in the Villas.

Last week there was an adult Golden Eagle over Beaver Swamp, just north of CMBO/CRE. Goldens are MUCH rarer than Balds in winter; be especially cautious of immature balds that frequently display a well defined white band at the base of the tail, almost as well-defined as that of an immature Golden.

Pretty much everything you'd want to know about Bald Eagles and their spectacular population recovery can be found on the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife raptor page. The state now has over 150 nests when it once had only 1! Many eagles have already begun nesting for the year.

[Over 1000 people thronged to see eagles at the annual Cumberland County Eagle Festival on February 6, and many ended the day at Turkey Point, where we watched a pair of Great Horned Owls select a nest site. Photo by Debbie Beer.]

We, and The Champions of the Flyway, Need Your Help!

Friends and CMBO members, please check out our team page on the Champions of the Flyway website, and consider supporting us in this massively important conservation initiative!

You can read more about it on the American Birding Association Blog. 

"Welcome Back"

[This adult Red-shouldered Hawk greeted me along Lighthouse Avenue in Cape May Point on my first day (back) at work for CMBO. Click to enlarge photos.]

"Welcome back." That was the note my longtime friend Pete Dunne left me this week as I started work for the Cape May Bird Observatory for the second time. From 2007 to 2009 I was Director of Birding Programs here, a wonderful time in my life. Now, after five challenging but rewarding years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge (think government shutdowns, northeasters, direcho winds, and of course Superstorm Sandy) here I am again, as Program Director.

Mike Crewe, former Program Director and beloved by many, has returned to the U.K. and will work as a birding tour leader. Mike was great, a good friend, and I'm not trying to fill Mike's shoes any more than he tried to fill mine when he started; we have our own shoes.

What to expect? A continuing slate of great field trips, workshops, and events, for sure. Perhaps an eco-tour or two each year (you will hear about them here.) Regular blogs on birds, birding and other natural history (and I hope to continue my personal blog, the Freiday Bird Blog).  Excellent migration counts. The Monarch project. And, I hope, a lot of fun for you and I. I'm especially looking forward to working with the team CMBO Director David La Puma has put together. This is a great organization, and it's getting better. Thanks for your support.

Feel free to stop by to say hello, or drop me a line at don.freidayATnjaudubon.org . I'll normally be at the Center for Research and Education in Goshen Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and at the Northwood Center in Cape May Point Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I'll be picking up the Wednesday morning South Cape May Meadows walks beginning March 16, and will likely show up for a few others now and then.

[Two Red Knots and one of the thousands of Knobbed Whelk shells that washed up on Cape May beaches during last week's northeaster, which featured the highest tide ever recorded in North Wildwood, higher than Sandy and higher than the storm of 1962. People always talk about hurricanes, but it is actually fall and winter northeasters that normally do the most damage to coastal NJ. Two Mile Beach Unit of the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge on the morning of Monday, February 1. Click to enlarge.]