BirdCapeMay.org

One more post for the day. Karl and Judy Lukens sent a report from this mornings CMBO Beanery walk.

"Almost a fall morning, with some migrants. Warblers not like at Higbee but found a pocket of warblers including Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue, Ovenbird, and Nashville. Nice looks at a pair of Blue Grosbeaks. Also watched for 3 minutes as a Merlin chased and harassed 2 Kestrels. Loads of Baltimore Orioles."

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP

9/1/2007 ~ in Beanery ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 53 seen

Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 9
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Canada Goose 2
Green-winged Teal 1
Mallard 4
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 2
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 3
Merlin 1
Great Black-backed Gull 1
American Herring Gull 1
Laughing Gull 5
Rock Pigeon 8
Mourning Dove 10
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Chimney Swift 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Eastern Kingbird 10
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Tree Swallow 30
Carolina Wren 3
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
American Robin 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
European Starling 20
House Sparrow 20
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 4
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 1
American Redstart 3
Ovenbird 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Blue Grosbeak 4
Bobolink 10
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Common Grackle 5
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
Baltimore Oriole 20

Looking for a way to try those bins you've been pining over? Want to see what all the hype is with high end optics? Come on the Birding Optics walk on Saturday mornings. The walk starts on the hawkwatch platform at 7:30 a.m. on Saturdays, now thru October 20.

I've actually started a loaner program here at the Northwood Center because I wanted to give members/customers a chance to actually bird watch with the optics they may be thinking about purchasing. Novel idea, right? We do typically allow you to take the bins out on the deck at the center and try them out in the"real world"; something that very few companies who sell optics will do. With this loaner program you can take a pair of bins out for a day or two and really get to test them in field conditions. After all, no matter the price, purchasing optics is an investment. You need to feel confidant that you'll be happy with the binoculars you choose, for years to come.

Most of the optics manufacturers we carry have been generous enough to work with me on getting these sample bins in the hands of those who need them. Currently we will have available for loan, optics from Bushnell, Kowa, Leica, Minox, Nikon, Steiner, Swarovski, Vortex and Zeiss.

As for the walk, this is yet another way you can test the bins in the filed but also get a guide to boot. I had no takers for today's walk but then again it's a holiday weekend. So, keep the walk in mind if your in the market (or even thinking your in the market) for a new pair of binoculars. I'd say there there are pretty much no other places on the east coast that you can try bins out in this manor before you make your final decision.

Now, as for the birding today. I heard that the morning flight was awesome! Hopefully you've read Paul's Weather Primer and have been checking out the Birding Forecast, so that you knew that this morning should have been great.

There were a good number of birds flying over head at the hawkwatch platform. Interestingly, we had but few migrants on our walk around the park. There were good birds around, just few of them. I guess conditions were just too good for migration and there was nothing to put the birds down. When I woke up this morning at 4:30 I turned on the t.v. to make sure the winds were still northerly as had been predicted. Next, checked out Nexrad radar to confirm migration. It seemed that the radar was picking up a significant amount of movement over NJ. Also looked at David La Pauma's site www.woodcreeper.com to see if he had posted any radar images. No radar but some very cool video of birds migrating past the moon. Check it out! If you have never "moon watched" you should.

So as usual, the list of species observed is below. REMEMBER the official Hawkwatch, Morning Flight Project and Monarch Monitoring Project kick off today. If you desire more info about these projects or want to know when you might participate in an ID workshop check out the Research section of BirdCapeMay or the Naturalist Calendar for times on walks and workshops.


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 9/1/07
Notes: CMBO Birding Optics walk
Number of species: 68

Mute Swan 8
Mallard 15
Green-winged Teal 12
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 18
Snowy Egret 13
Green Heron 2
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 6
Osprey 4
Bald Eagle 1 - I am embarrassed to say that I forgot to note this bird when I originally posted my eBird list. We had spectacular views of this first year eagle right over head.
Northern Harrier 2
Cooper's Hawk 1
American Kestrel 3
Merlin 1
Semipalmated Plover 12
Killdeer 4
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Semipalmated Sandpiper 18
Least Sandpiper 25
White-rumped Sandpiper 4
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Laughing Gull 250
Great Black-backed Gull 7
Royal Tern 23
Sandwich Tern 1
Common Tern 145
Forster's Tern 32
Least Tern 3
Rock Pigeon 22
Mourning Dove 10
Chimney Swift 8
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Crow 12
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 100
Barn Swallow 75
Carolina Chickadee 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 5
Carolina Wren 4
House Wren 2
American Robin 5
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 35
Cedar Waxwing 12
Blue-winged Warbler 2
Tennessee Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
American Redstart 8
Northern Waterthrush 4
Common Yellowthroat 3
Northern Cardinal 3
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 2
Bobolink 125
Red-winged Blackbird 85
Common Grackle 25
Baltimore Oriole 4
American Goldfinch 6

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

The below was emailed to me from Karl and Judy Lukens re: the CMBO Sunset Birding at the Meadows (aka TNC CMMBR) last night.

More to come on today's birding.

"Nice evening, but shore birds were few. Highlights were 2 juvenile Buff-breasted Sandpipers, 8 Common Nighthawks, and 2 Merlin.Good looks at Black Skimmers."

SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP

8/31/2007 ~ in Meadow ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 46 seen

Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 8
Snowy Egret 4
Green Heron 2
Mute Swan 1
Canada Goose 15
Green-winged Teal 1
Mallard 25
Blue-winged Teal 8
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 1
Merlin 2
Semipalmated Plover 12
Killdeer 1
Piping Plover 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 4
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 8
Sanderling 50
Least Sandpiper 6
Buff-breasted Sandpiper 2
Ring-billed Gull 8
Great Black-backed Gull 40
American Herring Gull 10
Laughing Gull 70
Least Tern 1
Common Tern 6
Forster's Tern 4
Black Skimmer 12
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 5
Common Nighthawk 8
Chimney Swift 3
Tree Swallow 50
Carolina Wren 1
American Robin 1
American Crow 1
European Starling 12
House Sparrow 30
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 5

CAPE MAY BIRDING HOTLINE August 31, 2007

You have reached the Cape May Birding Hotline, a service of New Jersey Audubon Societys Cape May Bird Observatory. This weeks message was prepared on Friday August 31, 2007. Highlights this week include sightings of ROSEATE SPOONBILL, AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, BAIRD’S SANPIPER, WILSONS PHALAROPE, RED-NECKED PHALAROPE, BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER, RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER, LARK SPARROW and YELLOW-HEADED BALCKBIRD.

The long staying ROSEATE SPOONBILL continues at the Brigantine NWR as of 8/27. This bird is still being seen in the gull pond area.

Along with various other species of shorebirds at Brigantine NWR, both WILSONS PHALAROPE and RED-NECKED PHAROPE were observed in the southwest pool on 8/29.

Also, in the southwest pool on 8/27, was one BAIRDS SANDPIPER and an AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. On 8/26 an amazing 40 HUDSONIAN GODWITS were observed at Brigantine NWR.

Continuing at Brigantine, the AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN was seen on 8/27 thru 8/29.

Also, on the north dike at Brigantine, a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD was observed in a flock of Red-winged blackbirds on 8/25 thru 8/27. The bird was reported to be an immature male or female.

Here in Cape May, the minor invasion of RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES continues. Reports are from various locations in Cape May County. As many as eight individuals were observed at Higbee Beach WMA on 8/28.

A GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER made a brief appearance at Higbee Beach WMA on 8/28.

The BAIRDS SANDPIPER that had been frequently seen on Bunker pond was last reported on 8/26.

Also at the Cape May Point State Park, on 8/22, a BUFF-BREASTED SANPIPER made a brief appearance. Another of this species was observed briefly at Stone Harbor, yesterday, 8/30.

Lastly, a LARK SPARROW was observed on the CMBO Villas WMA walk on 8/26. This is just one of a hand full of Lark Sparrow reports that have come in the last few weeks.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

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 Harpers Migration Mainline- Cape May lithograph poster, valued at $50. Call either CMBO center to ask an associate about joining today!

CMBO Bookstore hours are as follows; Northwood Center on East Lake Drive in Cape May Point has returned to a seven day a week schedule. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Center for Research and Education on Rt. 47 in Goshen is open Tuesday- Sunday 9:30- 4:30.

The Cape May Birding Hotline is a service of the New Jersey Audubon Societys 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 $35 per year; $45 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 discount in the stores).

Good Luck and Good Birding!

"Well, I was planing on walking Hidden Valley anyway", I said to myself as I arrived to find the tiny parking lot almost full. There was one spot open and I grabbed it.

It has been some time since I've walked in the "valley" and I decided to head there today because it can sometimes be good when migration conditions were not the most favorable over night.

When I realized I recognized some of the cars in the lot, it dawned on me that this was a CMBO walk taking place. Still, I was happy to see cars especially at Hidden Valley as I think this spot is too under-birded anyway. Since this was a CMBO walk I figured that once I caught up to the group I might just hang in the back and adopt a few birding partners for the morning.

All in all a nice morning, nothing earth shattering to report. In fact a relatively low diversity but there were good numbers of Eastern kingbirds (still) and many Baltimore and a few Orchard orioles.

Below is a short report from George Myers of birds seen at Higbee Beach WMA on Wednesday 8/29.

"Some observations from Higbee Beach Wed morning 8/29, 7-9:15AM. A decent flight of 35+ Baltimore Orioles and several Red-eyed Vireos, along with 100+ Eastern Kingbirds. Also 4 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 3 American Redstarts, and singles of Ovenbird, Veery, Tennessee Warbler, and Northern Waterthrush."


Location:Cape May - Hidden Valley Ranch
Observation date: 8/30/07
Number of species: 27
Wood Duck 2
American Kestrel 2
Mourning Dove 18
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Northern Flicker 16
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 285
Red-eyed Vireo 3
Blue Jay 6
Purple Martin 1
Tree Swallow 7
Barn Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 8
American Robin 16
Gray Catbird 3
Northern Mockingbird 4
European Starling 33
Cedar Waxwing 99
Common Yellowthroat 1
Northern Cardinal 8
Bobolink 30
Common Grackle 23
Orchard Oriole 2
Baltimore Oriole 18
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

I'd been whining for a week because I was going to be out of Cape May for the last week of August and the first week of September - warbler time. I'm off on a "business trip" - leading a tour to the Great Yellowstone Ecosystem for NJAS. NJAS, by the way, has an excellent tour program - you can learn more at http://www.njaudubon.org/Travel/ToursHome.html.

Anyhow, here I am, stuck in the Grand Tetons near Jackson Hole scouting for the tour, which starts Saturday. One of the most sought after birds in the mountain west is Great Gray Owl, because they are a) magnificent and b) elusive. Finding any owl requires current local knowledge, something we didn't really have. Luckily, "we" includes Sean Grace, Director of NJAS's Plainsboro Preserve, who lived out here for several years, and even more serendipitously, we ran into an old friend of Sean's on the streets of Jackson who knew a little bit about where Great Grays might be found.

Sean's friend gave us a road name on the Teton Front Range - a road that was about 30 miles long. Well, that narrows it down, doesn't it? I decided to go scout the road tonight while Sean "networked" with some other old friends at the local brewpub.

The sun was already behind the Tetons when I reached the recommended area, and I just drove, looking for areas where rich montane forest edged up to the road. Just stay positive when you're looking for a bird, and I tried, reminding myself that Great Gray fledglings were flying well now and begging actively of their parents. They should respond to hooting.

I found a spot that had an elevated vantage over a douglas fir-lodgepole pine - trembling aspen hollow, and figured it looked good. So I conjured up my best version of a Great Gray's deep "hwoof, huwoof, huwoof" - and immediately a "squeeh-ya" was launched from the grove. A fledgling Great Gray!! By walking up and down the road I pinpointed the sound, and miraculously detected a spot of gray against green that the bins revealed was a full grown fledgling Great Gray, opening his mouth wide periodically with its plaintive cry. Scope views for one (me) followed. I dearly hope, and dearly doubt, I'll be able to reproduce this for the tour, but sure will try. If I do, I suggest signing up for the Tanzania trip we'll be running next February - with luck like this, great things await in Africa!

This was emailed to me by Karl Lukens, re. the CMBO Cape May Point walk this morning.


"Still nice shore birds in Bunker pond although less than in previous days, and the Baird's Sandpiper was not to be found.

Land birds rather slow but a house Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Baltimore Oriole, and numerous Kingbirds made it interesting. One Wilson's Snipe also flushed along the Yellow Trail."


SPECIES SEEN ~ CMBO TRIP
8/29/2007 ~ in Cape May Point ~ New Jersey Checklist ~ 67 seen


Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 3
Snowy Egret 3
Tricolored Heron 1
Mute Swan 8
Canada Goose 20
Mallard 20
Blue-winged Teal 6
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 3
Merlin 1
American Oystercatcher 3
Semipalmated Plover 10
Killdeer 1
Wilson's Snipe 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 3
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Ruddy Turnstone 1
Sanderling 20
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10
Western Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 20
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 20
American Herring Gull 8
Laughing Gull 20
Least Tern 3
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 10
Royal Tern 45
Black Skimmer 3
Rock Pigeon 15
Mourning Dove 8
Chimney Swift 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 4
Eastern Kingbird 6
Tree Swallow 20
Purple Martin 1
Barn Swallow 4
Cedar Waxwing 5
Carolina Wren 4
House Wren 1
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
American Robin 1
Carolina Chickadee 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 1
European Starling 10
House Sparrow 10
White-eyed Vireo 1
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 5
Yellow Warbler 2
Northern Waterthrush 1
Northern Cardinal 6
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Common Grackle 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 3
Baltimore Oriole 1

As it turns out the birding was quite good at Higbee beach this morning. In fact yesterday morning was not that bad either. Sure slower by a bit but still good biring. When I woke up this morning and turned on The Weather Channel (yes, that's the first thing I do in the morning. Don't act like most of you out there don't check to see what the weather/winds are like in the morning at this time of year.) I was surprised to see that they we saying NNW at 6 mph. Given the way things had been I was expecing a NE to SE direction wind.

What surprised me more was that there was only one car in the parking lot at Higbee when we arrived just after 7 a.m. I said to myself, surely there is a rare bird around and everyone is there looking at the bird! I know it's a regular work weekday for everyone else in the world pretty much, but I expected there to be a few more cars.

Well either way, if you weren't able to catch the small fight this morning make sure you keep watching the weather channel and checking out the Birding Forecasts http://www.birdcapemay.org/forecast/ because this weekend looks like it could shape up to be pretty good. Saturday especially.

By the way, make note that the "official' Hawkcount and Morning Flight start in earnest on this Saturday Sept. 1. I can't believe that it's Sept. already. If you don't know what the hawkcount or Morning Flight is, check out these pages on BirdCapeMay.org; http://www.birdcapemay.org/hawkwatch/ and http://www.birdcapemay.org/morningflight/

With the winds still from the NNW when we left the island, there may possibly be a little hawk flight today. I heard that there was a nice assortment of hawks over Cape May yesterday. Heck in the WNW winds on Sunday, when we went to look for the Baird's sandpiper, we had a few hawks up and circling. I guess it's just that time of year.

So, for the birding today, there are still good number of kingbirds around. Today also brought a good flight of Baltimore orioles and Red-eyed vireos as well. The birds of the day for me were a beautiful breeding male Golden-winged warbler and a Warbling vireo. We were able share the Golden-winged with only one other person!

So as per usual the list of species is below. The second list is from yesterday 8/27. I wasn't able to enter my numbers into eBird as they were doing some server maintenance. So, I figured that I'd post it along with today's list.

One more note, the numbers today by all means are very conservative estimates. It was very difficult to keep track of the individuals moving around. In fact eBird has a few excellent articles on their site about counting/estimating bird numbers. In my opinion a must read, especially for anyone who is currently or contemplating entering data into eBird. There is also a great article about how you classify the data you submit. Here are a couple of the links. http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/CasualObs.html, http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/Bird_Counting.html

Remember to watch the weather and get out this weekend! Heck, get out even if it doesn't look great weather wise. You never know what you'll tern up. Make sure to at least hit your favorite local patch.



Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/28/07
Number of species: 49
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Snowy Egret 2
Laughing Gull 18
Rock Pigeon 4
Mourning Dove 12
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 3
Least Flycatcher 1- We had a good 6-8 un-id Empids around today. By no means am I an expert in flycatchers plus they didn't give very good looks. In fact, I'm going to do a little brush up reading right now.
Great Crested Flycatcher 26
Eastern Kingbird 280
White-eyed Vireo 12
Warbling Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 42
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 1
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 18
Barn Swallow 4
Carolina Chickadee 8
Tufted Titmouse 4
Red-breasted Nuthatch 8
Carolina Wren 8
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 10
Veery 3
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 22
Blue-winged Warbler 4
Golden-winged Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 9
American Redstart 21
Northern Waterthrush 1
Common Yellowthroat 3
Yellow-breasted Chat 2
Northern Cardinal 9
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3
Bobolink 35
Red-winged Blackbird 25
Common Grackle 8
Baltimore Oriole 24
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 2
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/27/07
Number of species: 37
Great Egret 4
Cooper's Hawk 1
Laughing Gull 12
Mourning Dove 8
Black-billed Cuckoo 1
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 368
White-eyed Vireo 4
Red-eyed Vireo 2
American Crow 1
Tree Swallow 13
Barn Swallow 3
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 4
Carolina Wren 12
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
Veery 1
American Robin 2
Northern Mockingbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 15
Blue-winged Warbler 5
Yellow Warbler 2
Magnolia Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 5
American Redstart 9
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 1
Northern Cardinal 4
Bobolink 65
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Baltimore Oriole 2
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 3
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

Finally got to see the Baird's sandpiper. Whew! Thought that I had forgotten how to tell what they looked like.

Since I have not been able to get the hotline done for this week, I thought that I'd at least post some of the more interesting sightings from the last couple of days.

Dickcissel- 8/25- Beanery
Baird's sandpiper (of course!)- 8/26- Bunker pond
Western sandpiper- same as above
3 Upland and 3 Buff-breasted sandpiper- 8/25- out of county, Johnson's Sod Farm
Lark sparrow- 8/26- CMBO Villas WMA walk
2 Upland sandpipers (fly overs)- 8/26- Cape May point State Park
Also at the park today;
Long-billed dowitcher
4 Black terns
Yellow-bellied flycatcher
Yellow-breasted chat- 8/26- Higbee
Worm-eating warbler- 8/26- Higbee

Many may have noticed a new link at the top of the page (just below the hotline phone number) and some may have even attempted to navigate the link to find out the tide information for Cape May.

As well, many by now may have realized that this tide site is one that has been mentioned on View from the Cape before; http://www.saltwatedtides.com/. In an effort to make your Cape May visitation research easier we wanted to provide an easy to use tide chart but found that various options which would refresh on their own were to cumbersome or did not allow for the intuitive use we were looking for in a tide site. So, I wanted to give a quick "how to navigate" guide to the website we are using.

I was first introduced to this particular tide site when I was doing Red knot surveys along the gulf coast of Florida and have been using it ever since. I personally find that it is very easy to use with a significant number of sites available for most any of the places I've been where I wanted to know tide information.


So, what I have done is to create a quick tutorial so that you can get a brief understanding of how this particular site works. After this it's up to you to play with the settings on the site and gather your own tide information.

To start, click the link at the top of the page. i.e. "Click here for Tide, Moon, Sun Rise / Set Information." A new window should open which shows the Saltwatertides.com site. At the bottom of this "home page" click the "tide" link. i.e. "Onwards to the tide region selection page."

Now follow the instructions to the side of each picture and you'll get tide information for where ever you may choose.



After you click the "tide" link you will see a list of states offered. Obviously we will be choosing New Jersey. NOTE: click on the picture and the image will enlarge in a new window for better viewing.








Here we scrolled down the list of sites for the State of New Jersey. You may notice that the list of sites starts at the northern coast of NJ and follows down to Cape May and then back up the Delaware Bay cost of NJ. This is important to note for any state for which you may be researching tide. In this example we have chosen "Cape May, Atlantic Ocean" found just above the "Delaware Bay" section. Notice the circle is filled in with a little green dot.





Next it's time to choose the month in which you are looking for tidal information. Also, choose the day of the month and the number of days for which you want tide information. Here we've chosen August 2007. We are looking for tide tables starting on the 25th day of the month and running for the full 14 days. Now you simply click the "Get Tides" button and up pops the tide information your looking for.




NOTE: you can choose up to 14 days for tides, as well, you can
query many months in advance. If you are thinking about
putting together a WSB team you could look up the tide
information for May 10, 2008.



Now, you have all the tide information you were seeking for the given state and location. You'll notice that not only do you get the high and low tide information; you also get the sunrise and sunset times for the location in addition to the moonrise and set times. Also a nice addition to this chart is the moon phase.







Hopefully after this you have a good grasp of how to navigate this particular tide site. You can hopefully see why we chose this site as well. Good luck and my the tides be in your favor.

Well, I am beginning to believe that Baird's sandpiper has been removed from my program. I have tried and tried and have still yet to see this bird. Or, there is the possibility that, as a good friend says about not being able to hear the high pitched birds anymore; it's all a conspiracy against me!

Anyway, the birding was pretty good at the Cape May point State Park this morning. As I've already stated the Baird's was a no show. In fact there were over all lower number of shorebirds period. Still a decent diversity, I had 11 species in my quick walk around the park.

One nice sight was a group of Royal terns sitting on the beach with a mix of Forster's and Common's. Also a hand full of imm. mixed in with adult Laughing gulls. There were a good number terns a gulls over the ocean headed in the direction of the rips. No jaegers were seen by me but it's getting time to be looking for these pirates chasing the gulls and terns around. I remember one day when I was counting hawks here, it was a rainy day so we were sea watching from the covered pavilion, and we had somewhere between 9 and 11 Parasitic jaegers in the area of the rips at one time.

This morning I had to pay special attention to a "dark" tern making a bee line for the rips. While my first impression was that the bird was Black tern the way the bird was flying did not fit my search image for Black tern in flight. What I soon came to realize, once the bird had arrived at the area at which it was wishing to look for food, was that I was watching a Black tern that was in, evidently, determined flight mode. I can't think of a time I have seen Black tern flying with such strength to its wing beats. Usually they have such loopy, loose wing beats they are obvious at some distance. Another lesson.

Other good finds for the morning were; a Northern harrier hanging around toward the back end of Bunker pond. This bird picked up and floated toward TNC's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge but was continuing to gain altitude, migrating? On the back end of the red trail there was a good sized flock of Eastern kingbirds chasing one another around. Also, a good number of Bobolink flying over. My largest singe flock was 140 birds. I totaled 414 but there were probably half that number that passed that I could not locate in the sky. Funny how you can hear "plink" coming from over head and not see a thing. Or, hear one "plink" and find a flock of 50 Bobolink.

One last note; just got a call from George Myers that they had a LARK SPARROW on the CMBO Villas WMA walk this morning. If you have yet to bird the Villas WMA you definitely need to make the trip. It's a very cool place to bird and the walking is extremely easy since the paths are all paved.

As usual the list of species seen today is below.


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/26/07
Number of species: 66
Canada Goose 4
Mute Swan 43
Gadwall 2
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 12
Hooded Merganser 1
Great Blue Heron 2
Osprey 1
Northern Harrier 1
Black-bellied Plover 2
Semipalmated Plover 16
Killdeer 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 10
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Sanderling 5
Semipalmated Sandpiper 6
Least Sandpiper 52
White-rumped Sandpiper 2
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Laughing Gull 196
Herring Gull 15
Great Black-backed Gull 36
Royal Tern 36
Common Tern 8
Forster's Tern 35
Least Tern 28
Black Tern 4
Black Skimmer 2
Rock Pigeon 36
Mourning Dove 22
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Kingbird 26
White-eyed Vireo 6
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 4
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 75
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Bank Swallow 4
Barn Swallow 45
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 12
House Wren 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 3
Northern Mockingbird 1
Cedar Waxwing 8
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 4
Common Yellowthroat 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Indigo Bunting 1
Bobolink 414
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Common Grackle 8
Brown-headed Cowbird 32
House Finch 12
House Sparrow 8
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)