BirdCapeMay.org

. . . from Jessie Barry, today: "Awesome day on the platform today, with 4 Goldens and 2 Goshawks. Tomorrow should be interesting as well."

From Janet Crawford, yesterday: "At Jake's [Landing] tonight, first spotted by Brian Johnson, was a close, hunting Short-eared owl. Also, 10 Harriers, 4 Red-tails, 1 Great Blue Heron, 1 Great Egret. Heard Clapper Rails, and a pair of Great Horned Owls. "

Given the south winds, we reluctantly abandoned Cape May today for our workshop in favor of Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, a.k.a. "Brig." The sheer number of birds at Brig right now is astonishing - 1,000's of Dunlin (probably the most abundant species there right now), Green-winged Teal, pintails, brant, Greater Yellowlegs, Black Ducks - the place is stuffed with birds.

In terms of the rarer stuff, the American White Pelican is still there, seen in the east pool in two different locations. Lingering shorebirds included 4 White-rumped Sandpipers, 2 Stilt Sandpipers, a single American Golden Plover, and 16 Marbled Godwits which first appeared as "the big brown things" in a huge flock of shorebirds put to flight by one of several peregrines, and which later were found roosting at the east side of the west pool, seen from the tower along the south dike. The other fancy shorebirds were seen from the north dike. The Stilt Sandpipers flew restlessly here and there, making it difficult for our group of over 20 workshop participants to get on, until finally one lighted next to the dike for the closest of close views.

Today's Brig list is below - 97 species, but the number pales beside the spectacle of thousands of shorebirds put to flight by hunting peregrines, or the marvelous wintry sounds of huge brant flocks, or the zooming flights of Hooded Mergansers, or the ornate male Wood Ducks, or the adult Bald Eagle sitting on the flats, or simply the marvelous bright blue sky this Halloween day. In the list below, if there's an "x" it's because I wasn't able to put a reasonably accurate figure to the number of birds actually present.

Location: E B Forsythe NWR
Observation date: 10/31/07
Notes: CMBO Cape May with Everything on It workshop
Number of species: 97
Snow Goose 300
Brant X
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan X
Wood Duck 10
Gadwall 20
American Wigeon 5
American Black Duck X
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) X
Mallard X
Northern Shoveler 10
Northern Pintail X
Green-winged Teal X
Greater Scaup X
Lesser Scaup X
Hooded Merganser 25
Ruddy Duck 10
Common Loon 2
American White Pelican 1
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 10
Great Egret 75
Snowy Egret 10
Black-crowned Night-Heron 5
Turkey Vulture X
Bald Eagle 1
Northern Harrier 10
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 5
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 5
Clapper Rail 1
American Coot 10
Black-bellied Plover X
American Golden-Plover 1
Semipalmated Plover 3
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Greater Yellowlegs X
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Marbled Godwit 16
Red Knot 1
Western Sandpiper 50
Least Sandpiper 20
White-rumped Sandpiper 4
Pectoral Sandpiper 4
Dunlin X
Stilt Sandpiper 2
Short-billed Dowitcher 2
Long-billed Dowitcher 5
Laughing Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Forster's Tern X
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Red-bellied Woodpecker X
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker X
Downy Woodpecker X
Hairy Woodpecker X
Northern Flicker X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Fish Crow X
Tree Swallow X
Carolina Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
Red-breasted Nuthatch 10
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 5
Golden-crowned Kinglet X
Eastern Bluebird 2
Hermit Thrush 5
American Robin X
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
American Pipit 1
Cedar Waxwing 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler X
Eastern Towhee 1
Savannah Sparrow X
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow X
Swamp Sparrow X
White-throated Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal X
Red-winged Blackbird X
Eastern Meadowlark X
Common Grackle X
Boat-tailed Grackle X
Purple Finch 10
House Finch 25
Pine Siskin 1
American Goldfinch 20
House Sparrow X

"Don't turn your back on Cape May in a west wind" is a good adage, as I learned Monday when I left the hawkwatch to post Monday's blog. Sure enough, 5 minutes later an Anhinga soared over the platform.

Yesterday's (Tuesday's) birding at Cape May featured . . .well, nice weather, anyway. It was clear a few new birds had come in at Higbee, including a significant number of Hermit Thrushes, with at least 10 detected in a two hour walk around the fields there. Juncoes similarly were more evident, lending a sense that winter is coming. However, a lingering Baltimore Oriole, plus Blackpoll and Pine Warblers, bent the season back towards fall.

Off St. Peters, a female Common Eider, probably the same one that's been reported around the point for a couple weeks, provided close study opportunities, close enough that we could examine the bill structure and determine, based on the shape of the frontal apex (the swath of feathers extending to the base of the upper mandible) and the rounded shape of the portion of the bill extending rearward to the eye, that this eider is from the Atlantic population. Page 93 in "big" Sibley depicts the bill shapes for the various Common Eider populations.

From St. Peters, we watched raptors come to the tip of the point and figure out what they were going to do next. One Northern Harrier, very typically for this species, circled to gain altitude and then without further hesitation headed south out over the bay. The accipiters, one could pretty well tell, got to the bay and thought "oh, crap", turned around and headed north. One sharpie and one Cooper's Hawk did fly well out over the water, only to think better of it and turn around.

Many Tree Swallows fed low over the water, which may seem weird considering that it's salt water we're talking about and thus no insects are hatching from it. However, on west or northwest winds, some insects are blown out over the water and perhaps are easy pickings for the swallows as the insects struggle back to shore. In summer, Purple Martins from the state park colony often forage far offshore, and I presume this is the reason.

I did not hear of any new rarities through noon Tuesday. Today we're off to Brigantine, we being the CMBO Cape May with Everything On It workshop. Hopefully the White Pelican will still be around, along with plenty of ducks and lingering shorebirds.

I'm almost ashamed to say it, but I was mildly underwhelmed by the flight that greeted the dawn here in Cape May, given the recent cold front and attending wnw winds and cool temps. It was still an AWESOME morning of birding. I hear that Morning Flight counted about 15,000 birds - robins, yellow-rumps, blackbirds and flickers predominating, the usual suspects.

The raptor flight is very diverse (though sky high) and my goodness there's some quality stuff flying around. A Sandhill Crane, for starters, seen by various people in various places at various times, including by CMBO's "Cape May with Everything On It" workshop, from the Beanery as the bird flew over Cape May Point to our south.

Not only do rare birds stand little chance of passing through Cape May without being seen, they're almost surely going to be seen multiple times. We ran into Stu and Wendy Malmid at the Beanery - they'd seen the crane from Hidden Valley. I ran into Michael O'Brien and Louise Zemaitis and friends - they'd seen it too.

The Beanery held a Baltimore Oriole, and a few Rusty Blackbirds flew over, but otherwise it was the usual good suspects.

Golden Eagle and Rough-legged Hawk wowed the crowd at the hawk watch platform at about 11:45 a.m., simultaneously. Not a falcon was to be seen, but plenty of sharpies, coops, red-taileds, red-shouldereds, harriers, and a few broad-wingeds were in the air, most way way up. I'm glad I'm not the hawk counter today! A Yellow-billed Cuckoo flew over the state park parking lot - perhaps another one dared it to do it, because it takes one brave cuckoo to expose itself that long under all those raptors. Jessie called out a Short-eared Owl flying out towards the meadows, and a few people got on it before it dropped. Something to look for tonight, as are Saw-whets - Michael reported one in his yard at 5:30 this morning, and Pete Dunne had three in the dark up in Cumberland County this morning, too.

Among the ducks were 7 flyby Wood Ducks and a quartet of Gadwall, three drakes and a single hen that really probably wished they'd leave her alone. The Gadwall flew round and round the state park, for at least 5 minutes, the drakes following the hen and calling to her with their low, nasal "quenk" persistently. Ducks start to pair around now, and seal the deal in winter before leaving for the nesting grounds.

Lists for the Beanery and the hawkwatch platform are below.

Location: The Beanery
Observation date: 10/29/07
Notes: CMBO's Cape May with Everything on It workshop.
Number of species: 53
Snow Goose 15
Canada Goose 4
American Black Duck 3
Mallard 10
Common Loon 5
Double-crested Cormorant 25
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 10
Osprey 2
Bald Eagle 2
Northern Harrier 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk 10
Cooper's Hawk 5
Red-shouldered Hawk 5
Broad-winged Hawk 5
Red-tailed Hawk 10
Sandhill Crane 1 flying over Cape May Point
Herring Gull 5
Mourning Dove 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 5
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue Jay 10
American Crow 25
Fish Crow 2
Tree Swallow 50
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 5
Winter Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 15
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 10
Eastern Bluebird 10
American Robin 500
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 5
European Starling 10
American Pipit 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 50
Chipping Sparrow 5
Song Sparrow 10
Swamp Sparrow 10
White-throated Sparrow 10
Northern Cardinal 5
Red-winged Blackbird 500
Eastern Meadowlark 10
Rusty Blackbird 5
Common Grackle 10
Baltimore Oriole 1
Purple Finch 15
Pine Siskin 5
American Goldfinch 10
House Sparrow 5


Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 10/29/07
Notes: CMBO's Cape May with Everything on It workshop.
Number of species: 53
Snow Goose 15
Canada Goose 25
Wood Duck 7
Gadwall 5
American Wigeon 10
American Black Duck 5
Mallard 20
Green-winged Teal 10
Ruddy Duck 10
Common Loon 20
Double-crested Cormorant 100
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 1
Black Vulture X
Turkey Vulture X
Osprey X
Northern Harrier X
Sharp-shinned Hawk X
Cooper's Hawk X
Red-shouldered Hawk X
Broad-winged Hawk X
Red-tailed Hawk X
Rough-legged Hawk X
Golden Eagle X
American Coot 2
Killdeer 1
Herring Gull 10
Royal Tern 5
Rock Pigeon 50
Mourning Dove 10
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 5
Tree Swallow 500
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 5
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
American Robin 10
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 10
American Pipit 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 20
Palm Warbler 2
Song Sparrow 5
White-crowned Sparrow 5
Northern Cardinal 5
Red-winged Blackbird 50
Eastern Meadowlark 2
Purple Finch 5
House Finch 10
American Goldfinch 5
House Sparrow 50