*Now with corrected title. Oy.
One is always optimistic for any adventure to Cape May. Possibly the premiere birding spot in the state, Cape May has the promise of good birds even on a bad day. (That’s either a run-of-the-mill bad day and a bad day birding!) The biggest problem is the distance. It’s about three hours away (non-breeding season). Basically you take the parkway until it ends, and you keep going. Stop before Delaware.
Iconic Cape May Light House sets the scene and acts as a beacon bringing in birds and birders. Last stop in NJ! Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
It seems that the weekend of October 4th and 5th was the weekend to be at Cape May. Once again, I joined the Montclair State University Ornithology class for the Saturday trip. That professor (previous adviser) was staying over through Sunday to make a weekend of it. My *new* adviser was headed down Sunday to stay over through Monday. The flight was supposed to be spectacular for Sunday, but I was only going for the day and had some assignment due for class that I couldn’t give up another day for.
Duck, duck, more ducks. It’s fall! Blue-winged teal not yet in Basic (breeding) plumage and a an American Widgeon. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
As the trend has tended to be, the light started off poorly (what’s with that?!), but at least there were fun birds to see. Tara and I got there a bit early, caught the last of the rains, but did get to see Blue-winged Teal, American Widgeon, and a Glossy Ibis fly overhead.
Glossy Ibis in flight. Note curved bill. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
One of the best parts of Cape May for any new birder I suspect, and perhaps for the ornithologists who study raptors, is seeing the Bird Demo at their Pavilion. The Cape May Bird Observatory has a long-running banding program particularly for raptors and will typically have 2 birds to show up close for any interested birders at about 10 am each weekend morning. This day both birds were Sharp-shinned Hawks. Look at that beauty. Wispy feathers on the face, the slight notch in the parted beak, the distinct color patterns!
What’s better than a bird in the bush? Sharp-shinned Hawk in the hand. At Cape May there is a long-running raptor banding program. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
So there were plenty of Ardeidae to be had. Ardeidae is the family of herons to which herons, bitterns and their allies belong while Pelicaniformes is the order, which of course includes pelicans. No pelicans spotted today though.
Great Egret with a fish. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
I think I might actually have video of the Great Egret wrestling and flipping the fish. Is flipping the fish bird-slang for flipping the bird?
On the far side, there was also a Great Blue Heron hunkered down hunting near the ducks. Mallard with the speculum appearing…. blue? Normally it’s more of a purple.
More games with birds: duck, duck, heron! Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
Also at a far distance, we had a few problematic sandpipers. There was quite a bit of disagreement as they were poorly positioned each time and cameras and scopes could make little headway. We did at least resolve than in the morning, there were probably two separate sandpipers simultaneously creating that discord. Here’s one of the spotted. We had Pectoral and Western. As I look over my notes, I don’t see the third, I wonder if we decided not to call it because of the lack of concurrence.
One of the pesky peeps plaguing our ID skills. Thank goodness for photos and zooms. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
One of today’s two lifers; I had three opportunities to view it. Now how often does one get a lifer and three viewing opportunities? I tell you, it’s the Cape May promise. Little Blue Heron in it’s white juvenile form. Hard to tell in this photo as it’s experiencing momentary shyness, but there is a blue bill, thus ruling out Snowy Egret.
Lifebird: The Little Blue Heron that wasn’t (blue). Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
I do have to say that while at the Hawk Watch Platform we ran into Steve of Every Stranger Is a Promise and a second birding adventure involving rattlesnakes that I never had a chance to write up. So I went up to the upper level and hung out with him for awhile. Best of both worlds as I could see better and hear more of the identification calls as well as pay attention to the birds under observation by the class. Steve did suggest I follow up with him to go look for Short-eared Owls this winter in New York. So yay, more birds!
After a bit, by which I mean several hours, we decided to go for a loop through the field trails to pick up additional birds. Lots of accipiters, most of which weren’t photographed as the birds buzzed past: Broadwing, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-shoulder, and great views of a Merlin. We caught this particular Merlin in three different locations, but I’ll just share one photo:
The magnificent Merlin with minimal magnification. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
We had a chance to watch it eat a Yellow Warbler (hence the yellow warbler in the sightings list). It flew in one tree ate for a bit, flew off and happened to land much closer to our new location. It then flew away, and we (I) was distracted by another new bird.
So to back up the story a bit, as we headed into the trails, two exiting birders stopped us to inform us that the Common Gallinule was present today. I was so excited I near sent my adviser back to learn the precise location of the bird, but he said he had a good idea (or he really didn’t want to go chasing after people!).
So each waterway we found, I’d search thoroughly. I’d scout ahead so I could have more time, then linger behind making sure I hadn’t missed a single feather. I did find a Green Heron for the class that way.
Obscured Green Heron is not a Common Gallinule. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
At the next pond, my adviser found my my dream bird of the day:
Common Gallinule. Lifer. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
Lifer #2, the Common Gallinule. And an additional photo of Lifer #1 the Little Blue Heron this time with beak feature obviously not black.
Little Blue Heron up close. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
We wrapped up shortly after that as the light faded with a bit more time on the platform. Then after the class departed home we went to the beach for a bit. Was close to getting a lifer gull then the flock spooked and I didn’t see it, alas. (But there’s a promise of gulls in December, so cross fingers!) I’ll close out with one of the last (but not the last) bird of the day. The last bird of the day was a screech owl that flew over the car on the drive home listening to bad radio, but there’s no photo of that.
Osprey with fish in the fading light. Cape May, NJ. Photo taken on October 10, 2014.
| Canada Goose Mute Swan Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Common Loon Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Little Blue Heron Green Heron Glossy Ibis Turkey Vulture Osprey Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper’s Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk — Broad-winged Hawk Common Gallinule Semipalmated Plover? Pectoral Sandpiper Western Sandpiper Laughing Gull |
Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Caspian Tern Common Tern Forster’s Tern Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Northern Flicker Merlin Peregrine Falcon Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Tree Swallow Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Carolina Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher American Robin Gray Catbird Brown Thrasher Northern Mockingbird Common Yellowthroat Yellow Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Northern Cardinal House Sparrow |
