Saturday, August 23, 2014

Swallowing Up Summer

I told you in the last post that people's view of summer and nature's view of summer are sometimes different. Birds are already migrating even though we were boogie boarding today. Tree swallows amass in Cape May in August before taking off to southern destinations. Here is a view of the iconic Cape May Lighthouse obscured by swallows

Cape May Lighthouse
Even the Cooper's Hawk has to navigate through the swarms of swallows.

Cooper's Hawk
Shorebirds are starting to arrive in the Villas and surrounding areas. This Semi-Palmated Plover found a tasty worm on the Villas Beach.

Semi-Palmated Plover
Harvey and I found a few beauties today at Higbee dredge spoil. They were pretty tame and came very close even though Roxy was with us.

Least Sandpiper - Juvenile with fresh plumage
 There is a sandpiper called "Solitary" but it was not so today. We saw at least 6 of them. This one got so close to me and Roxy that my camera couldn't focus anymore. This is after just landing in front of me.

Solitary Sandpiper
The sandpiper caught a sand flea and proceeded to gobble it up. Zoom in to see the flea.

Solitary Sandpiper - with sand flea
Of course, other birds are migrating too. Unfortunately, I don't have any good photos of the many warblers, orioles, or kingbirds that are on the move. I'll have some soon.  Harvey found this really cool moth this morning. No folks, he didn't color it in with a highlighter - that is the real color.

Pink Moth on Sunflower
I can never resist taking photos of any Bald Eagle that flies over. Here is the resident Bald Eagle of the Cape May Canal.

Mighty Eagle
Let's hope for north west winds. That is what we need to bring birds to Cape May.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's with the Humming Birds? They have been going through over a cup of nectar a day! Are they bulking up to fly south, or are they loving my cooking? We have had so many more this year than ever before. HH

Linda said...

I think both.
A) you boil a mean cup of water
B) they are fueling up to head south