Christmas Bird Count 2019

Another year, another Christmas Bird Count. It always seems like the worst weather too. This year, I did Pennypack Park on Saturday in drizzle and dreary overcast conditions. My territory is pretty boring but at least I found a Great-horned Owl sitting out. Poor thing was harrassed by a group of crows later in the day but didn't budge from his perch.

Great-horned Owl

And caught this Pileated Woodpecker in flight. You can see the white wing panels that make this bird easy to ID in flight.

Pileated Woodpecker

You can see by the photographs that the lighting was TERRIBLE for photographing birds.

On Sunday, I joined Paul Guris' CBC group to cover the Two Mile Unit of Cape May. I have helped with this territory in the past but this year, the weather was really snotty with sideways rain, wind and fog that prevented us from seeing very much. This Cooper's Hawk sat on the railing at the boat dock dripping wet for a long time. Even she didn't want to fly in that weather.

Once I downloaded the photo, I noticed that this hawk has leg bands. I can't read the band information but interesting to find one with "jewelry".

We were the only group in Cape May to spot a Snow Bunting this year which is weird because there are a lot of professional birders that cover this area. I guess we just got lucky. This little guy was gobbling up seeds in the parking lot of the restaurant.

Snow Bunting

I quit around 2:30 and headed home to host the DVOC photo contest judging. There were alot of great submissions this year. The judges had a tough time choosing winners to be announced on Thursday.

Southern Specialty

Migration at the shore seems to be hit or miss lately. I remember back in the 1990's that every time I made the trip to Higbee beach, there were birds in spring. Nowadays it seems like most days are pretty unremarkable at that site. Today was no exception. Peanut and I showed up at 6:30 AM and walked the fields all the way back to the pond. Hardly any birds were singing or seen. A single Chat was singing away and attracting attention but that was about it. We left and headed back to The Villas to see if any birds made it to Cox Hall Creek. Nope. No bird singing in the parking lot. No birds singing along the trail. Luckily, Harvey saved me by calling to say that he was going to see the Swainson's Warbler that has been seen at Cape May Point. The bird has been here for a few weeks but getting to see it is tricky. 

Swainson's Warblers are southern birds. They are drab colored skulkers that walk around on the ground and hide in the underbrush. Many birders hear Swainson's but do not see them. They stay below the Mason-Dixon line. I've been lucky enough to see one in Texas and hear many and see one in North Carolina. Today, Harvey and I went to find the celebrity bird and were really lucky. This poor guy is singing his heart out for a gal but sadly won't get one to respond. Not only did we get to hear his song but he perched in a tree for us too. 

Swainson's Warbler

Lonely boy singing

The photos aren't great because the bird was backlit by the sun but I assure you that many birders came out of those woods with NO photo at all. 

Migration of a Different Kind

Cape May in fall is touted as "off the charts" and "so many birds". This marketing brings many birders to Higbee beach in September and October expecting lots of birds. Us "locals" know that the migration phenomenon only happens when conditions are right. Those conditions consist of winds blowing from the northwest overnight and birds bottled up to the north of NJ waiting for the right winds. Even when everything looks right, the birds sometimes fool us and don't show up. That happened this weekend. The winds blew out of the northwest on Thursday night but Friday morning left us birders high and dry for the most part. Luckily, there were a few stray birds. We saw over 50 Northern Parulas. This one posed on a posy for us. The ID here is the green patch on the back and split eye ring.

Northern Parula

This young Black and White warbler was lit up by the morning sun. The ID here is that this "black" and white is really more "brown" and white. 

Black and White Warbler

This House Wren was none too happy with us walking past. Kind of giving us the stink eye.

House Wren

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are showing up on their way south. This one was really trying to show off. They are so twitchy that they are hard to photograph.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Once this little flurry of birds past through, I went to work. Other birders found some more migrants but not the quantities that we expected.

Saturday was worse than Friday. Barely any birds at all. Peanut and I walked the fields, went to breakfast, birded some other places, then I went to the State Park at the lighthouse to sit at the hawkwatch hoping to see a show. I did get a show but not of the bird variety. I walked up the trail between the hawkwatch and the beach dunes and walked into a dream world of Monarch butterflies.

Monarch Butterfly Roost

The photo above depicts 80 butterflies. They were everywhere. Flying, feeding on flowers, and hanging on the cedar trees. Click on the video below to see them in action.

I've never seen anything like this before. I met a woman who monitors Monarchs. She said that the butterflies were stopped in NJ due to the high winds and that they would spend the night roosting in the trees. If the winds were good on Sunday, they would head south. And they did.

There were so many Monarchs that there weren't enough flowers for them to each have their own.

Feeding Frenzy

I also learned to tell the difference between male and female Monarchs. This one is a male. Notice the 2 little spots on the viens.

Male Monarch Butterfly

This one is a female. No spots.

Female Monarch Butterfly

All in all, an amazing experience. I hope the birds come through soon.

Meet Mr. White

Mr. White's first name? Bob. As in Bobwhite. As in quail. Harvey, Barb and I ran into 2 Bobwhites today at The Nature Conservancy's Meadow preserve. These birds are very tame because they are raised from eggs to chicks by various nature agencies and then released into the wild. The idea is that they will be hunted later on (sick, I know). Anyway, these 2 Bobs put on quite a show today. The older guy was calling "bob - WHITE"

Adult Male - Northern Bobwhite

And then the younger guy would call "bob - WHITE"

Young Male - Northern Bobwhite

It ended up as a dual of quail with the old guy calling "anything you can do, I can do better"

Adult Male - Northern Bobwhite

And the young guy responding "I can do everything better than you"

Young Male - Northern Bobwhite

The old guy shouting "No you can't"

Adult Male - Northern Bobwhite

And the young guy shouting "Yes I can"

Young Male - Northern Bobwhite

In the end, the young guy was definitely winning the shouting match and also started chasing the old man around. The old man gave up and found a friend.

Barb's new friend

The young guy posed for more photos. This one with the Cape May lighthouse in the background.

Young Male - Northern Bobwhite

And this one singing while sitting on The Nature Conservancy sign which I sent to my contact at The Nature Conservancy for a laugh.

Young Male - Northern Bobwhite

A fun way to spend the morning before work for sure. After work, I hit the beach in the scorching heat and found a few banded Sanderling.

Christmas Bird Count(s) 2016

The annual Christmas Bird Count is a time honored tradition. I've been doing it one for the past few years. My territory is Pennypack park near the Environmental Center. I dutifully cover this territory year after year come rain or shine, warm or freezing cold. This year was of the rainy and cold variety. Needless to say, the day was pretty shitty. No birds. Cold  and wet. Peanut didn't even really have a good time. She was happy to call it quits by 1 PM. That was Saturday Dec 17th. The only photo that I managed was this miserable Cooper's Hawk.

Cooper's Hawk

Sunday was a totally different day. I offered to help Paul Guris cover his CBC area in Cape May and we had a much better day. Not only did we have better weather, but you can imagine that we had better birds too due to the habitat. We cover an area called Two Mile which is north of the Cape May inlet. It has beach and sea viewing, the inlet, marshes and also extends into Wildwood Crest. Peanut has a great day running the beach.

Here are a few Ruddy Turnstones that Peanut ran right past.

Ruddy Turnstones

We also found a these Conch shells washed up on the beach. I think they are really called Welks but whatever.

Welk Shells

Over in the marsh behind the Two Mile Restaurant, we found this very confiding Western Sandpiper. This bird sat still while we all took photographs. It didn't even fly away when Peanut ran past. I kind of felt bad for the bird - all alone on the marsh. It seemed out of sorts. I took a bajillion photos. This is the best one given the overcast lighting and rubble where the bird seemed most comfortable.

Western Sandpiper

We cruised through Wildwood Crest counting neighborhood birds along the way. Pigeons, Starlings, Mourning Doves and House Sparrows. Wait. Did that House Sparrow have yellow on it? Turn around. Let's give it another look. Sure enough, Andy and Paul had spotted a Dickcissel among the flock of House Sparrows at a feeder while driving 30 MPH down New Jersey Ave. Wow. These guys are good. Look at the subtle difference between the House Sparrow in the foreground and the Dickcissel sitting up on the bush.

Dickcissel and House Sparrow

The Dickcissel was the only one of it's species to be seen on the Cape May CBC. Sunday was like payback for my effort on Saturday. Yay.

Gone Fishin'

There's a saying - It's called "Fishing", not "Catching" because most of the time you go fishing you don't actually catch anything. Then, there are those rare days when it seems like every time you put your line in, you catch a fish so it really could be called catching. 

That's how it was on Saturday. Harvey and I went out early to see what we could find. Fish were being caught right and left. Fish were being caught so often that it was hard to keep up with who was catching what. It started with this juvenile Black-crowned Nightheron catching an eel in shallow water. 

Junior with an eel

After some time, Mom or Dad got into the action too and caught another eel. That'll show Junior. 

Adult with eel

All told, I watched Junior slurp down 4 eels in a matter of 15 minutes.

Then the Egrets got in on the action. This guy grabbed a fish but got his beak stuck. He struggled with it for quite some time before gulping it down. 

Spearfishing

Somehow, he managed to decapitate the fish in the process. Yuck.

Headless fish

And then, the real show began. A pair of Skimmers began making passes over the shallow pool. The light was great, the water was like glass. The birds dropped their bill into the water and whooshed by.

Mirror Image

Their bill automatically snaps shut when they feel something in the water.  I guess their neck bends so that they don't crash if they hit something solid. 

Skimmer

The birds would come up with a fish about 50% of the time but other times, they would be fooled into snapping up other things from the pond such as a feather. 

Skimmer with feather

When a fish was caught, it had no chance. The Skimmer's bill is like a vice. 

Skimmer

You can see how narrow the bill is when you look head on.  

Skimmer with fish

The bird would fly around with the fish until it was in the right position to be swallowed - while the bird was still flying.  You can see the fish being tossed mid-air in this photo. 

Fish toss

After about 30 minutes, the Skimmers were full and flew off. Harvey and I headed to the State Park to see if we could find the Avocet that had been reported over the past few days. We found the bird and what do you think it was doing. You guessed it, fishing. Here he is with his tiny fish prize. 

American Avocet 

Overall, the birds had a great day of fishing in Cape May. I kind of wished that I was fishing too. 

Speaking of Sparrows . . .

I finally got to spend a whole day in Cape May birding last weekend. Harvey and I started in the Villas searching for the Varied Thrush that eluded me on my last trip. We spent a good amount of time walking the old fairways and finally got a fleeting glimpse of the bird as it flew past us at break neck speed. No photos and a really crappy way to get a life bird, but it is checked off the list. I hope to see more on my next trip out west which is where this bird belongs.

Once the Varied Thrush was found, Harvey and I headed out to see some other cool birds that were being seen at Beach Plum Farm in Cape May. This is a working farm where they have free range chickens and grow produce for the local restaurants. It is only open to the public on weekends which was fine since we were there on Saturday. Two sparrows were reported there - Lark and Vesper. Both are uncommon species that show up sporadically in our area.

Vesper sparrow isn't a particularly pretty bird. It is pretty drab gray/brown but has one distinctive field mark that you can see clearly - the white eye ring. This bird was very accommodating. When we arrived, the bird was flitting in and out of some hedges but decided to fly out into the driveway to pick at seeds on the ground. There were other birders and photographers there but I crept up the driveway on my knees to get these shots. The bird didn't care at all.

Vesper Sparrow

Here is the bird happily chomping on a seed.

Vesper Sparrow

What the Vesper sparrow lacks in wow, the Lark sparrow has in spades. This is an easy bird to ID in the field with unmistakable face pattern. Once again, creeping on my knees allowed me to get these shots.

Lark Sparrow

Here is the bird happily eating some grass seed.

Lark Sparrow

Back in the parking lot, we couldn't resist spending 25 cents to feed the chickens. Boy are they aggressive. Here is Harvey getting his hand bit off.  I will have to remember to bring the kids that visit us during the summer here.

Harvey's brood

Just down the road from the farm is the site of an old Magnesite Plant that was used during WWII. The plant is gone except for a water tower. The ground is so polluted from the spoils of the work that hardly anything grows there. The habitat is ripe for sparrows. Someone has bird feeders in the parking lot so Harvey and I took the short ride to see what we could see. Best bird was this Fox Sparrow. You can see why they are called Fox sparrow due to the color. Again, this one posed with seed for me.

Fox Sparrow

Why not round out the day by birding the beaches along the ocean. We stopped at Two Mile Beach just south of Wildwood to see some of the damage caused by the recent winter storm which dumped all of that snow up home. Hundreds of Welks washed up on shore. Here is a shot that I staged to show the Welk shells with the damaged sand dunes in the background. Harvey and I each left with a shopping bag full of shells.

Welk Shells - Two Mile Beach

We headed to Stone Harbor Point to see more birds. We caught a brief glimpse of a Pipit and actually heard it call "PIPIT". This Ipswich Sparrow posed briefly before disappearing behind the dune grass. This is another subtle beauty. Ipswich is a race of Savannah sparrow that are only found near the beach in winter.

Ipswich Sparrow

All in all, it was a great day for mid winter birding. Especially since the weather has been too warm to send the ducks, geese and seabirds south.

I Witnessed It

I stayed down the shore on Sunday night to avoid traffic (what's new) and to get one more morning of birding in at Higbee beach before the work week began. Boy, am I glad I did that. Higbee has been relatively slow birding with a few warblers here and there. Good quality but not the quantity that Higbee is known for in the fall. Granted, it is still early in the season.

I arrive at the parking lot at 6:30 AM and took Peanut out to field 4 to avoid the crowds of birders who were assembled in field 1. I immediately knew that something special was happening when we looked at the dawn sky and saw hundreds of warblers shooting past us headed north. Hundreds of birds whizzing by, not stopping, just flying fast. The few that did land for a minute took off immediately. It was the kind of morning where you don't need binoculars, you just stand there and watch the flight. By 7 AM, I had seen thousands of birds fly past.

A couple of birders who were new to Higbee asked if this was normal. Normal? No. Something special? Yes. In fact, the official bird counters from NJ Audubon tallied 56,000 + warblers (just warblers) that morning. They counted 40,000 birds in under 1 hour. And then just like that, they were all gone. By 8:30 AM the spectacle was over with just a few birds passing by. Amazing. You should read the full report here: http://cmboviewfromthecape.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-monday-for-history-books.html .

No photos to show you from that day. Photography wasn't the point. Witnessing the event was enough. A memory of a lifetime.

A Refreshing Morning at Cape May Point

The day couldn't have been better. When Harvey picked me up at 6 AM, we could already tell that it was going to be an uncharacteristically gorgeous day for August. Cool temps and bright sunshine were already apparent. We also knew that we would have a fun day because we were going to meet our friend Marc at the lighthouse. Marc is one of those guys who makes the best of every day and makes the people that he is with feel the same way. He has limited time to bird these days due to other commitments but wanted to spend a few hours around Cape May Point for shorebirds and terns.

We arrived to find Marc on the Hawkwatch platform scanning for terns, ducks and waders in Bunker Pond. After hugs and kisses, we headed to the beach to scan for terns but were surprised to find swallows swarming the beach and sitting on the sand and on the beach fence. Harvey and Marc found 2 Bank Swallows in the midst of the hundred or so Barn Swallows.

Assorted Swallows - Cape May beach

We headed down the path behind the dunes to see if we could find other interesting birds. There are several ponds along this path which are referred to as "Plover Ponds". Shorebirds are often seen here and we were not disappointed. For those of you who find shorebirds boring, I invite you to go here for close up views of these birds. Here, you can see the beauty of the plumage, and the behavior that can help you identify the species and even the age of the birds that often look the same at long distances.

For instance, this Least Sandpiper often looks like a little dirty brown bird but here, I got so close that you can see the yellow legs and streaking on the throat. Least sandpipers are tiny, so they are often found at the water's edge or in the mud rather than in the water.

Least Sandpiper

 And here, you can see the Lesser Yellowlegs in typical foraging pose. They poke at the water's surface for bugs and other critters, often chasing them around.

Lesser Yellowlegs

This Short-billed Dowitcher ( I know, the bill isn't that short ) is a juvenile wearing his/her first adult feathers. You can tell because the feathers are perfect - they aren't worn out, dull, or frayed. Dowitchers are often called "sewing machines" because they are constantly poking that bill under water feeling around for food. It really does look like a sewing machine. I caught this bird in mid stitch.

Shortbilled Dowitcher

A highlight of any shorebird trip is seeing a Stilt Sandpiper. This bird has a droopy bill and beautiful barred breast which can be seen in this photo. They use the same poking motion as the Dowitcher but can get into deeper water since they have longer legs. In fact, they often dunk their entire head underwater searching for food.

Stilt Sandpiper

Another bird on our target list was this White-rumped Sandpiper. These birds are difficult to identify until they fly and reveal their white rump (hence the name). This bird was on the other side of the pond so the photo isn't as good as the others. Marc noticed the bird and started to notice the long wings, slender build and lighter color of the bird. These field marks can also be used to separate this species from more common Semi-palmated Sandpipers and other "peeps". The bird eventually flew along the bank to reveal the white rump.

White-rumped Sandpiper

If they day ended here, it would have been extraordinary but it didn't end. We kept walking the trail which turns away from the ponds and heads back to the lighthouse. The trail takes you through woods and marshes where we found a variety of other birds including an elusive Sora. Marc spotted it as we were scanning through the herons and egrets in the marsh. Its the little brown and gray bird behind the Egret in this photo.

Sora and Egret

We saw many more common birds along the trail. For some reason, they were more photogenic today. I swear Marc's charma has something to do with it. Take for instance, these 2 blue birds. They are both common birds in the area but I have never been so close or had the opportunity to get photographs like this before. The first bird is Blue Grosbeak. He sat there singing his little heart out while the 3 of us walked up the trail.

Blue Grosbeak

Here is Indigo Bunting eating seeds of dune grass along the beach. I have never seen a bunting along the beach but there he was picking at seeds while we stood a few feet away snapping photos. This bird is still getting his adult feathers. You can see some brown/gray feathers dotting the blue. The sunlight was so nice that it almost made this bird sparkle.

Indigo Bunting

Finally, as we were nearing the end of our trip, Harvey noticed this beautiful pink flower along the boardwalk. A bee landed while I was taking a photograph.

My new camera lens allows me to get pretty close to the flowers and bugs. Harvey is envious.

Bee

We had a great day and ended up with 82 species of birds - all before 11 AM. Marc headed north to meet family in Ocean City. Harvey and I headed back home to do chores.