Learning the Ropes Along the Bayshore

Last week, the Bayshore had zero shorebirds. Zero. This week, hundreds of shorebirds were back from their arctic breeding bonanza. Connie and I spent some time on the beach watching the newly arrived birds feeding on the remaining horseshoe crab eggs and other stuff. There were mostly Semi-palmated Sandpipers and some Sanderlings too. Connie doesn't spend as much time studying birds as I do so we spent time today learning the difference between the species and differentiating between young birds and adults.

Our first lesson was to learn how to identify Sanderling. Sanderling are slightly larger than Semi-palmated Sandpipers. They also have more orange around the neck and only have 3 toes. We didn't focus on the toe thing since that requires a closer examination. At this time of year, Sanderling are molting from their bright brown/red breeding plumage to gray winter plumage. They will spend their time along our Bayshore making that change. This bird has just about begun the transformation. You can see a few gray feathers coming in on her back.

Sanderling - YN=

The fact that Sanderling are molting can make the identification either harder or easier. Harder because you can't look for the same pattern on each bird. Easier because you can assume that if the bird looks different, it is probably a Sanderling. On the other hand, the Semi-palmated Sandpipers are not molting which means that they all look the same. Whether they are well behaved like this little guy . . .

Semi-palmated Sandpiper

 . . . or bickering like these two. Their feathers are all uniformly brown and boring. 

Beach Brawl

The only way to really understand the birds that you are observing is to actually observe them. Spend time watching their behavior and noticing subtle plumage traits like molt. Only then will you truly learn about the bird. 

Speaking of learning, our observation skills also alerted us to watch the Least Terns. Least Terns are an endangered species that nests on sandy beaches by the ocean. Cape May has protected areas for them and it has been very successful over the years. At this time of year, the babies are old enough to learn how to fend for themselves. They test their skills along the Bayshore since the water is calmer. Connie and I heard this guy calling to Mom while he tried his luck.

He would fly along the shallow water . . .

Juvenile Least Tern

. . . and hover like this. He dove a few times but came up empty. 

Juvenile Least Tern hovering

He called to Mom a lot as if saying "Look Mom. Look Mom". Mom watched from the sandbar.

Least Tern - Adult

I assume that she knew he would be successful and wasn't worried since she didn't budge to help. 

Look at the plumage difference between Junior and Mom. Mom has a bright yellow bill, black cap and white forehead that make her look like she's wearing a mask. Junior has a black bill and not much of a cap at all. He'll get their next year but for now, he needs to use all of his energy learning to fend for himself before heading south for the winter. Once again, we might mistake these 2 birds for separate species if we didn't take the time to learn that they were on the beach as a family. 

Thousands of Shorebirds on the Beach

It's that time of year again - horseshoe crabs and shorebird extravaganza on our beach in the Villas. This year is especially birdy on our beach. Not sure why but the birds are loving the Villas. I spent time over the past 3 days searching for banded birds. It was overwhelming at times. Here is a little video to set the scene for you.

There were so many birds and so many bands to photograph that at times I was just shooting away. Here is an example. How many banded birds made it into one photograph?

09E, TN+, 52L

The majority of the birds are Sanderling and Semi-palmated Sandpipers but this year, we have an abundance of Ruddy Turnstones. They win the prize for most handsome birds on the beach.

Ruddy Turnstone Lineup

I found one Ruddy Turnstone with an antenna sticking out behind him. Can you see it on AA=? He just had the transmitter installed on his back this week. I hope he survives it.

RUTU AA= w/antenna

I found another RUTU hauling an older model transmitter called a geolocator. It is attached to his right leg rather than on his back.

RUTU H1A w/Geolocator

This guy seems to have survived the extra burden just fine. He had it installed in Brazil in May 2013 and has been tracked for 5 years now mainly being spotted in the Delaware Bay!

The birds are here to fatten up on horseshoe crab eggs. We met our friends on the beach to watch the sunset on Friday night. The crabs were also on the beach just after high tide.

Mating Crabs at Sunset

They were busy mating. Here is some "crab porn". The female is the larger crab. She digs a whole and lays eggs while the males fertilize.

Mating crabs

The result are millions of eggs. Some bubble up to the top. You can see them here.

Horseshoe crab eggs

Some of the birds like the Ruddy Turnstones know to dig down into the sand to expose the eggs like this guy - #123.

RUTU 123

And sometimes, they just hit the jackpot like these 2. Each green dot is an egg that they can gobble up.

Jackpot!

By the end of next week, they'll all be gone. They will be on their way to Canada and the arctic to breed in June and July then head back to Brazil and South America in August.

Radar Love

My bird club - DVOC - sponsors an intern each year at the Academy of Natural Sciences. We use money from fundraisers to help support the cost of the intern's work. The interns are then invited to give a presentation at a meeting. This year, Jenny gave a presentation with many topics but she ended by telling us about her upcoming work with Sanderlings. You should know by now that I spend alot of time on the beach in the Villas looking for tagged shorebirds (mainly Sanderlings). For instance, here is 13Y from  July 2015

13Y

And here is again from this week! Back to the same beach.

13Y

Semipalmated Sandpipers are also banded. These birds return year after year too. I know 74J like an old friend. I first spotted this fiesty little bird in 2012 and have seen him every year since. Here he is from this week.

Old friend - 74J

Here is a new one to me. 25X.

25X

I really enjoy spotting these banded birds and recording the sightings on the bandedbirds.org website. I get to see history and maps of other sightings.

This year, there was a new twist involving Jenny and her research. She contacted me to ask if I knew anyone in the Villas that would be willing to have an antenna in their yard. You see, she is tracking Sanderlings with radio transmitters that are mounted on their backs. Our friends Diane and Terry now have an antenna in their yard. Low and behold, YJ+ showed up on the beach last week with an antenna sticking out of his back. You can see it in this photo.

YJ+ antennae bird

I contacted Jenny about it and sure enough, YJ+ is one of her study subjects. I can't wait to find out what Jenny learns from YJ+ and the others that have the radios. I know it seems cruel for the individual bird but YJ+ seemed no worse for wear and I'm sure the burden will help scientists protect their shorebird brethren.

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.

Varied Week But Not Today

This week:

• Our location was varied - started in Florida, spent the night in Virginia, arrived home in Pennsylvania and spent the day today in New Jersey.
• Our weather was varied - 86 degrees in Florida but only 33 degrees today. 
• Our TV watching was even varied - we watched shows that we never heard of before in Florida like "2 Broke Girls" and "Pitbulls and Perolees" (not kidding), then football and our soap opera at home.

The only thing that wasn't varied was my luck chasing the Varied Thrush that showed up right in the Villas about a month ago and has been seen sporadically ever since. The Varied Thrush is a bird from the north and west. Of course, with everything that is going on at home (Connie's broken ankle etc) I haven't been able to go after the bird until today. And of course, with my luck you know how the chase was going to end up.

I met Harvey at 7:30 AM and headed out to Cox Hall Creek to look for the bird. Harvey has seen the bird a few times and agreed to help me find it today.  The last report of the bird stated that it was in the Holly Woods near a Bluebird box. The report said that the bird was seen hanging out with another rare bird - the Red-headed Woodpecker. We spent 2 hours freezing our hands and feet off looking. We finally found a Red-headed Woodpecker but the Thrush could not be found.

Red-headed Woodpecker

By 9:30 we needed warmth and breakfast. Harvey went home to do chores and I headed back to the park to look again. I started to feel better when I found another Red-headed Woodpecker. Again, no Varied Thrush but to my surprise, I stumbled on 4 Bobwhites scurrying up the path in front of me. I managed to snap a few shots before they scattered into the grass. They are so small and so cute. I noticed that some of the quail have white faces and some have tan/beige faces. Turns out that the birds with white faces are male and the beige faces are females. 2 of each in this covey.

Bobwhites

I re-found one of the male birds huddled under a bush just off the path.

Bobwhite

Still no Thrush so I went to Wawa for a Diet Coke and much needed bathroom break. Back to the park for third try. The wind was really howling all day. So much so that even this Merlin was sitting in the woods instead of on top of a snag like he usually does. Merlins are falcons and should be used to the wind, but today was too much for this guy. He really liked watching Peanut running around below him. Good thing Merlins eat birds and not mammals.

Merlin

I'll cut to the chase - no Thrush. A few other birders were looking for the bird throughout the day without luck either. One guy dipped for the 7th time today. Another missed the bird for the 5th time. I don't feel that bad about not seeing this elusive bird. I hope it hangs around so that I can try to vary my luck.

Buffie the Sandpiper

Sandpipers look mostly the same to the untrained eye (like mine). Many new birders avoid trying to identify shorebirds like sandpipers because they all pretty much look alike. They all look the same except for subtle differences in leg length and color, a little color difference here or there. That goes for most of them. Take this photo for instance. Same species? To the untrained eye maybe, but not to an expert's eye. (Um, Harvey's eye, not mine). Look closely at the bird on the left. That bird has red shoulders which makes it a Western Sandpiper. The snickering bird on the right is a Semipalmated Sandpiper. Completely different looking right? Yeah, right.

Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers

Other sandpipers really look different. Take this one for instance. Least Sandpiper. Look how different this one looks. Seriously, this one has yellow legs and is much smaller that the others. Again, who can tell the difference.

Least Sandpiper

What about this one. Different from the others? Yup. This is Pectoral Sandpiper. Notice the brown bib on the chest and the yellow legs.

Pectoral Sandpiper

Good news though. There are a few sandpipers that really do look different. When you see one, you know it's different. Buff-breasted Sandpipers are different. They have a beautiful buffy color all over and a beautiful pattern on the back. Buff-breasted Sandpipers are known as "grasspipers" because they are mostly found in grass rather than sand. This one was at Forsythe in the grassy area pretty close to the road.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Today, Harvey found another Buff-breasted Sandpiper. Not in the grass but on the beach! We sat there snapping away while it walked right in front of us.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Of course you know that the nickname is Buffy. Here is our friend shaking it out.

Buffy

Picking through the dead horseshoe crabs and washed up debris for a morsel is a far cry from the worms in the grass.

Buffy with a meal

But not to worry, Buffy had company. Sanderlings mostly fall into the confusing sandpiper category but you can see that this one is pretty different - white and light gray.

Buffy with companion

Well, there you have it - your sandpiper lesson for the day. There might be a quiz later, so study.

Back to Routine

"Routine" in late July means that I am at the shore and looking for the shorebirds to return from their nesting grounds in the arctic. It is always a delight to see the first of them trickle into our beach in the Villas. So it was this past weekend.  Harvey arranged for a few of us to go to Forsythe (Brig) together for some early shorebirds - or as he put it "the shorebird shuffle". I met Harvey at his house at 5 AM and we headed north on the Garden State Parkway to meet the others at 6 AM. Mary, Marc and Eric were waiting for us in the parking lot despite the fact that a mega rare bird was being seen in north Jersey at the same time. They were there despite the miserable weather - raining sideways. They were there because they know, just like Harvey knows, that something good could be at Brig in late July.  

I won't hold you in suspense. There was nothing "good" at Brig when we were there. The only good thing was the company. Mary and Harvey are self proclaimed shorebird nuts and they sure proved it by pointing out subtle and obvious field marks on the common shorebirds that we did manage to see.  We spent much less time at Brig than we normally do. Harvey and I dropped the others back at the parking lot so that they could speed up the Parkway to see the European Golden Plover. I hope they got it. Harvey and I headed south back to Cape May.

The weather finally cleared overnight. I was able to get my first banded Semipalmated Sandpiper resighting this morning. Good ol' 54J arrived on the Villas beach sometime overnight and was as feisty as ever. Here he is from Monday morning. 

SESA - 54J - 07/21/2014

And here he is on the same beach from August 4, 2012. Overcast skies make him look more gray in this photo.

SESA 54J - 08/04/2012

I can't wait for his buddies to return. The beach isn't the same without them. Of course, the Forster's Terns don't seem to mind. This one cruised by at eye level this morning. 

Forster's Tern

This was an odd thing - a Least Sandpiper on the Villas beach acting like a Semipalmated Sandpiper. You can tell that its a Least by the yellow legs. Compare to 54J above which looks almost identical except with dark legs. Least Sandpipers are usually found in more muddy habitat. Maybe he was waiting for the tide to go out and expose the muddy yucky low tide line that occurs on our beach.

LESA - waiting for some mud

Hanging Out and Seeing Red

It feels pretty good being a casual birder again. After chasing birds all year last year, it was nice to have a day to bird for the sheer sake of watching birds. Lori and I came down to the shore this morning in no big rush to do the kind of birding that we used to do back in the day - you know, just hanging out and seeing whatever there is to see. Well, it paid off big time for Lori. She got 4 life birds and had a nap too!

All of the birds that she got for lifers were colored - 3 red ones and 1 black.  The first lifer came at the marina behind the Lobster House - Red-necked Grebe. These birds have invaded our area this year even more than the Snowy Owls. They are literally everywhere that has fresh water without ice. We have some on the Schuylkill River in Philly, in the back bays of Wildwood, and even on the little ponds in the Villas. In fact, we saw 7 of them today. Here are a few photos. The first is a close encounter that we had at Cox Hall Creek. You can see that this bird is molting into breeding plumage by the red on the neck. 

Red-necked Grebe - Villas NJ

Here are a group of 3 Red-necked Grebes on a little retention pond that the locals call "Lake" Champlain because it is on Champlain Road in the Villas. It is remarkable to have 3 grebes hanging out so close together on a tiny pond.  I caught one of them in the middle of his afternoon bath.

Red-necked Grebes - Lake Champlain

The other "red" bird that we saw today was Redhead. There were 18 of them on the lake at Cox Hall Creek last month but 17 of them have flown the coop. This guy decided to hand out with a Coot.They were acting like best friends in the middle of the lake. Where ever one would go, the other would follow. 

Redhead and Coot

The third "red" bird for Lori was the Eurasian Wigeon which has red on the head. The American Wigeon has green on the head. They were hanging out together in the marsh but too far away for a photo opp. You can see a photo of this bird in a post from last month.  

Lori's 4th lifer of the day was Black-headed Gull. There have been a few hanging around Miami Ave in the Villas this month. This is pretty normal for March since they are starting to migrate north.  This is not as sexy as the others. Kind of boring in fact. It looks alot like a Bonaparte's Gull (and frankly, every other gull if you are not a birder) but a lifer nonetheless. It was hanging out with Forster's Terns on the sandbar. 

Black-headed Gull

Although it wasn't a lifer, the other notable bird for the day was this Horned Grebe. It is still in basic plumage (ie, no horns yet) but still a great find. It was very close to the shore of Sunset Lake. I love the bright red eye!

Horned Grebe - Sunset Lake

We ended the day at dinner with friends. The restaurant was loud, the service was slow and the food was mediocre but it was nice to hang out with friends.  I guess there are 2 themes to this post - Red and Hanging Out! We will take it easy again tomorrow and see whatever shows up.