Firstly, apologies for a lack of updates-it is that busy time of year, with little time for living, let alone writing. Following are a couple of thoughts from the week past (which, from the protestations of readers, one would think was an eternity! Kidding aside, I extend a sincere “Thank you”, it is nice to know that folks are reading, and the disappointment voiced by a lack of updates is certainly flattering!)

By far the most inteteresting thing I saw as a result of Tropical Storm Hannah was a Manta Ray (!!!) which breached three times just off South Cape May on Saturday. The first spalsh was all I saw at first, which I automatically assumed was a result of a cetacean or five. When the culprit leapt again, I (nearly) involuntarily yelled a resounding “Wholly SHIT!! as it was clearly a nice-sized Manta, with a disk spanning approximately 8 feet or so. I’ve never seen a Manta Ray in Jersey, and never seen one from shore ever. The flattened “horns”, wire-thin tail, and perfectly bi-coloured pattern were easy to see, albeit in mid air- the impressive animal cleared the water completely. I was most surprised, as the water has only recently gotten into the seventies.

The other really surprising sighting I’ve had during the last week was of an Eastern Mole, which, before the rain of this weekend, must’ve been driven in desperation by hunger, and dry, compacted soil to the surface.

Prior to Hannah, the last time it rained in Cape May was the tenth of August, believe it or not, and I imagine the Mole was having a hard time finding subterannean earthworms. It was squirming around in the grass, using its fossorially adapted form to sort of swim/burrow through the matted roots and stems. A free-ranging, live mole above ground is a rare sight, and despite the numerous Mole-hills seen and stepped on daily, this is the first one I’ve ever seen like this at Higbee’s. Just shows to go you what novelties one can find, even in the most familiar and well-trodden of patches.

Likewise, the day after the storm, the biggest thrill I got was out of a Silver-haired Bat which flew over the ponds at the point, while I was admiring Buff-breasted Sandpipers with some friends. A largish bat, and though not a Lasiurus proper (bring a Lasionectyris), still in the group of vespertillionids commonly refered to as “leaf-bats”. The large-size, dark pelage, angled, Tringa-like wrist, and confident flight style all readily identified the solitary limb-rooster.

Now the last time I was able to hoof out to Stone Harbor Point was Thursday last, and there was still a large creche of Royal Terns waddling around Champagne Island. I suppose the Cape May birding mafia is entirely too engaged in the masturbatory exercises of rarity hunting, compulsive web-site promotion, and photo-posting to actually pay attention to nature in these parts to care…..

While last year the colony was too small to produce a proper creche, last week there was a group of 60-80 waddling around, like a proper Royal Tern Colony. For those who may not be acquainted with the breeding biology of Royals, they are a communal, altruistic species, and the adults surround the flightless nestling, in a defensive “herd” which travels with the colonie’s earth-bound young. They are fed by everyone. Kind of like the groups of young penguins one sees on nature shows…but not quite.

Despite the hype, tropical storm Hannah produced next to nothing compared to other storms which were completely ignored by birdwatchers recently and unashamedly trying to make names for themselves in Cape May. While I hear there were a very few of the “tropical” Terns after I left Sunset Blvd. a darkish juv Pomarine-type Jaeger was the only storm waif of note I saw on Sunday.

And while I left for work before a Frigate occurred at Higbee’s this morning, and very much should’ve liked to have seen it, a few Sternas and a frigate make for a pretty lame storm-bird total! Frigates are a casual occurence which one may expect in NJ after any good bout of southerlies, really.

The real show was the incredibe American Redstart flight at Higbee’s this morning. If there was one there was easily a thousand. Red-eyed Vireos had a decent flight as well. Other noteworthies included Dickcissel, a Golden-wing, Connecticut, and some spectacular views of Blackburnians, Black-throated Greens, Chestnut-sideds, BT- Blues, Cape Mays, Nashvilles, etc. etc…

Otherwise, and in no particualr order, Egrets and Herons have been around the point in impressive numbers. Waterfowl increase daily, with Shovelers, Green-winged Teal and Wigeon turning up with greater frequency, and Blue-winged Teal in impressive numbers. Eastern Kingbirds have diminshed to a trickle while Bobolinks are still going strong. Empids have well-passed their peak, and despite a nice showing of Yellow-bellieds late last week, have been replaced by Pewees. Great Crests are also scarce. Pectoral Sandpipers are difficult to miss, a handsome Juv. Baird’s Sandpiper had been hanging around, until recently, Buff-brested’s are on the dry beach Grass, and CMBO and continues to obviously be threatened by its own incompetence, and my mere presence.

As has been observed by many, Cape May is hardly what it once was. I am reminded of the “Reign of Thirty Tyrants”, the period which followed the glories of the Julio-claudians and Flavians, in Rome. Without Sibleys and Lehmans, and with most of the better birders and naturalists either eschewing the nasty birding “scene” or being too busy traveling for tours (or like myself, just plain earning a living) the current Cape May birding establishment of CMBO/NJAS is clearly suffering from the effects of its own mediocrity, and I may say, the pathologies of its research associates, Shop-keepers, and other administrators and directors.

Pity really.

Where to start…?

There were impressive numbers of Shorebirds and such around Stone Harbor Pt.

I think I wound up with 26 piping Plovers all told, a flock of 19 were foraging on a receding tide near the tip of Stone Harbor Pt.

30 western Willets were roosting on the north end of Nummy’s Isl. and another 8 or so were in the surf.

Just about 1000 Sanderling seem to have arrived out of nowhere, and there were likewise more than a few (ie 35 at Higbee’s Beach, 40 at South Cape May)Sanderling around Cape May Point, where yesterday, numbers were unimpressive.

Peep were very well represented at Stone Harbor, too- there were just about 2000 of the smaller three.

15 Red Knot, some breeding plumaged, others first years were also there, as well as, lots and lots of Semipalmated Plovers, but not quite the numbers of either soon to be bourne by August yet to come…

Juvenile Laughing Gulls seem to be around in abundance-which is excellent to see, they have had bum years the last two at least. Interestingly, the very first juv. Laugher I’ve seen was at Cape Island, today too.

On the breeding larid note, there were just shy of 400 Royal Terns on Champagne Island, and at least 18 gingery downy babies are being “creched”. Very cool. There were also over 1500 Black Skimmers there, as well as two Sandwich Terns. A third Sandwich was at the pond at the base of the Point. The first juv/fledgeling Common Tern I’ve seen this year was also following the rents at Stone Harbor Pt. today.

Otherwise,

there were no fewer than 21 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the beach in South Cape May this evening, and there were exceptional numbers of foaraging Larids in the rips. To the tune of more than a thousand Laughing Gulls, and nearly 200 Least Terns alone. 3 Black Terns, one in the Meadows, and two heading east with the other terns this evening were also very good to see.

There was also a noteworthy flock of nearly 40 Killdeer on recently tilled fields on Bayshore Rd.

2 Prothonotaries still begging, yet a bit yellower were in the wet woods at Higbee’s. Wonder if they are a family from that very spot, or one nearby?

4 Downy Gadwall are still accompanying their mother in the Meadows, though I’ve yet to see another brood.

Yellow-breasted Chats seem to be going through a second round of song-flights of late, and it seems like local Orchard Orioles have, well, gone south, so to say.

CJV

There was excellent birding and excellent birds to be had in Cape May today, and it also happened to be a spectacularly pleasant one on which to be out and about doing just about anything out-of-doors.

By far the most exciting find were three Sandwich Terns among the 200 Royal Terns and well over a thousand Black Skimmers on Champagne Island. While three Sandwich terns here in late June is not all that surprising, the exciting thing was that two were breeding plumaged adults, apparently going through some kind of courtship manouvres.

They were marching together in circles, quick-step time, side by side, wings slightly drooped, bushy crests raised, and necks arched. They kept this up for some time.

The interesting thing is that Sandwich Terns apparently form pair-bonds well before arriving on breeding turf. However the biirds showed no aggressive interaction, and stayed glued to each other’s side the entire timeI watched, even when not marching around together.

The other Sandwich was a first year, ousted from the middle of one cluster of Royal Tern nests by a garrulous Royal. The young Sandwich just flew a few feet to the edge of the nesters, and stayed within very close proximity to the colony. Last year, Sandwich Terns were landing among the actual nesting Royal Terns too, not just hanging out with the loafers as is typical of misfit terns.

I should not at all be surprised if Sandwich Tern is not among the next, if not the next bird added to NJ’s list of breeding birds.

Otherwise, there were 11 Brown Pelicans in that neighborhood, two roosting on the inlet side of Great Channel, the others all winging north off-shore, six of those being in one flock.

A young Great Cormorant left the flock of 50 roosting Double-cresteds roosting on the sandbars on the west side of the point, and headed to the north over the sea. This is the first I’ve seen or heard of an over-summering Great Corm at Hereford Inlet this year.

There was a decent little flock of shorebirds at the overflow pond at the base of Stone Harbor Point, including, 3 Red Knot, 9 Ruddy Turnstones, 11 Black-bellied Plovers, 13 Semipalmated Plovers, 3 Short-billed Dowitchers, 12 Western Sandpipers, and 5 Semipalmated Sandpipers.

One Tricolored Heron was at Nummy’s Island, but otherwise, the place belonged to the flies.

Cape Island was its effervescent summertime self and very birdy today.

I get the feeling that Yellow-billed Cuckoo eggs must’ve hatched. One because Yellow-billed Cuckoos were incredibly obvious, flying back and forth around the fields at Higbee’s in a way which they weren’t even just yesterday, and carrying food; and two because I found the discarded shell of a hatched Yellow-billed Cuckoo egg just near the Pond there today.

One Roseate Tern-beautiful bird, was hunting off the Point this morning, and the same bachelor flock of 4 Surf Scoters persists. Gannets also seemed to be a bit more in evidence today, I managed about 6, including one second-year type. Later, towards evening, there was a most unexpected, adult Black Tern hunting the rips. Odd time of year for one.

There were 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the South Cape May Beach front this evening, including the dark near-adult and two second summers.

A first-summer Yellow-crowned Night Heron at the Meadows was a bit unexpected as it came in from the north and circled the place two or three times before settling in. A first summer Black-crown was also there and an adult Black-crown was in the park.

The same footless Lesser Yellowlegs was in the Meadows, but the Willets of the last fortnight have apparently departed.

Best of all, there were two broods of four Piping Plovers, one very new- maybe a day or two old, the other a couple of weeks old, and maybe a week away from fledgeling, give or take. With the 8 chicks there were 16 Pipers on the Beach tonight.

Numbers of endangered species aside, the scene at South Cape May was just about idyllic this evening.

In a lowering sun, with a perfect breeze, the adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, flushed by a walker, unwittinlgy settled too close to the newborn Piping Plovers. As they ran behind his bright yellow legs and the parents mobbed his ankles, one of the Dolphins, unaccompanied by newborn calves, decided smacking his flukes was the best idea to come into his delphinic mind, and began pounding the waves with all his might, like a beaver on steroids, to the tune of 30 smacks.

I don’t know which was better, four adorably wide eyed newborn Piping Plovers incongruously behind a well-plumaged European stray, or the echoing cetacean ebullience. Perhaps its best not to try and tease it apart-the whole scene was a gesamtkunstwerk of Maw Nature at her finest.

CJV

A short note on midsummer eve Birds in Cape May

There were 9 Lesser Black-back at south Cape May, including the second summer, and the funky dark-backed near adult, today.

One Brown Pelican heading South was worth mentioning, a Royal Tern or two were roosting on the beach as well, and a Least Bittern has taken up clucking near the heavily brushy spot where the old platform used to be, the last couple of times I walked it.

Ring-billed Gulls are also far more in evidence on the beach this June than is typical.

Otherwise, the odd eastern Willet is already heading south over the sea at Cape May Point. Willets arrive in April, do their business, and get out as early as is decent. Fall is nigh upon us, while the pendulum of the solstice has yet to even turn towards the downswing.

Neat.

CJV

While spending most of my day leisurely procrastinating dealing with grown-up business via birding, I managed to find a few unexpected or otherwise noteworthy birds along the way.

Before the birds however, a comment on the fact that today was a tremendous day on which to be outside studying nature. The weather was perfect, the biting insects minimal, the humidity far from oppressive, the breeze delightful, and interesting insects, birds and herps were everywhere. I realize it is a Wednesday, and miserably, most poor sods are engaged in so called “straight” 9-5 jobs, having sold their souls to their mortgages and car-payments, but why on god’s green earth I saw no one out birding or butterflying in Cape May on such a perfect early summer day like today quite simply defies explanation.

Anyway, four immature male Surf Scoters were off the point, and drifted with the tide all the way to the cove pool, as I unwittingly followed them. I parked by St. Pete’s jetty, and walked to the meadows and back, checking out favorite overlooks along the way this morning, which was a fine thing. The four bachelor Scoters were with me most of the morning as a result.

While on the topic of lingering sea-ducks, two non-breeding Red-breasted Mergs are hanging out on the Great Channel side of Stone Harbor Point. Like Scoter off the point Jetties, this is not an entirely unexpected thing in mid-June.

Five Lesser Black-backed Gulls were on the beach at South Cape May, including the very dark-mantled near adult. I managed some good shots (pictures that is) of this bird today, both roosting with other gulls and feeding in the surf, and it is clearly not the typical sort of Lesser Black-back one usually encounters in this hemisphere.

Three Broad-winged Hawks were kettling over the point today as well.

By far the most unexpected bird I stumbled upon today was a Black-billed Cuckoo at Higbee’s Beach. I caught a glimpse of it in flight, and tried to talk my self out of the fact that it was not “just” a Yellow-bill. So I gave a low, toothy whistled imitation of a Black-billed’s song. Boom-a Black-billed Cuckoo flew right in and leanded, calling, less than 20 feet away. He called rather surprisingly non-stop for a full 10 minutes. This is surprising not only because of the clearly territorial behaviour it indicated, but more cause my whistled Black-billed Cuckoo imitation is not all that great!

The bird remained in the area (just in the wet-woods past the second tower) for nearly an hour, and though I managed a few pics with a point and shoot, the bird would just not cooperate for more proffesionally taken shots.

A calling Black-bill on this date, in this spot is most interesting, as the last time they were present at Higbee’s Beach in the breeding season was 18 years ago (Sibley, D.A. The Birds of Cape May, 1997, p. 86 )

Three Piping Plovers were also on the Beach proper at Higbee’s, just north of the outflow of Pond Creek. This is an odd place to find them, and I was shocked when a peep-lo revealed three of the birds just in front of me. It is even odder that three Pipers were here in mid-june, as this is not a nesting site. Curioser and curioser, and just goes to show what weird avian information might be found if anyone was out looking.

And finally, a good long time looking at Royal Terns on nests at Hereford Inlet was food for the soul. These majestic animals, all facing into the wind were a sight this afternoon.

Skimmers and Common Terns still don’t seem to be having much luck there though, and I only managed one Gull-billed Tern snatching crabs from the flats on Stone Harbor Pt.

CJV

I just heard that a survey on Champagne Island today discovered 110 Royal Tern nests there.

um, wow.

I received word this morning that 2 dozen Royal Terns are presently on nests on Champagne Island, so naturally had to go look for myself.

The long walk out to the end of Stone Harbor Point was a tremendous idea this absolutely gorgeous day, and both the Point and the Island were mercifully free of people, the birds and I had the place pretty much to ourselves.

There were just shy of 100 Royal Terns on the Island, and the breeding cluster contained about thirty birds. It is great to know that not only have they come back, but a number very near to what was there last year have settled down to nest, for the third documented nesting record of the species in the state. Many are still in handsome fully-black crested form, though some, like the four who were hanging out on St. Peter’s Jetty this morning, are already sporting increasingly white foreheads.

However the news from Champagne Island is not all good, as the shifting sands there have foundered a bit, and while at low tide its shores seems extensive, on the high, very little is exposed. As a result the nearly 1000 Skimmers there are a bit too crowded to all settle in and nest, and Common Terns look few and far between. There were just about 750 Skimmers visible from the end of Stone Harbor Point, which were a sight.

Most notable among odd-balls were two Sandwich Terns; an adult and an apparent first-summer. The adult was in high breeding colours, with a Roseate Tern-esque pinkish bloom from chin to vent. The bloom actually seems to have something of an apricot tone to it in fact, and the bird was, as “Dante” Gabriel Rossetti said of the prettier models he chose, “a stunner”.

A situation like this, with two more or less out-of-range species, on the edge of their range-limit, in a small colony with few partners to pick from, is just the recipe for hybridization. While more wishful thinking than anything, it would be a hoot to see a Sandwichx Royal hybridization by the end of the summer, the result of which would probably look a lot like a “Cayenne” or Elegant Tern, were it to happen.

Otherwise, a first-summer Lesser Black-backed Gull wa sroosting with the Gull flock, 2 Red Knot, one of which was crippled in the left wing, and a handful of Sanderling were around the inlet. 2 Western Sandpipers, 3 Semipalmated Sandpipers, and five Semipalmated Plovers were in the over-flow pond at the base of the Point, and a Tricolored Heron was dancing on the flats just to the north east of the free bridge to Nummy’s Island.

Willow Flycatchers are again on territory in the scrub near the parking lot there too, as per usual. And the first first-year Least Tern I have seen this year was in the sand flats on Stone Harbor Point.

CJV

By far the most surprising bird found in a turn around south Cape May was an adult Horned Lark waddling around the artificial dune near the Plover Pond at the Meadows. The bird was in more or less the same spot for over an hour, and even engaged in a bit of anting behaviour, which was very cool to see, as it almost looked like it was making scrapes when doing so, rather like a beach-nesting bird.

The Meadows held a decent showing of spring Shorebirds, including two White-rumped Sandpipers (for a while, the only sandpiper on the little gull island was a White-rump), fifty Semipalmated Sandpipers, one Solitary, one each of both Yellowlegs, and a Spotted.

A Northern Waterthrush singing from the wooded areas around the east pool was getting quite late, but is not the latest into June I have ever had one at Land’s End in Jersey.

5 Royal Terns and three first-summer Lesser Black-backs were also nice additions to the list, if only I ever kept lists…

The most noteworthy find at the State Park came in the form of a Pine Warbler nest, full of noisy hatchlings being fed by mum. The nest is far from inconspicuous, being right over the path. I think we can call this a confirmation of nesting Pine Warblers at the Point.

While I hear tell that 2 Broods of Piping Plovers are now hatched, and that the exclosure closest to the bunker which started to hatch yesterday held a still wet new-born today, there was a great little bit of forensic bird-monitoring to be seen in the park today.

What I at first thought was the result of a human re-adjustment to the exclosure, it turns out was in fact the work of Coyotes!. The Coyote(s), and I am assuming at least part of the duo I watched scoping out beach-nester on Weds is to blame, dug a trench perfectly around the exclosure, in an attempt to get at the tidbits inside. They were unsuccessful in this endeavour, but it was a cunning attempt. If only the Coyote had an ACME plover pulverizer in his bag of tricks, perhaps he would’ve acheived more success…

Between high tides, feral cats, Red Foxes, gulls, humans, and now Coyotes, it is wonder the Plovers manage any fledges at all, and no small wonder that recruitment does not meet sustainability.

Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune indeed. I can’t imagine what was going through the poor parents’ heads as wolves were literally digging at their doorstep lastnight.

CJV

Forgive the homage to Morrissey, but today was one of those rare, nearly perfect in weather days, and indeed best treated like a Sunday.

It was a fine one on which to sleep late, take it easy, and enjoy the scenery-which of course means the birds in it. Birds of course being, to paraphrase Joni Mitchell, “that bright red devil which keep me in this tourist town”

A late and leisurely turn around Higbee’s Beach revealed a fair number of migrants. After the number of singing male Chestnut-sideds about 6 all told, most notable were the obviously increasing number of female wood-warblers around, in addition to their singing males. Female Parulas, Black & Whites, Black-throated Blues, Redstart, and Magnolia etc. were the ones that caught my attention most. Wood Thrushes and the odd Ovenbird were singing up a storm. A few Baltimore Orioles, Red-eyed Vireos, Scarlet Tanagers, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were to be seen as well, but not in any great numbers.

Curiously the Thrush will only rarely breed at Higbee’s and Ovenbirds simply do not. Given that Wood Thrushes nest in the Ramble in Central Park, which is even a smaller framentita than Higbee’s, I find this fact most curious.

A long, quiet, stroll down the Point beaches and back with a couple of friends turned up a few fly-by Red Knot, a first summer Lesser Black-back or two, a first year Bonaparte’s Gull right over head, 6 or 7 surf Scoter, some great looks at the three most commonly seen “resident” terns, and that fine pleasure of doing nothing in particular with the sun on your back and the surf lapping your ankles on the beach.

A stunning and hell-bent for leather northward hurtling Peregrine over the sea, in between flocks of Semi-sands, Black-bellied Plovers, Dowitchers, and some intensely russet breeding-plumaged Sanderling were fine sightings seen while sitting off the exertion of the walk from my favorite perch at St. Mary’s Jetty.

A nice long sit, ostensibly hawkwatching at the Beanery, revealed no Kites, and few Hawks. A Broadwing, and 3 kettling Harriers were the only hawks of note. Blue Grosbeaks, both Orioles, and a Green Heron were fine fly-bys, though. However a singing male Horned Lark in a ploughed filed at the Beanery was a nice surprise. I have seen Horned Larks along the ploughed fields along Bayshore road in mid May before, so it came not as a complete shock, but is still a very nice bird to be singing and waddling around Cape Island in the merriest month.

A Cattle Egret continues on the horse-farm just north of the Beanery on Bayshore Road, too by the way.

To relax from the trials of my long, exhausting day spent birding at a snail’s pace on the beach, I decided a good long stand around Nummy’s Island at sunset on what looked like an ebb-tide would be just the thing needed to unwind…

It was, but not before a while leaning against the rail at Shell Bay Blvd. too.

Shell Bay turned up no fewer than 138 Whimbrel. They were quite successfully snatching Fiddler Crabs from the salt hay like so many miniature, stripe-headed Ibis. My first white, long stringy plumed, and getting greyish about the wings, first year Little Blue was hunting in the salt hay as well. A bit more surprising, was a third year Bald Eagle sitting on the “ground” on the edge of the sod at Jenkins Sound, just north of the fishing pier at Shell Bay Boulevarde.

Even more Whimbrel were in the back-bays at Wildwood, and Nummys island was its birdy, effervescent, spring-time self this evening. 3-400 drop dead Red Knot, “Robin-snipe” indeed were roosting out in the marsh. Red-backed Sandpipers (Dunlin) and S.B. Dowitchers by the score were at point blank range. Three Black-crowned Night Herons in high-breeding plumage, and the ultramarine and cerulean extravaganza that is a Tricolored Heron in May were fair sights. Clapper Rails were noisily oinking,and occaisionally popping up in the Spartina, with May-intense orange bills. Three Gull-billed Terns, with man-o-war wings and their bouyant, “model wooden seagull on a string” flap were hunting over the copulating, pink bloomed Laughing Gulls.

The din of the Laughing Gulls behind Nummys was almost like a white noise, until one became conscious of actually “tuning-in” and listening to it. The raucous jubilation of this, the largest Laughing Gull colony there is, is something everyone should appreciate at least once in their lives. And once one stops to actually look, the sheer seething biomass of the colony is nothing short of overwhelming. The surface of the water where Great Channel meets the Inlet by the free bridge was paved with paired up gulls, and that was nothing compared to the hysterically giddy laughing and goins on in the marsh behind, or even on the south end of Nummys.

Anyone who cannot bother to take a long second look at Laughing Gulls in May is far less than human in my book.

Three or four immaculate Common Loons were about, and Gail’s drake Oldsquaw continues at the north end of Nummy’s. Royal Terns were on Champagne Island, as were at least 18 Oystercatchers. Still more Royal Terns were in evidence hunting over Great Channel as seen from Stone Harbor Blvd, and the area around the draw-bridge.

And as a note of record, Tom Reed tells me he saw a “Nelson’s” Gull at the end of his street yesterday. I wonder if this is the same bird, of the same age-and-stage which I happened upon in the Meadows on the 27th of April?

CJV

Thanks to a call from something of a precocious heavy-hitter from Cornell, and nice guy in the bargain, if he doesn’t mind me saying so, I got to see a remarkable little gull show on the Cape May Beach front this rainy day.

At Second Avenue Jetty, there were no fewer than 7 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. And the first-summer, and very worn and ratty Iceland Gull was with them. As was pointed out, it was indeed kind of extraordinary that that 7 out of the ten “large Gulls” there were LBBG’s and the 8th was an Iceland Gull. And yes, that very same pink-based billed Lesser Black-back from the day before yesteday was there with others in very the same plumage cycle. Other than the pale based bill, the bird was in every other aspect just like its buddies. (I think I deserve a beer over that one Senor I.,…)

One second year bird was a particulary hefty specimen.

One of the dozen or so Royal Terns present had a great pink bloom to its breast, as did one or two of the smart Laughing Gulls present. A pair of Royals, off from the main clump, were doing their droop-winged, neck-arched, and crest-raised tango. One of the birds was also a male in high-breeding colours, with a deep reddish orange and somewhat stouter bill than its chums.

Cape May is, as Jack Connor pointed out in his wonderful book, “A Season at the Point”, (which regrettably speaks of a place bearing no resemblance to that in which the present corporate atmosphere pervades, thanks to Dunne & Associates, Inc.) a spot where east meets west, and north meets south. In one of those great North meets South juxtapositionings, an Iceland Gull was right next to a bunch of Royal Terns for a bit, and they were side by each.

Don’t get ot see that too, too often.

And don’t forget, tomorrow is indeed International Migratory Bird Day, a true conservation event, and one that is actually global in scope. But more on that on the day itself.

CJV

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Recently Written

• Excellent Bayshore Birding: Lots of Shorebirds, Gulls, Silly numbers of Turkeys, and a Vesper Sparrow
• Dolphins, a Brown Pelican, A Cape Island Yellow-throated Warbler and a nice little “fall” around the point in the mist
• Some Eagle notes, etc.
• LAGU in Cape May, and a few other early spring notes
• After the snow in Cape May
• Lots and lots of ducks around Cape May
• Flowering Maples
• News and Notes from Cape May; Black-headed Gull, White-winged Crossbills, continuing Eurasian Wigeon, etc.
• Some nice looks at Short-eared Owls, etc.
• A seal, a balmy day, and the colour of a randy Mallards feet

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• Huffington Post - commentary by reasonable Americans
• New Jersey birding - Birding in NJ
• Pioneer Birding - excelent blog from the commonwealth and beyond
• Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation Science - a legitimate Bird Observatory
• Portland Bird Observatory and Field Centre - another legitimate Bird Observatory
• Punkbirder-the unsound approach - We need a lot more “punk-birding” here in the States
• Save the Albatross - if 100,000 people were slaughtered per year, we’d call it genocide…
• Shorebirder - nice blog from CT
• Sibley Guides Notebook - better than the artwork even
• Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center - Dedicated to research for migratory birds
• Surfbirds - world birding news
• The Nietzsche Family Circus - “Beyond Good & Evil”-just hilarious juxtapositions
• The Onion - America’s “finest” news source-brilliant satire
• The Story of Stuff - will make you never want to shop again…

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