Today was blissfully windless here at Land’s End, and the perfect day for a long traverse around Cape Island-naturally that’s just what I did.

Concerned about why Gadwall seemed to outnumber Mallards yesterday, I set about to rectify that, and found that by checking a few spots, like the little duck pond on Madison ave. that situation was duly amended!

A lone Meadowlark, and a fine selection of Waterfowl-including the 7 Snow Geese- were in the Meadows, as well as two Western Palm Warblers on the dike (one of whom was already sporting a few chestnut feathers on the fore-crown). An immature, and a handsome adult White-crown were hanging around with the House Sparrows in the hedge along Sunset, though I could not squeak up a Dickcissel.

Here I would just like to acknowledge that wonderful sound anatids make while breasting their way through a film of ice. I don’t know how many times that sent me looking for some unknown call-note today…

Eight or nine Tree Swallows were hanging around the Meadows, but there were again about thirty in the Bunker Pond, in just about the same place as yesterday.

Now, yesterday, I spied a lone duck which, sans bins, I almost thought was a hen pochard- she had a rich brown head, indeed was rather uniform chocolately brown, a bit warmer on the flank, and had a blue bill. She flew from the one Plover Pond to the next-and once I looked at her, I thought oh, a dull Wigeon. It wasn’t until much later that I had the “doht” moment…Now this afternoon, in the second plover pond, I again saw a lone hen duck, all by herself at the far end of the pond. Initially, and naked eye, I thought it again to be a hen pochard- rich brown, with a blue bill. I quickly realized it was the same Wigeon as the day before-Now why is that uniform, brown-headed Wigeon all by herself, and not even hanging with the other dabblers (a collection of Mallards and Blacks, with a handsome drake MallardxBlack hybrid at the east end of the pond), I thought- there are dozens of Wigeon on every other pond, yet this bird is all by its lonesome…This time I went to check her out…

Yup- she had no black border on her bill- just a black tip and a little bit of a black line on the distal end of the tomium, and sure as shootin- her chin was pale, and her head was a rich chocolatey brown, just like the colour of her breast. In other words, her head and breast were concolourous, and she was indeed a fine female Eurasian Wigeon. All of the other little features, like tertial and covert edges, also lined up just nicely-although I never did get to see if her axillaries were grey as opposed to whitish, and given the light, overcast sky, and how quickly a Wigeon flaps its wings, seriously doubt if I would’ve been able to gauge anyway!

Just past the Eurasian Wigeon, on the second path, I inadvertently flushed a small brace of Mallards to the left of the path- no biggee. However, just in front and from the right, the huge and brown morph female Cooper’s who lives at South Cape May made a furious bee, and perpendicular, line in front of me. In the instant before an impressive event, I just thought I flushed her too…

Who knew she was waiting for the ducks to make a wrong move-which inevitably I caused?

Well, damn, if she didn’t hit one of the Mallards smack dab in mid air. With a horrible sound, and a fluff of feathers, the two promptly fell in the drink just near the newly dug out channel, just to the left of one of the awful new metal foot-bridges.

Like watching an Osprey with a big fish, or Deagol the proto-hobbit in the River Anduin- the Mallard dragged the Coop into the middle of the channel. Just the Coop’s head, nape, and shoulders were above water, and yet she did not release her grip. The duck did manage to drag her quite far out into deep water-though it never surfaced. I suppose it was trying to dive in a last ditch effort to get the reaper off its back.

For what seemed like an eternity, I watched what was visible of the hawk, and then she began to inch towards the shore, unable to bring her wings out of the water even. She got to shallow enough water where her wrists and the drake’s rear-end emerged from the water. She remained in this state for a good ten minute, before clearly overcome by uncontrollable shivers, she used all her might to get her wings out of the water, and rowed into the reeds a bit. There she sat for another ten minutes, and once again, when she began to tremor with chill all over, used a super-raptorial effort to haul the now quite dead-duck a bit further up onto the “shore”. Here she was more or less half out of water, her tail finally emerging, but a good third of her was still in the ice-rimmed water.

At this point I decided, though I was well hidden, that I wasn’t going to be able to see much more for some time, so I went for a walk around the pine grove. By the time I got back- the hawk and her quarry were nowhere to be seen. I can only surmise that she dragged it to a slightly drier place and proceeded to pluck it-I hate to think that after deftly snatching a far heavier, highly manouverable and adept aerialist out of mid-air, and nearly drowning in the process of bagging it, she didn’t even get a couple of day’s worth of calories out of the ordeal!

After that, a traipse through the point and over to Pond Creek could only have been soothing by comparison! A lone Sapsucker, and a White-breasted Nuthatch were on Lake Drive; and a D.C. Cormorant along with the usual waterfowl were on Lily Lake. However, Pond Creek at Sunset was very birdy:

Two adult Peregrines tormented the Harriers for a bit, and in peace-time, the poignant, nearly echolocatory squeals of the Harriers were clearly audible on the windless eve. Most interesting, however, were 6 Sanderling feeding with a small flock of Dunlin on the brackish mudflat. These were more Sanderling than I had seen on the beach, in more appropriate Sanderling habitat, all day!

And finally, along Sunset blvd, just after sunset, near the shops, along the left side of the road, a dark little cock-tailed rail suddenly came running towards me. In the gloaming, I could make out its long bill, and thanks to the wonder of fine german optics, even below focus range, could see it was a handsome little Virginia Rail, clearly intent on crossing over to the Meadows Property just by the pizza parlor. I was absolutely tickled, and due to the on-coming headlights, quickly shoo-ed it back into the phrags.

With luck, it chose a more oppurtune moment to cross the road- so many rails end up as road kill…

One good turn I guess- since I had flushed a Mallard into death’s hand, and may very well have been responsible for a Cooper’s hawk catching its death of cold in the bargain- shooing a Virginia Rail away from traffic seemed a paltry bit of karmic repair!

While I really only gave it a quick turn today I managed to come up with a few sightings worth mentioning.

A Greater Shearwater which came in from the South was remarkable on two counts:

Firstly it is the first Greater Shearwater I’ve seen this summer; and secondly-

A dark Parasitic Jaeger quickly rose from the surface to harry the Shearwater for a very brief bit. It quickly ended, as the Shearwater gave a remarkably agile evasive manouvre, and then just high tailed it in the direction it had been headed to begin with. The Jaeger just settled back down on the water once it clearly passed out of grasp.

I don’t know which is more fortuitous, the mere presence of a Greater Shearwater, or the fact that the Shearwater randomly crossed the path of a roosting jaeger. If the Shearwater hadn’t passed that way, I never would’ve been able to see the Jaeger.

Two Gull-billed Terns which flew over Sunset Blvd just near Steven’s St., clearly intent on Pond Creek at low tide to hunt Fiddler Crabs, caused me to do a bit of “holistic birding”, and follow them. (In this case, “holistic” applies to Dirk Gently and his style of driving. For those not familiar with holistic detecting as per Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently, the holistic detective, just randomly followed the cars ahead of him,rather than get directions, reasoning that eventually, they would take you to where you wanted to go.

A Bobolink, a nice showing of Shorebirds, a juv Little Blue Heron, and a Gull-billed Tern just walking on the mudflats hunting Fiddler Crabs were what I found.

Now, the Little Blue was the second juvenile I’ve seen around the last couple of days, and among the shorebirds were at least five Spotted Sandpipers on the creek. Noteworthy among them was the first juvenile Spotted I’ve seen this fall.

There was also a very nice clock-wise movement of Swallows rounding the dune in the Sunser Beach neighborhood. Mainly Barn and Tree Swallows, it was the largest movement of Trees thus far. Probably cause Tree Swallows are so abundant, and migrate well into late fall, many do not realize that the bulk actuallly go through in late Summer- the flocks of October are a but a shadow of those of August.

The most interesting behavioural note, Shearwater and Jaeger interactions notwithstanding again goes to the Kleptoparasitism of a Common Tern in the Meadows.

This time, the Tern turned on a Kingfisher, and vainly tried to get the anxiously rattling thing to give up the fish. While most fish thievery is Larid on Larid, or Stercorarid on Larid at least I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a Common Tern try to rob a Kingfisher before.

Like the Gulls in Finding Nemo so very well illustrated, there must just be something of the “MINE!” inherent in the personality of Larids. Somebody’s got something they want, they just try to take it.

CJV

For some reason, the overture to Porgy and Bess (or more to the point-”Summertime”) just wouldn’t get out of my head today…perhaps cause it very much is “summertime, and the livin’ is easy”

That easy livin’ naturally spills over into the birding…

First off- there was an obvious movement of southbound swallows this morning, both at Cape May and Stone Harbor Points, respectively. St. Peter’s Jetty produced around fifty Barns, over thirty Trees, a dozen Banks and half a dozen Rough-wings, all of which whizzed past, heading in one direction with purpose while I was watching this morning. Likewise, Stone Harbor Point, just a bit later on, held around fifty Barns, and ten Banks, plenty of which were just sitting on the beach-fence, as proper migrant swallows should.

A Baltimore Oriole, likewise at the base of Stone Harbor Point was the most unexpected bird of the day, by a long shot. He circled wide and far out over the beach, before turning back to the brush, having given the water-crossing a second thought I suppose.

Two Sandwich Terns were a bit less unexpected on Champagne Island. One, though white-crowned, was still sporting a distinct peachy tinge to his underparts.

The recent smattering of southbound Shorebirds today became more of a steady trickle.

A Marbled Godwit in the Jenkins Sound neighbourhood (ie behind Nummy’s Island) was arriving perfectly on time, and a knock-out Stilt Sandpiper in full breeding plumage (auburn auriculars and all) quietly foraging in front of the observation platform at the Meadows was just about the same. Gorgeous bird.

A Whimbrel which flew in from the Ocean, made a left over the Ponds at South Cape May, and continued on due South was a fine addition to a walk down the beach there this evening, however the really newsworthy birds were the no fewer than 20 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. I think this must be some sort of local record at least.

Also noteworthy was a Wilson’s Storm Petrel off the Point this afternoon- first I’ve seen in weeks. Two Brown Pelicans were out in the Rips at Cape May, and six were loafing on the furthest sandbar from shore at Hereford Inlet.

On behavioural notes, a duel which caught my eye involved a Common Tern turned the tables on a Gull-bill yesterday at the Meadows. While Common Terns are known kleptoparasites themselves, the fact that the Common was doing the chasing wasn’t waht caught my attention-it was the fact that the Common was trying to steal a frog! As one may’ve surmised, the smaller tern was not successful, though he gave it a valiant effort.

And secondly, I watched for a long time today, a Black-crowned Night Heron in the pool at Nummy’s Island forage in what was a novel manner in my experience of the species. (my experience of the species, though not exhaustive, is substantial…)The heron stood motionless in the shadow of a tussock, leaning far forward, with his bill held open plunged at a 45 degree angle in the middle of an algae mat. He kept up like this for some time, occaisionally snapping his bill closed.

I imagine he was taking advantage of a high density of prey items, and not needing his eyes, was just oppurtunistically waiting for something to swim into his maw or relying on tactile senses. While Storks forage with open bills, and it is not uncommon to see Snowy Egrets pattering their bills on the surface, I have never seen a Black-crowne dNight Heron doing an Open-billed Stork impersonation before!

And finally, one brood of fledged Piping Plovers at the Meadows, and one at Stone Harbor Point are both beginning to look like proper juvenile shorebirds. One brood of three smaller hatchlings at South Cape May looks a little more than half-way to fledging.

CJV

There was again excellent birding to be had in Cape May this fine muggy summer day.

The Ruddy Duck continues in the Lighthouse Pond, but can be difficult to find as he has been foraging in the shallow water around Mallow tussocks, and can be easily overlooked.

Also in the odd-ball summering duck category, the Hooded Merg found a week ago last Thursday in the Cove Pool has now taken up residence in the main pool at the Meadows, and was hauled out today with the moulting mallards on the one artificial isalnd there.

On a breeding bird note, I hear that two nestling Cooper’s Hawks are in the State Park, though I only saw the one. They are rapidly shedding their down, and the branches surrounding the nest and the nest itself are covered with fuzzy white detritus as if festooned with some kind of spider-web facsimile halloween decoration.

The adults can be seen hunting until 8:30 or so in the evenings, such is the appetite of thieir babies. They also consistently range out as far from the nest as West Cape May, the Nature Conservancy’s preserve, and Higbee’s beach, much to the chagrin of the robin and pigeon sized birds in the neighborhood!

Also on the subject of downy-fuzzies, the older brood of Piping Plovers has reached fledging; making short, awkward flights, but are indeed perfectly capable of getting themselves airborne to evade a predator, and so go doen as a successful nesting.

Now there were also 5 newbies on the second Plover Pond, which indicates that more than one brood has hatched and are taking advantage of this habitat. Just how may of which brood hatched late last week are comprising that total is something I could not figure out from the observations I made there this afternoon. Evasive little blighters.

The Short-billed Dowitcher which turned up on Thursday is still around, and seems a bit lame in the leg. However, a Greater Yellowlegs which arrived at the Meadows today is decidedly a southbound migrant and a new arrival, marking the end of two and a half weeks of GreaterLeglessness. This is the first Greaterlegs I have seen there since the 11th of June.

The intentions of other newsworthy birds to be had in the Meadows today were rather more difficult to pin down.

One Bank Swallow was most definitely a south-bound migrant. But the two pairs of Gull-billed Terns, one of which was going through droop-winged, and neck-extended courtship displays, just prior to actually copulating were a bit more difficult to explain. This is not at all too late for Gull-bills to settle down and nest, and I have a feeling that given the paucity of Commons in Hereford Inlet, and the lack of all that much room on Chmapagne Island these birds may have their eye on Cape Island as a terrtiory.

On a non-courtship note, one of the birds, in it own inimitable deep swooping fashion deftly plucked a huge Giant Waterbug/Toebiter kind of aquatic bug right in front of me, dispatched the nastier parts of the beast as it would a crab’s, and swallowed it all in mid air, before settling back down to persuing the wooing of his intended.

Two Sandwhich Terns, one with a white-forhead, briefly stopped in at the Larid Island on the east path, but after circling the Meadows, headed over Sunset, and north, over West Cape May.

By far the most unexpected and unseasonal bird today though was an adult male Northern Parula singing his guts out at Higbee’s Beach. While I have found the odd, singing male N. Parula here in years past in late June or early July, and this one behaved the same way, a late June Northern Parula on Cape Island is a damned good bird.

He worked his way up the west side of the fields, and around to the nice oaks by the overflow lot, singing at a very spririted rate of once every 20 seconds or so, and never stopped. In other words, he seemed rather desperate. He was a very good-looking Parula too, one with a very dark full breast band.

Once upon a time, before the air became too polluted by the coal furnaces of the Industrial Revolution or the belching exhausts of the Post War ers to support Usnea lichens, Parulas were not unknown as breeders in Cape May. They were abundant breeding birds in what we now call Belleplain State Forest, in fact.

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

While I spent comparatively little time out birding today, I was surprised by just how many noteworthy birds there were in the neighborhood.

A quick turn around the Meadows was livened up by the screams of a Caspian Tern. The bird was found as it headed south over the waves towards the mouth of the Bay.

Caspian Terns are not at all to be expected in mid June, and certainly not heading south. The bird’s crown was not solidly black though (being dusky and shot through with white streaks), so it was probably a wandering first or second year bird.

First-summer Least Terns, with their Sabine’s Gull-like wing pattern are now beginning to turn up with more frequency, and I have seen a couple at South Cape May in recent days.

A quick turn around Higbee’s Beach revealed a hen Wild Turkey which was working her way along the eastern mown path in the first field. I was coming from the other direction, and she literally turned tail and ran, well, booked actually, down the path towards the parking lot at full speed. Presumably the same bird which has been hanging around, and coming to feeders on New England Rd, I get the feeling that she has no flock.

A walk around the State Park revealed an Eastern Wood-pewee, which is a nice place to find one, and an adult Broadwing was soaring over Bayshore Rd.

A little bit of time spent Seawatching from St. Peter’s quickly produced a Sandwich Tern sitting on the end of the jetty with the Common and Forster’s Terns. An adult in full breeding plumage, it was a handsome beast. I wonder how many adult Sandwich Terns are hanging around the County this June, and reiterate that it portends an upcoming nesting attempt, especially in view of the increasing success of their Royal Tern buddies.

A Cory’s Shearwater, the first I’ve seen here this year was heading out of the Bay at a good clip. Not too far out, but not too close either, I hope it is sign of more inshore pelagic activity to come.

I hear tell that earlier in the day, a Roseate Tern was on the jetty, but the Sandwich wasn’t, and no Shearwaters were seen, but there were Wilson’s Storm-petrels. I saw neither of those, and it only emphasizes just what a good thing some full-time bird monitoring would be in Cape May Point.

Now, by far the oddest thing I saw today was a female Yellow-breasted Chat who was constantly calling, and hopping from branch to branch, in a known territory, for about twenty minutes-or until I had to leave her. She made her nasal, harsh mews over and over again, incessantly, and seemed to either be dogging my steps, or looking for something.

I wonder if her agitation was due to a nest lost in the wicked-strong storm of yesterday evening, or if I was too near a hidden fledgeling. A male in the adjaecent hedgerow was singing half-heartedly nearby, and the female did not seem to be feeding young. It was a rather pathetic performance, and I am bewildered as to its cause. I can find no mention of this sort of behaviour in the literature, but being an ornithologist, it seemed like a bit of distress, and I read it as the day-after confusion which is oftentimes associated with the loss of of a clutch or brood.

In the same neighborhood, I did find a broken Field Sparrow egg in the middle of the path, and think that the storm may have wreaked a little havoc with the field nesters last night.

CJV

While today was absolutely beautiful weatherwise, it was not the birdiest day ever.

I did manage a hunting Mississippi Kite over West Cape May, but I was driving, and more to the point phone-less at the time. Apologies to those whom I know are looking for this bird!

There were four or five immature Gannets hunting in the Rips when I was looking, but other than lots of Bottlenosed Dolphins and a few Royal Terns, seawatching was more than a bit slow every time I looked that way today.

There were no fewer than 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the beach at South Cape May this evening. All save one were first-summers, and the one that wasn’t was the very dark mantled “fourth-summer” which has been hanging around. In fact, just to the east of the bunker was a flock of Gulls which were all Lesser Black-backs, made up of 6 first-years and the fourth-summer. This bird is quite handsome, though a bit worn. He has a bright carmine eye-ring and gape, and is a bit heavier in the bill than many of the first summers he was with today. I do not think it the typical garden variety sort of LBBG one usually encounters on these shores.

At one point, after foraging willet-like in the waves for bit, the “intermedius” was being circled by one of the first years. I at first incorrectly interpreted this to be a bit of premature courtship kind of “play”, but when the younger, circling bird grabbed the primaries of the older bird in his bill while the more mature one wasn’t looking, and quickly ran to escape the swift turn and bite, it became clear that this was happy mischief and no more. While this sort of interaction was just the sort of thing one expects from a dog, cat, horse or swine, seeing it in Gulls (and somewhat rare gulls to boot) just further emphasizes my feelings on the beast’s intelligence. You can’t have a sense of humour if you don’t have a brain-cell or two to rub together!

Interestingly, while yesterday I also saw 11 of these elegant little attenuated Gulls, today I did not see the second summer, but yesterday did not see the blackish one. Darned things got wings I guess…

Apparently, I was a bit hasty in thinking that their number was dwindling! This is certainly the highest number of these European strays which have been around Cape Island in recent memory. Even more interesting, especialy given the boon these old-world creatures ahve recently seen on this side of the Atlantic, is the fact that Lesser Black-backs were first recorded in North America only in 1934. (Stone, W., 1937, Bird Studies at Old Cape May, p. 529) The first North American record was from LBI, in early September, funnily enough. (ibid.).

Shorebirdwise, one Lesser Yellowlegs, and one very good-looking Black-bellied Plover were in the Meadows today.

It is also worth mentioning that there were over 100 Great Black-backs on the beach this evening. This would have been unheard of in Stone’s day, as Black-backs were only winter visitors which occurred in very small numbers, and then only as far south as Hereford Inlet. He even goes so far to say “Apparently the Black-backs never enter the Bay nor the sounds along the Cape May coast.” (Stone, W., 1937, p. 527) He goes on to say that ” Usually one sees but one to three Black-backs together, but we have several records of four, five and six” (ibid. p. 528).

Also of note was the strongly seasonal nature of Black-back occurence. “While the Black-backs do not occur regularly until November on the Cape May inlets we have earlier records…Our latest observationsin spring are: March…there are several late April records for the Brigantine and Barnegat areas farther up the coast, and Charles Urner saw one on Barnegat during the period from June 21, to July 2, 1926.” (ibid. p. 529)

Wow, how things have changed with the advent of rocky jetties and human garbage dumps (ie Gull Feeders)! To think that Stone never saw them in Cape May even in their preffered season, and even then never in groups of more than 6. I wonder what he would’ve thought of 100 sitting at South Cape May in early June?

CJV

Today’s bird of the day was once again found at the Meadows, and was again the four-footed, mammalian, kind belonging to the order Carnivora.

While helping a friend out on a bird survey of the property, before the wind turned around just after 7 this morning, and getting rained out as a result we were both quite pleased to see a River Otter’s head pop up in the deep channel in the western pool. He resurfaced once, and then disappeared, coming up in the central pool. It was then that he saw us, and pulled his neck down and back in a grebe-like fashion. He never resurfaced anywhere he could be seen by us. My hunch is he hunkered down under the bridge.

River otters tracks and scats can be found with some degree of frequency around Cape Island, especially if one knows where to look. The back half of Pond Creek in Hidden Valley is an especially good place, and both the trails which go back to the horse-farm are crossed by otter runs at certain points. Likewise, in winter, when there is Ice around here, their runs are easily seen in the State Park. That being said, actual sightings of the animals are quite unusual. Around here, I’ve only actually seen the living beasts twice before.

Otters only become this secretive in places where there is much human pressure; under such circumstances they become somewhat more nocturnal. In contrast, places where human activity is limited see Otters active anytime of the day in which they please to be.

(As an esoteric taxonomic note, our Otters have been split off generically from their old-world kin, and “Lutra” canadensis in now properly known as Lontra. The old-world Otter is still placed good ole Lutra, though.)

The feathered birds of the day though, were the four Wilson’s Storm-petrels off of St. Mary’s Jetty once the rain cleared around tenish.

Just about on-time, though perhaps a touch late, at first I was tickled to find one way out fluttering and bounding in the Rips, until one flew through the same field who was just a couple of hundred yards away. This, and the other three were foraging over the artificial reef which is just past the little groin-jetties at the Point. They were moulting their inner primaries, and while I hear tell that Wilson’s Storm-petrels have been encountered off-shore with some regularity the last couple of weeks, these are the first I’ve seen or heard of from shore this year. I imagine the weird turns of the wind today were the cause.

A very nearly breeding-plumaged Common Loon was also in the water over the artificial reef, but other than a Gannet, there were not all that many other birds over the sea this morning. A look again, from the same spot around 5-ish revealed a different scene.

While the Loon was still more or less in the same neighbourhood, try as I might, I could not find any more Storm-petrels, even given the at this point good on-shore wind. There were, however excellent numbers of foraging Terns, and the young male Surf Scoter was there, where there had been none in the morning. His female plumaged friend was nowhere to be found this evening, though.

Otherwise, two singing male Prothonotaries in the central patch of swampy woods at Higbee’s were a good find. The first was sounding off to beat the band, just in from the NE corner of the second field, at a vigorous rate of every 8 seconds, like clockwork. I was rather surprised that he was going off like this, so decided to walk around, to the easiest point of entry to the patch in order ot have a look, and then found out why. He was engaged in a vocal duel with another male in the same little patch, this one seemed to occupy the southern portion closer to the pond.

Some years Prothonotaries are absent from here, but this year, with the abundant rain, there is apparently enough standing water in these “wet-woods” to hold multiple territories of Audubon’s “Golden Swamp-warblers”.

A late, singing young male American Redstart in the wet-woods was also a treat, and the only migrant Wood-warbler I happened upon today.

Another late Passerine was a first-year male Baltimore Oriole singing this evening from the large Oaks just near the Lighthouse and corner of Lighthouse ave. The bird rather quickly headed north.

Migrant Shorebird-wise, a tardy Solitary Sandpiper at the West Cape May impoundment, and ten Semipalmated Sandpipers, one each of both Yellowlegs and a Short-billed Dowticher or two at the Meadows were worth mentioning. Breeding Shorebirds were a bit more interesting though.

A pair of Willets were acting terriotrial and displaying a bit in the Meadows, and not-coincidentally, in the spot where they used to breed, in the NW corner of the westernomost pool. Though the thick tussocks they used to favour there are far from grown in, I wonder if these birds, which are known for their site-fidelity, were not the local pair, who being displaced by the recent high tides in their new digs, are not returned to their more usual breeding haunts. They went through all the motions, though a bit half-heartedly, the male even going so far as to wing-raise near the greater Yellowlegs upon landing, and then chase him off. I have seen this sort of inter-specific aggression on the part of randy and hormone-blind Willets directed towards unsuspecting Greater yellowlegs in May or early June before, and suspect it bespeaks of the relationship between the two.

Likewise in the breeding Shorebird camp, an American Woodcock foraging in the muddy ruts near the pond at Higbees in broad daylight was, as a Woodcock always is, a welcome and un-looked for sight.

Also, I spied not the four new Piping Plover Hatchlings of Yesterday, though there were three birds on nests in exclosures, one seemed empty, and there were a pair performing their courtship flights in earnest today, where there hasn’t really been one in some time. While loathe to close the barn door, and it is indeed easy to miss a brood of teeny Piping Plovers, even when looking in earnest, I do hope the torrential and sudden rain of last night, or Coyote didn’t wipe the little blighters out on their first day out of the egg.

That’d be something of a downer, to be sure.

And lastly I could only manage one Lesser Black-backed Gull today, a single first year bird was at South Cape May both first-thing this morning, and at Sunset.

CJV

There has, in the last several evenings, been a rather extraordinary bit of Gull-behaviour going on at South Cape May.

Like the two year-old Ring-bills dropping and fetching sticks, it is clearly an example of avian “play”, and indicative of just how intelligent Gulls are.

Every year, there are nylon ropes strung around the areas inhabited by beach-nesting birds at South Cape May. Likewise, every summer, there is a good flock of non-breeding, loafing Gulls, largley consisting of Great Black-backs, on the very same beach.

The nylon rope is “flagged” with little ties of brightly coloured tape to make it visible to blundering humans who might otherwise walk into it.

Well, the first and second summer Black-backs have discovered a great game which can be played using the nylon rope and flagging tape. The young Black-backs have hit upon a form of tug-of-war.

The Gulls grab the rope, walk it back, pull with all their might, and let it go, only to try and catch it as it waves back and forth. At first I was dismayed, cause I thought they were trying to eat the flagging, however, they seem to just delight in the flurry it makes, the way a kitten would. When the wavelength becomes too short for the Gulls to snatch at it, and the flagging to spin, they grab the rope, walk it back, and let it snap again only to try and rush to grab at it before it retreats to much.

Sometimes, two or more get in the act, and cooperatively produce a greater effect, then each tries to grab the rope first.

A simple game for a human, perhaps, but rather impressive coming from a bird which most folks consider a dim-witted scavenger, only concerned with its next meal, and the limited neural activity associated with stimulus and response. Hell, it is kind of impressive coming from a primate, and precisely what we would call play if it came from a puppy, kitten, or toddler on the living-room carpet.

I noticed this bit of play behaviour a couple of nights ago from the Meadows cross-over with a couple of other real birders, and have since been looking out for it. Gulls are after all, long-lived, intelligent, and have ample leisure time; it is just rather extraordinary, and a bit unexpected to watch them utilising man-made objects in order to entertain themselves on summer evenings.

As Aristotle so aptly put it: “Nothing we can imagine about Nature is incredible”.

CJV

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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• Save the Albatross - if 100,000 people were slaughtered per year, we’d call it genocide…
• Shorebirder - nice blog from CT
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