Today was all about fog, and lots of it. It wasn’t that cold however, visibility was just sort of…a misnomer.

It was a far better day for looking for 500 year old vengeful, undead lepers lurking in sea shanties, than birding as a matter of fact. (Apologies to those who never saw that Jamie Lee Curtis horror flick titled “The Fog” the remake isn’t worth it, but Curtis matches some of her best “Halloween” screams, and it is totally creepy)

That being said, there were a few Purple Sandpipers on the few yards of Jetty no fog had enshrouded, Barred Owls were “cooking for all” at Higbee’s beach (perhaps egged on by the truly dense gloom?) an adult Red-shoulder or two were here and there, and a raffle of about a dozen Wild Turkeys were along side the road to, of all places, Turkey Point.

While I woke up this morning to a snowy landscape and thought that snow-loving critters would be the more easily found because of it- lo-and behold, the first interesting bird I happened upon today was not at all a cold-weather one.

Just West of St. Mary’s Jetty I flushed a small, as in too small to be a sparrow, but with a long-tail kind of bird, which skulked in a tuft of grass. Some vigorous spishing turned up a responsive House Wren- a most unusual critter to be found around Cape May Point in the middle of Winter. A year bird and one that I was most happy to record- mid-winter House Wrens are few and far between, call them quarter hardy, as opposed to the usual half-hardy Catbirds, Chats, Virginia Rails, and such which usually get us through a winter.

A quick turn up to Ponderlodge (ie The Villas WMA) was most rewarding. An adult Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was the first bird out of the car, and within thirty paces, the dsitinctive chittery-chip of a White-winged Crossbill could be heard. The bird turned out to be no other than an adult male, and a wonderfully perfect specimen at that no less. The peculiar, vibrant, yet tasteful bright and pure pink of a White-winged Crossbill is one of the true marvels ofa winter landscape-or any landscape for that matter. This one pried open pine cones till I was tired of looking at it, its black-wngs and bright white two-barredness standing in stark contrast especially to the soft, pure pink of its rump feathers, and the spikey green of the pitch-pine it was raping.

A young Red-headed Woodpecker, a Hairy Woodpercker, both Nuthatches, a Brown Creeper or two, and an adult Yellow-bellied Sapsucker were in the pines nearby, but the real piece de resistance came not from the Drake Red-head, not from the 40 something picture perfect Ring-necked Ducks, but frome the very same Eurasian Wigeon which has been hanging around lately. The Wigeon were vaciliating between the pond and the lawn, and in the snow, with its reflected light, one could actually see the darker axillaries as the birds flew overhead, between foraging spots. Nice bird and good to know she has been around for going on three weeks now.

A quick jaunt up to Jakes Landing revealed 4 or five Short-Eared Owls, whose crooked-at the wrist-wings reveal them instantly, and at some distance, to be different from the diehedraled Harriers likewise coursing over the same marshes. One Short-ear made a bee-line for a dark-morph Rough-leg roosting in a Red-cedar, and barking all the way thought better of it, and turned around before getting involved in any actual physical engagement nastiness.

On the subject of Short-eared Owls in flight, soemthing no-one ever really mentions is that the upperwing pattern on an imm. Red-shoulder can be remarkable similar to a Short-ear given a quick look. The buffy subterminal upperside of the window mimics quite well the bufffy bands on the upperside of the Owl’s primaries. They also hold their wings in s a uperficialy similar manner- rased and crooked at the wrist, with a drooping primaries. The illusion is nearly always dispelled after a second, but more than once I have been fooled by the pattern on a low-coursing young shoulder which had dropped down after being flushed.

Other than the owls and the Rough-leg, 11 Harriers, a Red-tail, and a Bald Eagle made for a fine sunset at Jakes as well-despite that there was really no “sunset” to speak of! The sky just greyer and greyer and the rest as they say, was darkness.

While I realize that hybrids and electric cars are the wave of the future, and are what is intended to save us from climate change/greenhouse effects, ocean acidification, etc. caused by emissions etc. one thing that I don’t get, and it may be a very simple point which I am just missing is:

Won’t all the additional electricity come from burning more coal, which is really nasty for the very same reasons combustion engines are?

I would love it if somone could clear this point up for me. If we all drive electric cars, where does all that electricity come from?

Any intelligent elucidation on the subject would be greatly appreciated!

1. Green tailed Towhees have never been recorded in South America- despite what was published on CMBO’s Website.

2. There has been no Redhead on Lily Lake, dully plumaged or otherwise, this winter.

3. The vice president for Education at the New Jersey Audubon Society’s husband sells drugs to anyone who wants them, including the sales manager at the Northwood Center, his wife (the director of Bird cape may. org), Research Associates who love to publish their photos, promote their websites, and blog for NJAS, and CMBO’s administrative director (and her “roommate”)-so they can all just go fuck themselves if they want to keep me from going for a walk at the Beanery whenever I damn well please. Yup- your donations go right to fueling the drug habits of CMBO staff, but since CMBO patrons and spouses are the ones selling them, well, I gues its all in house, and exactly what you had in mind when you donated for bird conservation in NJ, right?

(oh- and by the way, Pete Dunne, Tom Gilmore, and their lawyer, Susan Kraham, the general counsel and advisor to Tom Gilmore, knew the VP for education’s husband sold drugs. Yup, contribute to the conservation cause which truly matters- that which sells pot to 20 year old kids who count hawks, while Pete Dunne and Tom Gilmore look on. Its time the board of directors at NJAS made some decisions…An absentee director and a career politician for a presidential administrative director have got to go- the person NJAS entrusts with the education of children is married to a person who sells pot to hawk counters-the place is all screwed up, and needs a change of fief. (But don’t worry, she leaves the room when his deals go down, and is therefore ignorant of the business which builds her sunrooms…)

The membership needs to make this happen. the donors need to stop funding this dysfuntional and ineffectual group, and call for a change of fief at NJAS.

Also on the subject of B.S. being fed to and paid for by the membership:

There have been just just about 80 Chipping Sparrows at the Villas WMA the last three years, contrary to what the ignorant charlatan, and Dunne ass-kissing Don Freiday has published on CMBO’s website.

70 Were there the past Christmas alone, completely contradicting nitwit Frieday’s inane statements.

Also, the idea that this is an Eared Grebe invasion speaks a lot more about Jason Guerard’s ignorance than the facts regarding bird distribution. 4-5 Eared Grebes is perfectly normal for a winter in NJ, and in fact there was one present at the Avalon Seawatch for an entire afternoon in 2002. Perhaps Geurard had a memory lapse, as he was here counting hawks in Cape MAy then. ALso, 2-3 were present in Lakes Bay, just north of the Cty. line in 2006-7.

Also, CMBO in their website continues to falsify records, in a deliberate effort to slight those, who, like Voldemort “Cannot be named”: Witness that an Eurasian Wigeon was sightned on the 14th, according to the little pot-ring masquerading as some sort of ‘official’ repository of records-when in fact it was quite clearly observed on the 12th. Funny how a birder who I had to tutor in the differences between a Cahow and Black-capped Petrel, and believes himself to be some sort of authority, walked right past this bird on the 13th, and has done everything he can to take credit for it since then…

What was reported to CMBO, and what has actually been recorded in their purview are increasingly, obviously two entirely different things. CMBO is a washed up has been, accuracy belongs to e-bird and list serves now. Bird Observatories are meant to band birds, and systematically study them, not engage in silly, competitive never-ending rarity chasing.

Reporting sightings to CMBO, or counting hawks or seabirds for them is clearly a complete waste of time. (though take the money and keep your mouth shut if they are still dumb enough to offer!) Now if you collect a 30K salary, from the membership (or wind lobby interests), for writing code, and yet spend your days birding for your own benefit and promotion as Research Associate Fogg does you are completely supporting the fraudulent mission of Dunne, Gilmore, and associates et al.

NJAS and CMBO needs a house cleaning, from top to bottom- the place is a free for all with no research being conducted, and no managers being present, and no oversight of the activities of its employees. It is a laughable joke, especially when viewed against such respectable institutions as The Point Reyes Bird Observatory

CMBO is a symptom of the shift being placed from the interest in birds to an interest in tour leaders.

I for one have always been interested in birds, and never particularly impressed with tour leaders. This is Dunne, Freiday’s, Gureard’s and Fogg’s “fatal flaw” to quote a phrease- they are not interested in birds at all. They are not ornithologists. They are interested in competition and promoting themselves, and “birding” is the niche they exploit - the fact becomes more obvious with each public piece this lot publishes, sad but true.

Pete Dunne is responsible for the rise and promotion of the “celebrity birder”, and the elevation of this entitiy to a position above the real reason for birding-which is to enjoy birds.

Its time to clean house, and git rid of the phonies. Its time the hobby of birding got over name dropping, and back to bird-study.

A long Walk down the beach to the Post office at the Point, and a turn right back around revealed 2 rather surprising things:

No fewer than three Eastern Phoebes in the State Park. I wonder if this is a result of the cold push down from the north the last few days, or the warm push up the last one?

A flock of just over a dozen Rusty Blackbirds spished up from the phrags just on Sunset Blvd, and very nearly across from the intersection of Lighthouse Ave. I find it interesting that Rusties seem a bit more responsive to spishing than most icterids (or rather most Blackbirds proper-as Orioles love spishing)and that this no-man’s land (as far as birders are concerned) always holds completely unexpected birds everytime I schlepp it.

Also of note were no fewer than three Wilson’s Snipe on Sunset Blvd as well today.

A short stroll around the Beanery this afternoon revealed more Woodcock than I would’ve thought, and a Hairy Woodpecker right alongside a Downy, which was cool cause the black stripe which seperates the red on a Hairy’s as opposed to the uninterrupted red patch on a male Downy’s head was readily visible.

I also hear that a flock of 8 Wild Turkeys was feeding on the edge of the marsh at Cape Island Creek yesterday afternoon, good to know they are hanging on.

And if anyone from NJAS wants to call the police on me for being at the Beanery (as they pathetically have in the past) they can go right ahead.

While most of the island’s fresh water was largely frozen over, I did manage to squeak up a few birds of interest this afternoon.

A flock of Tree Swallows, just shy of twenty strong continues at South Cape May, this time in the Dunes, just near the second avenue jetty. About half their number were sitting, nearly moribund, on the sand, looking the part of the most miserable Tree Swallows in New Jersey. The other half were trying to find a sheltered spot in the bluestem and bayberry, cowering quite far into the brush-that is until a Sharpie came out and grabbed one. I think given attrition through the cold, or predation, the thirty or so Tree Swallows which have made it through the solsitce here, will not be with us for much longer. C’est la vie du la hirundelle, n’est ce que pas?

A Meadowlark continues in the Meadows, but otherwise the place was frozen over, and held little wartefowl, or dicky-birds of interest.

Lilly Lake today held no Eagles, and the Ducks seem to have thinned out a bit.

One Yellow-breasted Chat was uncharacteristically foraging about 16 feet off the ground on the berries of an exposed Winged Sumac, in plain sight, along Sunset Blvd. It eventually moved down into soem multiflora rose, but was consuming berries at a rate of abotu one per 4-5 seconds. The long January night just sucks those calories away I suppose.

By far the most unexpected thrill of the day came just past sunset, over the South Cape May Meadows. In the last rays of a cold, midwinter sun, that unmistakable call, like a Sandhill Crane imitating a Brant, which can only mean Whistling Swans are on the move, came filtering down. And there, a whiteness of 16, whistling wild swans, with the feintist of cold peachy blushes still on their undersides, thanks to the setting January sun, were high overhead, clearly Chesapeake bound.

While it looked like a blizzard, temperatures were perfectly mild (by recent, and January standards, that is) on Cape Island today, and trekking around in the falling snow was simply irresistable. Birding was, unsurprisingly, not without its surprises on such a day…

The first surprise came in the form of about two dozen Tree Swallows, swirling around in the little patch of “wild” dunes at South Cape May, in the heaviest of the snow fall this afternoon. Glad to see they were not rendered swallow-cicles by last week’s frigid temps. A flock of Tree Swallows flying in the snow, on a day when one could scarcely see 100 yards, was something of a treat. Don’t know if the swallows would agree, though.

A trio of Tree Swallows was over Lilly Lake a bit later in the day.

A couple of Meadowlarks were in the Meadows, and five drop-dead Ipswich Sparrows were in their new favorite spot at the base of the dune by the Meadows plover pond, but a lone Sanderling trying to take refuge in the Cattails along Sunset Blvd. was far and a way more unexpected.

The biggest thrill though again came in the densest snow, and at the Meadows, a very near adult Bald Eagle came flying in from the NW (ie West Cape May) and was more spectacular than usual in the snow. the bird looks for all intents like an adult, his outer and innermost retrices are white, and the middling three or so on each side have a wee bit of dusky. An eagle hunting in a snowstorm is cool enough, but this one quickly attracted the attention of a passing adult Peregrine, who just could not resist giving it a little hell, until they both disappeared into the veil of snowflakes.

A Virgina Rail which hopped up and over the dike, just near the gate where numbskulls park their bikes and sneak into the meadows along Sunset Blvd was an unexpected addition, as was a second, and unbelievable confiding Virgina Rail just near the boardwalk in the state park. The latter was probing and tossing leaves under a patch of Catbrier, until an Eastern Cottontail caused it to run into the brambles. After a few minutes, the little Rail came back out, and continued about his foraging. It is not at all unusual to get such good views of rails, in not so marshy spots around the poitn during a freeze, though it is always noteworthy to get a good, and unobstructed view of one just going about his business in broad daylight, no matter when or where.

Like the few Tree Swallows which eventually made to Lilly Lake, the one and same very nearly adult Bald Eagle was sitting on the ice there, ripping a part a mallard for a while.
I looked once, and saw two Black-backs with a recently deceased duck they were dining upon, and then by the time i got to looking again, the same dead duck, was at the other end of the pond, this time with a magnificent Eagle perched on it. While scrutinizing the ducks a few had panicked, but nothing they way they usually do when an eagle is nearby. I was quite surprised to see it, for those who bird here frequently the idea of a Bald Eagle sitting on the ice of Lilly Lake is not usual-it is however, a fine omen of things to come, I should think.

A White-breasted Nuthatch and a Sapsucker were again hanging out around the point, too.

Pond Creek was very shorebirdy, with a good flock of Dunlin, a few Sanderling, a Wilson’s Snipe, a handfull of Black-bellied Plovers and Killdeer, as well as a small flock of Greater with one Lesser Yellowlegs. Nice bird at the Point in the dead of winter, Lesserlegs, they are not nearly as frequent here as in the sheltered marshes of the bayshore, for instance.

A nice flock of 35 or so Snow Geese which came in from the atlantic and circled the marsh were most picturesque-if only they’d go to the Meadows and overgraze it a bit!

While strolling back down Sunset at…Sunset, about 8 or ten A. Woodcock were entirely expected, however I was completely unprepared for what was hopping on an open lawn, just near the horse paddock on the Blvd. in the gloaming.

A medium sized passerine appeared on a broad, and open suburban lawn. When I first saw it, I just kept walking, assuming it to be something typical(it was ten past five, and rapidly getting dark). It then continued hopping and peering as it foraged down the lawn, and its hop was really weird, a saltorial, and kind of awkward, pronking hop. Not a Sparrow, and again thanks to the wonder of fine german optics, it revealed itself to be- of all the things to be hopping around on an open lawn-a Yellow-breasted Chat!

I have never seen such a thing. I can only assume that since the snow had stopped, and the evening was considerably milder than the day even, that the Chat was, like the Rail in the park, just hungry enough to be foraging at a time and place one might never expect; out on a lawn, just after sunset. (That magical time when cardinals are flying to and fro, the sparrows and mimids engage in their dusk chorus of ships and chacks, and the Woodcock are decideing where they want to sniffle for worms-my favorite time of “day”)

It is amazing what one can see when one eschews the auto, and hoofs it for a couple of miles, far better and more revealing than horseback or bikeseat, there is nothing like taking in birds on foot in the places one normally zips by far too quickly.

Wonder what envies of nature show hosts and weekend birders will be in “the backyard” tomorrow?

Vamos a ver…

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!

A quick turn around the south Cape May neighborhood this bright sunshiny day turned up, among a whole lot of others:

About thirty Tree Swallows who were rather fervently feeding over one small, shletered patch of the Bunker Pond. They focused their efforts on plucking from the surface, and the flock as a whole was engaged in a sort of conveyor-belt strategy. I imagine there was some sort of insect hatch occurring, but given the focus and intensity of the flock, it must not have been much. Tree Swallows were also flying inthe lee of the artificial Dune, and a few were spread out over the Meadows at one point too. The ones who came close were rather dull, apparently hatch-year types.

A nice-sized (for Cape May) flock of 40 or so Snow Buntings, just near the bunker. A bit later on a smaller group of 14 or 15 put down by the Meadows plover pond. Whether these were a splinter from the other group, I know not.

The park also turned up a sharp, and not at all skulky Yellow-breasted Chat, whose breast got the full benefit of the low raking afternoon light. I guess it was too chilly for modesty, and he was out and fluffed out in the open, and most uncharacteristically for a Chat, flew across a wide open expanse at one point.

There were also a fine collection of Kinglets, including 2-3 Ruby-crowns, an Eastern Phoebe, some churring Eastern Bluebirds, and basking Waxwings in this spot. I suppose due to the sunshine and sheltered aspect of this patch today, all of the birds were, like the Chat, most confiding. One Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, flew over my sholder and landed to bathe and drink from a puddle not a yard away. While such confiding behaviour (or obliviousness to humans, rather!) is typical of these mites, it was nevertheless amazing to realize I could’ve caught the nano-bird with a butterfly net when he passed by. The Bluebirds were likewise unconcerned , and flew within yards as they puounced from warm perches, coming exceptionally close. Again, I think just standing still for a quarter hour helps.

A good spish in this birdy patch quickly and unexpectedly brought in an Adult Red-shouldered Hawk to a low perch. Not much in raptordom exceeds B. lineatus for looks-and that’s sayin somethin. The hawk quickly reaized it had been duped, and did not at all like being so close to a human-which was fine, really, cause all the dickey birds really didn’t appreciate all of a sudden being so close to a Red-shouldered Hawk!

Otherwise, a flock of 25 Fish Crows was a surprise, and seems to be the same roving band which has decided to Winter here. The pod of seven Snow Geese continues with the Canadas, and waterfowl are looking good and easy to see. Gadwall numbers seem to be very good right now, they surpassed Wigeon and even Mallards in my ramble today

keep looking »

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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