Excellent Shorebird Flight at Cape May Point State Park

[Baird's Sandpiper, Bunker Pond 8/22/07, photo by Don Freiday]

The first day of CMBO's Shorebird Workshop truly was an extraordinary day of birding - Michael O'Brien and I opted to keep the group in the field for the whole day because the shorebird flight was so strong, perhaps related to the wedge of high pressure oozing in from the Canadian Maritimes. In spite of light rain much of the morning, we compiled a list of 23 shorebird species including Ruff (adult male black molting to winter plumage, flyby only but at length as it darted about trying to figure out where to land), Wilson's Phalarope (juv), Baird's Sandpiper (juv), Buff-breasted Sandpiper (juv), Long-billed Dowitcher (ad), and 30+ White-rumped Sandpipers - all at Cape May Point State Park!! The full list for the day is below - the numbers are conservative, since birds were moving in and out all day. Most of the birds were seen at Bunker Pond

Location: Cape May Point SP
Observation date: 8/22/07
Notes: CMBO Shorebird Workshop. With Michael O'Brien. High building into the area from NE, dense drizzle until ~ 10:00 a.m.
Number of species: 63
Canada Goose 5
Mute Swan 10
Mallard 20
Blue-winged Teal 1 first of fall
Great Egret 10
Snowy Egret 5
Green Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 3
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 5
Black-bellied Plover 1 heard
Semipalmated Plover 20
Piping Plover 4 2 juv, 2 adult
Killdeer 5
American Oystercatcher 3
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 25

Solitary Sandpiper 3
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Upland Sandpiper 1 heard
Sanderling 150
Semipalmated Sandpiper 50
Western Sandpiper 5
Least Sandpiper 200
White-rumped Sandpiper 30
Baird's Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 10
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Buff-breasted Sandpiper 1
Ruff 1 flying around, landing only briefly
Short-billed Dowitcher 20
Long-billed Dowitcher 1
Wilson's Phalarope 1 juv
Laughing Gull 50
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 20
Royal Tern 10
Common Tern 20
Forster's Tern 10
Least Tern 10
Black Tern 6
Black Skimmer 5
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 5
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Fish Crow 5
Purple Martin 75
Tree Swallow 1000
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Bank Swallow 10
Cliff Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 50
Northern Mockingbird 1
European Starling 5
Cedar Waxwing 10
Yellow Warbler 10
Song Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Indigo Bunting 5
Bobolink 50
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Brown-headed Cowbird 10
House Sparrow 10
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)