Saturday, August 11, 2007

Finally some fall like weather and a few migrants







Information is still being collected via the survey mentioned before. So, I wanted to post the link again and continue to give folks a chance to enter the raffle for a pair of $700 binoculars.

As for the birding today; there were not near as many individuals around Higbee Beach WMA as I would have thought given the conditions. There were migrants around though.

It was so nice to wake up and open the windows to let some of the cool fresh air in the house this morning. I was sure that Cape May would be loaded with birds after a nights migration. The reality is it's still early-ish for big pushes of birds. Now the birding is sort of like I type; hunt and peck. You have to walk slowly and keep your eyes and ears tuned in for the slightest movement or the faintest chip note. If you follow this advice you are sure to find at least a few little feeding flocks. I found one in the second field at Higbee. It was mostly Yellow warblers and redstarts (which is to be expected) but there was a Prairie warbler and Northern parula mixed in.

I also hear that a Blue-winged and Black and white warblers were in the vicinity of the parking lot. Not sure if it is the same Blue-winged that I've been hearing about for the last week, birds do tend to hang around for some time if the food source holds. But, I would guess that this bird is different, just a guess seeing that there seems to have been some change over in species.

One dark juv. Peregrine falcon blew over head this morning. I assumed it was headed toward the state park (given the direction in which it was flying) looking for a morning meal. After speaking with George about the CMBO Cape May Point State Park walk this morning, he confirmed that I was right. They had the bird fly over there as well, forgot to ask if it caught anything to eat.

Birds observed listed below;

Location: Higbee Beach
Observation date: 8/11/07
Number of species: 29
Great Egret 1
Black Vulture 2
Peregrine Falcon 1
Black-bellied Plover 1
Least Sandpiper 10
Laughing Gull 8
Mourning Dove 16
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Eastern Kingbird 2
White-eyed Vireo 3
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 2
Purple Martin 6
Carolina Chickadee 12
Tufted Titmouse 4
Carolina Wren 12
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 4
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 2
Northern Parula 1
Yellow Warbler 16
Prairie Warbler 1
American Redstart 18
Field Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 25
Red-winged Blackbird 56
Common Grackle 12
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/)

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