Monday, January 28, 2008

South Jersey is Raptor Central. . .

. . .if you don't think so, check out the reports at the end of this blog from CMBO's field trips on Sunday to Turkey Point (8-10 a.m.) and to Tuckahoe/Corbin City (4 p.m.-dusk), led by Karen Johnson and Janet Crawford. Turkey Point walks continue through March 23, while the Tuckahe/Corbin City walks alternate with trips to Jake's Landing, also through March 23. More info under Programs/Daily Walks.

In other news, all the waterfowl species Tom Reed reported below from Lily Lake on Saturday were still there on Sunday, as enjoyed by our group from John F. Craig House B&B. I had the pleasure of doing a cooperative program for Barbara and Chip Masemore, innkeepers at the Craig House, with an informal lecture inside on Saturday night, then leading guests on a field trip Sunday. We'll definitely be doing more of this kind of program, and I can't recommend the food and accomodations at the Craig House highly enough - great people, and they pay attention to every detail.

Field trip reports courtesy of Janet Crawford follow - besides all the raptors, check out the Virginia Rail at Tuckahoe!

Location: Turkey Point
Observation date: 1/27/08
Notes: CMBO Turkey Point Walk - The highlight of the walk was 2 Short-eared Owls at 8:10 am. We also had a light-morph Rough-legged Hawk, an unaged Golden Eagle, and hunting Bald Eagles sending up clouds of Snow Geese.
Number of species: 41
Snow Goose 2000
Canada Goose 4
Mute Swan 15
Gadwall 4
American Black Duck 20
Mallard 2
Green-winged Teal 1
Bufflehead 14
Hooded Merganser 9
Common Merganser 3
Great Blue Heron 6
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 12
Bald Eagle 9
Northern Harrier 18
Red-tailed Hawk 9
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Golden Eagle 1
Dunlin 97
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Mourning Dove 3
Short-eared Owl 2
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Northern Flicker 3
Blue Jay 6
American Crow 4
Carolina Chickadee 10
Carolina Wren 5
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 60
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling 25
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 12
Song Sparrow 6
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 3
Red-winged Blackbird 120

Location: McNamara WMA - Tuckahoe
Observation date: 1/27/08
Notes: CMBO walk at Tuckahoe WMA. The highlights were a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk, which put on a great show, hover hunting over the marsh, good looks at 2 Short-eared Owls, 2 Great Horned Owls calling and 21 Tundra Swans. The suprise of the evening was a very close Virginia Rail, which gave us brief looks, and then called.
Number of species: 21
Mute Swan 13
Tundra Swan 21
American Black Duck X
Northern Pintail X
Green-winged Teal X
Great Blue Heron 2
Northern Harrier 3
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Virginia Rail 1
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Great Horned Owl 2
Short-eared Owl 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Carolina Chickadee 2
Carolina Wren 1
American Robin 200
Swamp Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1

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