Sunday, November 14, 2010

Updates + Chickadees + More on the Flight of the Millenium

The Ash-throated Flycatcher at Cape May Point State Park continues on the red trail through Saturday afternoon, per Kathy Horn. The last report of the Western Kingbird along Sunset Boulevard I am aware of is from Friday.

I had business in north Jersey the past couple days, and at least some of the widespread Black-capped Chickadee movement seemed evident, with a flock of 10 consorting in a single tree in a Clinton hotel parking lot and another flock of 15-20 moving along a woods edge north of Spruce Run reservoir. It was a good chance for a refresher on my "home" chickadee - having spent most of my life in Black-capped range, Cape May's Carolina Chickadees still seem tiny, drab, with a hyper chick-a-dee-dee-dee call. This is a difficult i.d. to be sure, but if you've seen a lot of both (and bothered to look at them), a Black-capped in Carolina-land will jump out at you.

For a fun read, check out Doug Gochfeld's review of the epic October 29-30 flight on View from the Field - scroll down to the November 14 posts to find it, and while you're at it, see what's been happening at the sea watch and hawk watch courtesy of Steve and Melissa.

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