September 29-October 5, 2024 with Megan Edwards Crewe
Cape May is justly famous for its autumn bird migration. Each year, tens of thousands of raptors, nearly 100,000 seabirds and untold numbers of passerines funnel down its peninsula on their way south. Our tour is timed to intersect with a slice of that river of birds, and it did just that. From our first morning, when a mix of Sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks swirled over Cape May Point State Park, to the fabulous morning at Higbee's, where a constant, chipping stream of birds streamed past, to the ever-changing mix of migrants around Cape May Bird Observatory's Northwood Center, and the morning liftoff of hundreds of Great Blue Herons over Cape May Point, we certainly got to see some of the spectacle. Even the Monarch butterflies and migrant dragonflies got in on the act! Fortunately, our weather was mostly cooperative, with some lovely, sunny days. But there was WAY too much east wind, which kept water levels so high that the tides couldn't go out, and certainly impacted our shorebird totals.
Once we'd driven down from the Philadelphia airport, we started our birding right across the street from our hotel, sifting through four species of gulls and enjoying a big mixed flock of hundreds of Black Skimmers and Royal Terns snoozing on the sandy beach. Early the next morning, we ventured to Cape May Point State Park, a place we returned to regularly during the week, to take advantage of its picnic shelters and restrooms. Each day, a mix of Sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks flap-flap-glided overhead, allowing repeated practice for distinguishing between them. Blue-winged and Green-winged teal floated side by side on Lighthouse Pond, giving us the chance to appreciate the subtle differences between their eclipse plumages. A couple of young Common Gallinules picked their way along the edge of Bunker Pond, where an American Bittern stood stock-still along the shore. Two Dickcissels mingled with a chattering flock of House Sparrows near the hawkwatch platform. An early morning visit to Higbee's one day brought a steady stream of birds headed north off the sea, reorienting after a night of flying. With constant chips, they surged overhead or flicked through the treetops, pausing only for a few seconds before heading off again -- an exhilarating experience for us earthbound mortals below! We watched a zippy Merlin try to snag a Palm Warbler or Common Yellowthroat out of a weedy field there (it escaped), and spotted our only Blue-headed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Indigo Bunting, Swamp Sparrow and Scarlet Tanagers in the trees around its edges.
We spent several afternoons roaming the street outside the Cape May Bird Observatory's Northwood Center, as well as the center's grounds themselves, delighted by an ever-changing mix of birds. A jaunty Ovenbird strode around under the feeders one day. A young male Rose-breasted Grosbeak showed the first hints of a rosy chest. In scruffy junipers along the road, wing-flicking Ruby-crowned Kinglets mingled with American Redstarts, Northern Parulas, Magnolia Warblers and Red-eyed Vireos as they scrounged for insects. A Nashville Warbler hitched its way up a tall weed stem. Carolina Wrens and Carolina Chickadees allowed careful study as they visited the observatory's feeders. A stealthy Yellow-billed Cuckoo slipped through the treetops one afternoon, while a Philadelphia Vireo did the same a few days later. A visit to the county's small airport yielded a busy group of eight Horned Larks searched for seeds among the weeds growing in cracks in the concrete apron. A short way up the bayshore, we hit the woodpecker motherlode along a flooded dirt track in the Dennis Creek WMA, with six species -- including a couple of flashy adult Red-headed Woodpeckers and an immature Yellow-bellied Sapsucker -- vying for attention among the multitude of dead and dying trees.
We ventured north to Edwin B. Forsyth NWR one day, where a patchwork of wetland and woodland just north of Atlantic City produced a multitude of waterfowl, shorebirds and raptors -- as well as some very special passerines. A trio of Eastern Bluebirds decorated a juniper bush near the visitor center's parking lot. The impoundments held plenty of waterfowl, with scores of American Black Ducks (the species for which the reserve was initially established), a little group of Ruddy Ducks and a pair of Wood Ducks (found only after a CONSIDERABLE search!). A stand of tall grasses on an otherwise unremarkable corner of the wildlife drive proved irresistible to some hoped-for sparrows, and we connected with Seaside, Saltmarsh and Nelson's sparrows there -- though it required some patience to see them as they ducked in and out of the multitude of stems. As we worked our way along the north side of the impoundment, we chanced across a vagrant we'd heard about earlier in the day; the very confiding Lapland Longspur allowed progressively closer views until we were quite literally right beside it.
An afternoon on the flat-bottomed "Osprey", got us up close and personal with some of the many denizens of Cape May's extensive salt marshes. On the long stone jetties protecting Cape May's harbor, we found dozens of Black-bellied Plovers and Short-billed Dowitchers sprinkled among scores of American Oystercatchers. Ruddy Turnstones patrolled marina seawalls, while a single Common Tern rested among its plentiful Forster's cousins nearby. At the Wetlands Institute, we counted six species of heron and egret -- including both Black-crowned and Yellow-crowned Night-Herons -- scattered across the saltmarsh or roosting in a big juniper stand. A mob of 'Western' Willets and Greater Yellowlegs preened or snoozed on shallow ponds in the high marsh, and side-by-side Least and Semipalmated sandpipers provided a "live field guide" comparison of their differences. On Stone Harbor's storm-ravaged beach, we found gangs of Dunlin and Sanderlings scuttling like clockwork toys along the tideline, with a few taller Red Knots and a group of Marbled Godwits among them. The Nature Conservancy's South Cape May Meadows reserve served up a handsome male Wood Duck and a feisty Marsh Wren, as well as the tour's only Field Sparrows and a flyby trio of Brown Pelicans. And who will soon forget the surging river of Tree Swallows twittering their way all around us as we crossed the dunes? It was like being in a snow globe!
Thanks so much for joining me for the week. I hope you learned a thing or two, and enjoyed the adventure we shared. And I hope to see you all again on another tour somewhere soon. Until then, good birding!
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/293980
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cap24bTRIPLIST.pdf
-- Megan