Despite the persistent east northeast winds, they're coming back. Came back while I was in Texas, and hopefully more tomorrow. Dribs and drabs and probably not liking the weather any more than we do. It's funny, for a normal person it is an ideal spring day, clear, temp in the 60's, azaleas and dogwoods blooming. But we birders can't be satisfied with that. We need southwest winds to carry migrants to our patch.
Chuck-wills-widows greeted me when I opened the truck door at 5:00 a.m. at the Hidden Valley parking lot of Higbee Beach. They were calling off in back of the Cold Spring Campground where I heard my lifer Chuck, 28 years ago. The other Higbee highlight was a Barred Owl being hassled by crows in the first field.
A Solitary Sandpiper fed in the roadside pond, or wet meadow, at the Beanery, two Blue Grosbeaks sang, and a Prothonotary Warbler (one of 3) practically sat in my lap when I pished at it near the old RR tracks. Nice - and it made up for otherwise a pronounced lack of color on May 4. Hello, it's May. . . like I said, northeast winds, not good for Cape May unless you're a jaeger. Four plus Parasitic Jaegers made life miserable for the Forster's Terns in the rips this morning.
All not bad, but I'm still waiting for a real May day. Maybe tomorrow, Cinco de Mayo in Belleplain. . .
In other news, I fired up a new pair of Zeiss HT (as in High Transmission) 8X42's today. More on them later - for now, let's just say I always thought my old Zeiss FL's were the best glass out there, and the new pair is noticeably brighter, sharper, and seems to transmit colors better.
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