Norbury's Landing

[Bald Eagles engaged in, um, behavior (misbehavior?), Norbury's Landing, Cape May County, NJ, sunday January 26 2020. click to enlarge photos.]

I visit Norbury's Landing almost every day, it being a pleasant half mile walk from my house. The sweet spot for the Landing itself is 90-120 minutes either side of high tide, with big tides (full or new moon, as was close to the latter today). A stiff west or northwest wind kills the shorebirding and gulling and rips the bay up so you can't see ducks (but makes fall and sometimes spring morning flight of landbirds better.] My full list from today is below.

I hesitate to publicize this because sometimes its nice to bird away from crowds, but the stretch of habitat from Villas noerth to Reed's Beach is every bit as good as anything Cape Island has to offer, any time of year, except for dabbling ducks and hawks. We joke that to the folks who live on Cape Island, anything north of the Cape May Canal is the far north, but I'm serious about this stretch. Sometime I'll get around to doing a post on how to work the area's many spots. One October, my son and I did a big sit at Norbury's and if my memory serves correctly, we wound up with the second highest big sit total for the "official" competition in all of North America. The Cape May Hawkwatch wound up first, again, dabbling ducks, plus you could not find a greater accumulation of birding star power than assembles there every year.

[Black-bellied Plovers and Dunlin at Norbury's. Somewhere in or near this photo is a single Red Knot and a single Ruddy Turnstone, and just before there was an adult Black-headed Gull resting on the spit. The gull wandered north.]

Norbury's Landing, Cape May, New Jersey, US
Jan 26, 2020 11:53 AM - 1:18 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     90-120 minutes after high tide. Clear, 45°, wind light west.
20 species (+1 other taxa)

Mourning Dove  1
Black-bellied Plover  330     Careful count w photos
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Red Knot  1
Dunlin  410     Careful count w photos
Black-headed Gull  1     Presumed continuing adult.
Ring-billed Gull  10     Presumed cont ad.
Herring Gull  12
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Bald Eagle  2     Adults copulated.
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  3
Carolina Wren  2
European Starling  30
Northern Mockingbird  1
House Sparrow  6
House Finch  4
House/Purple Finch  3
Fox Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco  1
White-throated Sparrow  10

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S63806640

Norbury's Landing, Cape May, New Jersey, US
Jan 26, 2020 11:53 AM - 1:18 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.0 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     90-120 minutes after high tide. Clear, 45°, wind light west.
20 species (+1 other taxa)

Mourning Dove  1
Black-bellied Plover  330     Careful count w photos
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Red Knot  1
Dunlin  410     Careful count w photos
Black-headed Gull  1     Presumed continuing adult.
Ring-billed Gull  10     Presumed cont ad.
Herring Gull  12
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Bald Eagle  2     Adults copulated.
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  3
Carolina Wren  2
European Starling  30
Northern Mockingbird  1
House Sparrow  6
House Finch  4
House/Purple Finch  3
Fox Sparrow  1
Dark-eyed Junco  1
White-throated Sparrow  10

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S63806640