Spring Come Anyway

[A fun March 30, 2020 trio at Norbury's Landing, Cape May, NJ: Forster's Tern, American Oystercatcher, and Laughing Gulls. My eBird list is below.]

Spring comes anyway. Notice that? Notice that. One day this April on a south wind and sunshine the Laughing Gulls will come across the Bay, dancing in the sky for the sheer delight of being back, of procreating, and making their daily flights from feasting on horseshoe crab eggs over to their colonies on the Atlantic side marshes of Cape May County. I love that day. Long for it.

My plan for the weekend was birds, as it usually is, specifically keeping an ear on the Northern Mockingbird in the neighborhood, who has been blowing up with songs. How many songs? Which are his favorites? Does he have a mate yet? Is he beating up the Blue Jays and robins?

Not to be. I'm seven+ days into a presumed positive case of the C-word. I swear, I'm going to make a fortune selling signs that, instead of "Beware of Dog" or "This Home Protected by Smith and Wesson" proclaim, "Covid-19 is HERE. Keep Out." I won't bore you, it really really sucked, and I worry for my dear ones and yours.

Still weak today, but staggered down to the bay, keeping the lungs moving, staying waaaayy far away from everybody.

[Boat-tailed Grackles are psychos IMHO, but I enjoy their antics. They're somewhat unusual on the bay side (here at Norbury's Landing), different status than from Rio Grande eastward. That's Rio Grande, Cape May County, not the TX-Mex one.]

[And my pussy willows are blooming. Spring comes anyway.]

Norbury's Landing, Cape May, New Jersey, US
Mar 30, 2020 12:23 PM - 1:40 PM
Protocol: Traveling
1.834 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Tide near high, overcast, 59 Degrees Fahrenheit, wind light and variable
27 species

Black Scoter  4
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  4
Mourning Dove  6
American Oystercatcher  1
Dunlin  8
Laughing Gull  10
Forster's Tern  3
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Blue Jay  6
Fish Crow  8
Carolina Chickadee  1     Fee bee-bee fee bay
Carolina Wren  6
European Starling  20
Gray Catbird  1
Northern Mockingbird  2
American Robin  10
Cedar Waxwing  4
House Sparrow  40
House Finch  4
Dark-eyed Junco  6     Numbers are growing, migrants.
White-throated Sparrow  10
Song Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Common Grackle  8
Boat-tailed Grackle  2     Unusual for site.
Yellow-rumped Warbler  8
Northern Cardinal  6

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S66406658

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)