Fri-D Let's Make it Easier

For a variety of reasons, none too good, I've been out of the Cape May Birding scene for over a year. Now that I'm back, I run into old friends who ask me what I've been up to. I've been saying, "trying to get good at birding."

A couple people have actually laughed out loud at this. I experience a great deal of discomfort talking about myself, and it is in fact completely true I am trying to get better at birding. but I've been told I'm not too bad at this stuff, and I better be good, since I've been doing it for about 40 years in 49 states, 12 countries, and 5 continents with most of the very best birders who ever walked.

This is dangerous. The good get better, and the new get overwhelmed. There are so many field guides now that a lot of my scrawled notes in my old guides are superfluous, although at scrawling time people didn't know the stuff I was writing down or didn't talk about it. All this new accessible info is great, right? Not if it makes birding harder. It ain't no good at all then.

Everyone looks for the 'red head' on male Eurasian Wigeon (I was listening to fellow birders calling Green-winged Teal Eurasian Wigeon, and even Redheads, just the other day], but what color are Eurasian's flanks? What if your duck has it's head under water? Ref. photo above.

Or, e.g., swans:

[If it's on a little pond, it's a Mute Swan, except when it's not. If it's on anything from May through September, it's a Mute Swan. If it's fanning its wings over its back, like the two above, it's a Mute Swan that's pissed off. If it's got a straight neck, almost no visible tail, and honks, it's a Tundra Swan, like the one in front. No bill color needed, and the hell with details of feathering at the base of the bill. Bunker pond, Cape May Point, NJ last week.]

Some i.d.'s are difficult, sure, so let's keep the easy ones easy.

Thoughtful Thursday: A Foolish Thing

“If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.”

― Anatole France

[Perhaps speaking on silent Empidonax flycatcher i.d.? Atlantic Bottle-nosed Dolphins know better, like this one near the North Wildlwood seawall a couple weeks ago.]

A Good Day's Birding

[I like Bufflehead - who doesn't? They're back, like these at Cape May Point State Park, NJ, Sunday November 9, 2019. Click to enlarge photos.]

It was a good day to be a Cape May birder last Sunday. Periodically I check recent visits to CM on eBird, and when I did that night, I was puzzled a bit to see I had encountered more species than any of the other birders out that day. A lot more, except my friend Tom Reed, who unsurprisingly for someone so talented came up with a pretty long list.

I don't care much about lists, but they can be an index of how the birding has been. My day list for south of the Cape May canal, a.k.a. Cape Island, is at the end of this post. How come so many?

1. A long time in the field.
2. A long time out of a vehicle - actually, NO time IN a vehicle.
3. A long walk - 7 miles.
4. Multiple habitats visited: neighborhood, meadows, freshwater wetlands, a little salt marsh, beach, dune, dune forest, scrub-shrub, upland forest, wet woods, ag areas . . .
5. I listened. All the time. I don't know, it's what I've always done, sometimes at the expense of looking.

Proof of that last point: I missed Mourning dove, Rock Pigeon, Northern Gannet, both loons, all three scoters . . . wasn't looking, which is why I love birding with my son Tim or friend Pete. They look.

[One of three Eurasian Wigeon (2 drakes, 1 hen) on Lighthouse Pond west Sunday. I looked for these.]

Cape Island (Cape May Co. south of the Cape May canal), Cape May, New Jersey, US

Nov 9, 2019 7:43 AM - 2:23 PM

Protocol: Traveling

7.0 mile(s)

74 species

Snow Goose  1

Canada Goose  274

Mute Swan  72

Tundra Swan  2

Northern Shoveler  12

Gadwall  128

Eurasian Wigeon  3     Continuing, two drakes one hen.

American Wigeon  100

Mallard  95

American Black Duck  3

Northern Pintail  30

Green-winged Teal  56

Ring-necked Duck  2

Bufflehead  10

Hooded Merganser  12

Pied-billed Grebe  1

Virginia Rail  1

American Coot  26

Piping Plover  0     Late. Calling at Meadows. Was someone playing a tape?

Killdeer  1

Ring-billed Gull  1

Herring Gull  1

Lesser Black-backed Gull  9

Great Black-backed Gull  2

Black Skimmer  7

Double-crested Cormorant  50

Great Blue Heron  2

Turkey Vulture  56

Osprey  1

Northern Harrier  2

Sharp-shinned Hawk  3

Cooper's Hawk  3

Bald Eagle  1

Red-tailed Hawk  5

Red-bellied Woodpecker  3

Northern Flicker  3

Merlin  1

Blue Jay  4

American Crow  8

Carolina Chickadee  4

Tree Swallow  14

Golden-crowned Kinglet  5

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  2

Brown Creeper  1     Beanery

Winter Wren  1     Beanery wet woods near horseshoe pond.

Carolina Wren  12

European Starling  6

Gray Catbird  2

Brown Thrasher  1

Northern Mockingbird  5

Eastern Bluebird  9

Hermit Thrush  1

American Robin  170

House Sparrow  30

American Pipit  1

House Finch  6

American Goldfinch  6

Chipping Sparrow  1

Field Sparrow  1

Dark-eyed Junco  4

White-throated Sparrow  55

Vesper Sparrow  1

Savannah Sparrow  9

Song Sparrow  35

Swamp Sparrow  45

Eastern Towhee  2

Red-winged Blackbird  110

Rusty Blackbird  2     West Cape May.

Common Grackle  10

Orange-crowned Warbler  1     Along bunker pond and again from Hawkwatch platform, could’ve been two different birds.

Nashville Warbler  1

Palm Warbler  2

Yellow-rumped Warbler  190

Black-throated Green Warbler  1     Probably continuing, this time from Hawkwatch platform, scene by several others.

Northern Cardinal  2

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S61300351

What Are You Doing Here?

[Yellow-rumped Warbler at my water drip (perhaps the greatest addition to a yard's bird attractiveness), October 19, 2019. Click to enlarge photos.]

Hello, yeah, it's been a while. . .

So on the morning of October 19, 2019 I was out listening for NFC's - that's shorthand for Nocturnal Flight Calls - and a nice thrush flight was underway. On my eBird list I placed a single unidentified thrush, although I knew exactly what it was.

I knew what it was, but the date made it unlikely.  Here is an important law of birding, if there is such a thing: A BIRD OUT OF ITS NORMAL DATE RANGE IS AS RARE AS A BIRD OUT OF ITS GEOGRAPHIC RANGE. It's something I've known for years and years, but I first heard it said by Paul Lehman, who said it so emphatically it deserves capital letters.

But later in the day I heard this "pep-pep-pep-pep" out the window and I said to myself, I KNOW what that is. It was this:

[Wood Thrush, Del Haven NJ October 19, 2019. Not the latest Cape May county record, but late enough to use caution. It's a hatch-year, aged by the molt limit in the wing coverts, meaning it started from its egg last summer.]

Why You Should go to Maine in June

[Above: Atlantic Puffins performing near Eastern Egg Rock, off famous Hog Island, during our June Joy of Birding program. Plenty of puffins and other alcids were also seen on the pelagic trip during the Acadia Birding Festival the week before. Click to enlarge all photos.]

I've fallen into the pleasant habit of birding coastal Maine every June. You can't lose: exciting seabirds, exciting landbirds, marine mammals, great scenery, great lobster . . . and for the events referenced above, outstanding leaders. We even found a Brown Booby in the Gulf of Maine during the Acadia Festival, and had one "get away" during the Hog Island camp.

The dates for Hog Island's joy of Birding camp will be June 2-9, 2019. The 2019 Acadia Festival will likely be the week before. Both are HIGHLY recommended.

[Above, Northern Parula, Harbor Porpoise (the most common inshore cetacean in Maine) and Red Squirrel, all at or near Hog Island, ME.]