Wordless Wednesday: Unflattering, As it Should Be

Cape May Meadows: On Shorebirds, Molt, and the Lack of a Scope

 [Lesser Yellowlegs, South Cape May Meadows, NJ today. Notice the molt - this adult bird wears new, basic (winter) back feathers and scapulars - the extensive plain gray ones are the new ones. Soon it will be time to watch for newly arrived juvenile yellowlegs, which will be neatly patterned with white spots on a brown background above. Click to enlarge photos.]

I set out around the South Cape May Meadows, NJ this morning without my scope, because I'm lazy, mainly. And I later wished I had brought the scope, because the Nature Conservancy, which owns and operates the meadows, has the easternmost pool drawn down nicely and it was kind of full of shorebirds, mainly ones beyond reasonable identification distance with binoculars alone. I muddled through, detecting for example White-rumped Sandpiper by call from a group of peep flying by. That very high-pitched call of the White-rumped is a very good one to learn, sounds like mice. Or two pebbles being scraped together. Or like a White-rumped Sandpiper. I nearly pushed a dowitcher into the Long-billed hole, but it was a bit too far to be sure. Eventually I settled in to watch the birds closer to the east path, just letting things happen rather than hunting them out. Which is one way to bird, as opposed to target birding or rarity hunting. I don't do much of the latter anymore, hoping that after all these years of looking at birds, at least if a rare bird is close, I will find it without looking for that particular bird.

Carrying a scope always annoys me, because it slows down both binocular use and camera use. You have to put the scope down first, or used the other optics awkwardly while trying to keep the scope from falling from your shoulder. Since I like to try to photograph things in flight, I need all the quickness I can muster.

Now, if someone else carries the scope, that's something different ;>).

[The two semipalmateds, Semipalmated Sandpiper above and Semipalmated Plover below, flybys at the meadows this morning.]

Some of the shorebirds were close, however, including a number of both Yellowlegs, peep, Semipalmated Plovers, dowitchers. It was good shorebirding. And there were a lot of swallows around, too. And a good-sized flock of mainly Forster's Terns roosted on the mud, with some Commons and a few Leasts. And the first juvenile Laughing Gull I've seen away from their nesting colonies in the back bays farther north, a signal of the progressing season. Juvenile shorebirds will begin appearing any day. There was a juvenile Spotted Sandpiper at the meadows, with an adult, but I don't really count that one since Spotteds nest not so far to the north.

 [Tree Swallows come to the coast after nesting and molt there, in the land of abundance (for them) - lots of bugs to fuel the new feather growth. Note the 3 new inner primaries on each wing on this one, and look how worn the other soon-to-be-replaced flight feathers, now almost a year old, have gotten.]

[Compare this juvenile Rough-winged Swallow's general appearance with that of the juvenile Common Tern a few posts down, and for that matter to the ragged, molty adult Tree Swallow above. All feathers in uniformly good condition = juvenile. The buffy edges to the coverts and tertials are good age clues on this bird, too.]

Thoughtful Thursday: Least

[Least Tern, Cape May, NJ July 21, 2013.]

"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature."
- Socrates

Wordless Wednesday: Dowitchers, Southbound

Looking for One Thing and Finding Something(s) Else

 [Common Tern adult bringing an Atlantic Silverside to its juvenile offspring, Cape May Point State Park, NJ this morning.]

You check the tern flock and either the Roseate Tern is there or it's not, right? Not much you can do about it if it's not, except wait around, which is what I did this morning, but still to no avail. There's a lot of luck involved in this birding game. But you always get a bird when you go birding, maybe not the one you were looking for but that's still okay. If you let it be, which I gladly did this morning.

There were actually two tern flocks to check at Cape May Point State Park, NJ this morning, one consisting of entirely Forster's Terns on the railing near the outflow pipe of Bunker Pond, and one of almost all Common Terns with one Forster's and a few Leasts thrown in down on the beach. I've seen Forster's and Common segregate this way before, so if you think you're seeing all of only one species, maybe you are. Or maybe you're not, it reminds me of the one about if you can't spot the fool in the room, it's you. It's easy to doubt yourself with this pair. If you can't spot the Common among the Forster's, you're a fool?  Or maybe you're simply right.

Anyhow, I didn't spot a Roseate among the Common and the Forster's Terns at Cape May, but I did enjoy watching the juvenile Common Terns begging and occasionally being fed by their parents. These juv.'s could have come from some distance away, since the m.o. for terns is to lead their young away from the colony to good feeding grounds as soon as the young can fly well.

Interesting but not surprising after the little cold front that passed last night, there was some movement evident, in the form of about 4 Yellow Warblers and a single American Redstart that flew overhead in obvious "morning flight," and in a decent shorebird movement that included four Pectoral Sandpipers in a flock with yellowlegs, and some Short-billed Dowitchers. Oh yeah, and a flock of about 20 Glossy Ibis, glossies move early so that was fairly typical for late July.

[Feathers in uniform good condition and a scaly appearance are indicators of a juvenile bird in many species, including, in this case, Common Tern.]

 [This Common Tern had almost an entirely red bill, just a little dark on the culmen, but it's clearly not an Arctic Tern. Some might be tempted. . . which is why you use multiple field marks, like the thicker dark trailing edge to the primaries, more balanced (not front-heavy) look in flight, bill too long, primaries not translucent. . . ]

[Common Wood-nymphs are common, but I don't recall seeing one along the dunes at Cape May Point State Park before, which is where this one was.]