Last Two

 [White-winged Dove playing hard to get on Harvard Ave. in Cape May Point, NJ this morning.]

Okay, one day left in 2013, where to go and what to go after?  The obvious choice this morning was the White-winged Dove recently discovered on Harvard Ave. in Cape May Point, and with a bit of time and an assist, that bird was found.  On the assist, thanks go to David Bernstein, who had the right attitude and approach to search beyond the mere feeder the bird had been frequenting, to a dense pine across the street where the bird had found a perch next to the trunk. I truthfully never would have looked there, that hard, for the bird.

And a second assist goes to Michael O'Brien, who coached me by phone  to the right spot for the Ash-throated Flycatcher at Cape May Point State Park, and then once I got there noted that the "indicator species," an Eastern Phoebe that was near the Ash-throated when last seen, was present and before long we had the Ash-throated in our camera lenses. Two new year birds on New Year's Eve, not bad.

Now, what to set as the birding goal for 2014?  More on that later, I think I still have a shot at Short-eared Owl. . .

[Ash-throated Flycatcher at Cape May Point State Park, NJ today.]

Fri-D: Common Merganser

If you see a large (as in, not a Hooded) female merganser on saltwater, you should immediately think Red-breasted, but this female Common Merganser, is, well, a Common Merganser even though she's is on the saltwater of the east pool at Forsythe NWR.  The sharp contrast at the neck and chin are key marks, with Red-breasted's dark markings blurring into the lighter chest rather than being sharply demarcated like this bird's. And the head color is darker, the bill a bit thicker than Red-breasted.

Christmas Day Hummingbird

 [Immature male Rufous Hummingbird, Cape May Point, NJ Christmas Day.]

Bill Schuhl pulled on a coat and came out to say hi on this cold Christmas Day morning as we waited outside his house for the hummer to show, the hummer being the Rufous Hummingbird that has been frequenting his feeder. Bill said he had changed the frozen feeder mix this morning, and that yes, the hummer had been there several times this morning. And indeed, after a short wait, the hummer appeared, chipping frequently and splitting time between the feeder and the pyracantha on the south side of Bill's house.  A nice Christmas present, and year bird number 313 for NJ for me.

Wordless Wednesday - Pileated

A North Jersey Christmas Bird Count

[You know you're not in Cape May when you see one of these! Male Pileated Woodpecker digiscoped by my son Don at Delaware Lake WMA in Warren County, NJ today.  Pileateds can be sexed by the color of the "moustache," red in males. Although fairly common north and south of Southern NJ, Pileateds occur in Cape May only rarely. Click to enlarge photos.]

It was a wonderful, weirdly warm day for a Christmas Bird Count, in this case the Walnut Valley count, up in and around the Delaware Water Gap on the NJ/PA border. We've got a plum of a territory, both sides of the Delaware River south of the Gap, and today it produced the goods, including a pair of Common Ravens, Bald Eagles, Winter Wrens, Fox Sparrows, towhees, creepers, kinglets, the expected sextet of woodpeckers (Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied, flicker, sapsucker and the king, Pileated), and two birds especially good for the location: a lost hen Long-tailed Duck on the river when it should be on the ocean, and five Tundra Swans that flew overhead. The Tundra Swans were a coveted "count first," while the Long-tailed Duck was only the second ever for the count.

 

[Female Long-tailed Duck in the Delaware River near Portland, PA today - very rare for the location and one of those great CBC surprises one sometimes gets. Digiscoped by my son Don.]