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.]

Thoughtful Thursday: Talking

[Green Frog, High Point State Park, NJ, July 13 2013.]

“I didn't ask what you'd said about it," the frog snapped. "I asked what you're going to do. Nine times out of ten, talking is a way of avoiding doing things.”
― Patricia C. Wrede, Dealing with Dragons

Wordless Wednesday: Red Eft

Molty and Nesty: High Point in mid-July

 [Its extensive white "pocket handkerchief" labels this male Black-throated Blue Warbler as an adult, but its dull appearance might lead one to think it was a young bird. It's more bedraggled than dull, with loose body feathers indicating molt underway. Kuser Bog in High Point State Park on Saturday. Click to enlarge photos.]

A forest in mid-July is different than a forest in June, and High Point State Park, NJ was no exception this past weekend. Oh, the birds were all still there, and busy. . . but quiet, with much less song than June, making it necessary to really pay attention to flight and call notes, and the begging calls of young wanting to be fed, and any slight movements in the trees. Any less of an effort and you would never have known how rich these woods are for birds.

Many of the birds we encountered were in obvious molt, with loose or missing feathers, and sometimes new feathers growing in were apparent, though these things are not easy to see except with birds in the hand. Many birds fed young, too - around our campsite the yellowthroats and redstarts were particularly busy carrying food, while the local Veeries were happily the most vocal birds in the area, suggesting perhaps these were involved in second nestings.  It's worth a trip to High Point (a solid 4.5 hours north of Cape May) just to hear Veeries sing.

At Kuser Bog in High Point, it seemed overall very quiet, until we suddenly bumped into a mixed-species flock containing Black-throated Blue Warbler, American Redstarts, Northern Waterthrush, Northern Orioles, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and several others. All of these were local breeders, but clearly were done with nesting for the year and had flocked up in a mixed-species foraging flock, which is exactly what birds do between the end of nesting and the start of migration.

 [This Blue-gray Gnatcatcher is in molt, and you can see in particular that it has a new tertial feather, the obviously pale-edged feather on the lower "back" (It's actually the top feather in the stacked folded wing feathers). If you look really closely at the base of this feather, you can see it is still growing in out of the white sheath. Such feathers are termed pin feathers. High Point State Park, NJ yesterday.]

[This Blue-winged Warbler is obviously worn with loose feathers indicating molt, but it was territorial in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, singing the Blue-winged's alternate song. We encountered a hybrid "Brewster's" Warbler nearby, in an area that had Golden-winged Warblers last spring.]

[Another molty bird, male American Redstart along Sawmill Road in High Point, where they are absolutely abundant. Though you wouldn't have known it this weekend, because most have stopped singing as they molt and tend young. Chip and flight notes are much more commonly heard than songs now.]

[Veery singing in High Point.]

[This male Canada Warbler in Kuser Bog chipped continuously and at one point was carrying food. The agitation and food-carrying are obvious signs of nearby young.]

 

[Eye of a nesting female American Redstart in High Point, obviously a second nesting given the late date.]