A Couple Terns, A Couple Warblers

 [Roseate Tern on the Cape May Point State Park, NJ beach today. Click to enlarge all photos. Things to note include the slim dark bill (this one has a little red at the base, not always the case), very pale upperparts, including flight feathers (compare with the Common Tern in the background), and the long tail projection past the primaries.)]

It's getting to be that time of year when things like cleaning out the storage shed and other projects, even mowing the lawn, get put off. A bit of a cold front brought a few land birds to Cape May, NJ today (Sunday), and the tern flock at Cape May Point is massive and growing, making for a fun project: filtering Common and Forster's Terns for rarer things.

I spent an hour first thing in the first field at Higbee Beach WMA, where I was in birds constantly even if they were the same three: Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, pretty much in that order of abundance. A Worm-eating Warbler was the treat of the morning, that and a Yellow-breasted Chat that peaked out of a thicket for a look at me. Then it was off to the beach and the terns.

The best tern thing for me was what the Gull-billed Terns were doing. We (the usual suspects were patrolling the beach, including Tom Reed, Glen Davis, and Richard Crossley, plus "migrant" David LaPuma) were surprised to see Gull-billeds at all, since they don't forage in the rips offshore like the other terns, but they had another trick in mind. The adult Gull-billeds would "wait on" over the beach flock like Peregrines circling their prey, then swoop (not quite stoop) down on Common Terns bringing fish in to feed their young. Fish stolen, the Gull-billeds then fed their own young the prize - there seemed to be two adult Gull-billeds tending three young.

Neat stuff. It was also great to catch up with Dave LaPuma, now working for Leica. Dave's here to help with the ABA's Camp Avocet over in Delaware, though they're planning to venture up to Cape May for one of the camp days.

 [Roseate Tern in flight over a Common Tern, Cape May Point today.]

[Adult Gull-billed Tern waiting for its next victim, likely to be a Common Tern with a fish to be stolen.]

[The beauty on the bottom right is a juvenile Gull-billed Tern, the upper right bird is a juv. Common Tern.]

[This juv. Black Tern was in Cape May on Saturday. Today I saw an adult out in the rips.]

[Yellow Warbler, the predominant migrant warbler of early August.]

[American Redstart at Higbee Beach today. The orange - as opposed to yellow - chest patch indicates that this is a hatch year male, not female.]

[Lovely Comet Darner at Higbee today. "Possibly the most visually striking dragonfly in New Jersey," according to Barlow, Golden and Bangma's NJ dragonfly guide, which you really should own if you pursue nature in NJ.]

Thoughtful Thursday: Once I Was a Fish

[Royal Tern with prey, Stone Harbor Point, NJ, August 5 2013.]

“Once we were blobs in the sea, and then fishes, and then lizards and rats and then monkeys, and hundreds of things in between. This hand was once a fin, this hand once had claws! In my human mouth I have the pointy teeth of a wolf and the chisel teeth of a rabbit and the grinding teeth of a cow! Our blood is as salty as the sea we used to live in! When we're frightened, the hair on our skin stands up, just like it did when we had fur. We are history! Everything we've ever been on the way to becoming us, we still are."
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Wordless Wednesday: Sanderling Molt

Cape May Meadows Fly-bys

 [This Prothonotary Warbler's flight note, a loud, clear, rising seep, drew my camera skyward just in time. It wasn't a bird I was particularly thinking about this morning at the South Cape May Meadows, NJ, but I'll take it! Click to enlarge all photos.]

Better to be lucky than good - how many times have I said that? Often, so while I may not be lucky with rare terns in Cape May this year (missed the Roseate by minutes yet again), I could hardly be disappointed with a morning at the South Cape May Meadows that included flyover Prothonotary Warbler in the starring role, plus Northern Waterthrushes, Yellow Warblers, American Redstarts. . . August is fall migration in a big way, and it was good just to be out looking. One thing to always remember in Cape May, and elsewhere, is that all the little birds flying overhead are something. They may not be the standard small bird flying overhead, like a goldfinch or House Finch, either, especially early in the morning when birds may still be ending their overnight migration and looking for a place to settle down. The upshot is, try to get on any little bird flying over, it may be a good warbler!

Other than the shorebirds feeding in the east "pool" at the meadows, most of the action was in the air today. Of the shorebirds, a single Stilt Sandpiper was the best = rarest thing I could muster, but watching Semipalmated Sandpipers quibble with each other, or Lesser Yellowlegs delicately forage, is fine shorebirding.

Other highlights included:

 [Continuing a theme of juveniles: this is a juvenile Green Heron, showing the nice, new feathers, all in the same good condition, and buffy feather edgings, marks of other juveniles featured in posts below.]

 [Juvenile Little Blue Heron, a fly-in at the meadows this morning. The dark tips to the flight feathers are a good way to separate this bird from a Snowy Egret, but be sure to notice how narrow they are - they tend to disappear on the folded wing, especially against a dark background. The bicolored bill and green legs are additional clues. A group of migrating herons I saw later at the meadows included about a dozen Snowy Egrets and a single Tricolored Heron.]

[The primaries of Forster's Terns get worn by late summer, and turn dark, causing potential confusion with Common Tern. On this Forster's, notice how dark the outer two primaries are against the newly growing inner primaries.]

Thoughtful Thursday: Rabbit Time

[Cottontail Rabbit, South Cape May Meadows, where there were many rabbits evident last night.]

“All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.”
― Richard Adams, Watership Down