Morning Flight Tuesday September 7, 2010

There were few songbirds counted at the dike this morning, but that didn't stop us from enjoying close flight views of a southbound Whimbrel and some wandering Brown Pelicans over Delaware Bay.

A close flyby Belted Kingfisher at the Higbee Dike today was lovely. In addition to rarely appearing to show morning flight behavior at Higbee, kingfishers also breed locally, and it is sometimes difficult to interpret their intentions for the purposes of our count (migratory versus daily dispersal to foraging areas) (Tom Johnson).

South of Higbees Beach at the end of Sunset Boulevard, a young male King Eider has been loafing on or around the sunken concrete ship during part of his roughly year long stay in Cape May. Today he was seen from a whale watching boat in the bay (Tom Johnson).

Location: Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA--Dike
Observation date: 9/7/10
Notes: SW wind, clear, warmer than yesterday; Whimbrel and 5 Brown Pelicans were nice non-passerine highlights, and were really the only highlights as the passerine flight was shut down today.
Number of species: 15

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 4
Eastern Kingbird 13
Red-eyed Vireo 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Cedar Waxwing 7
Tennessee Warbler 2
Northern Parula 6
Yellow Warbler 5
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 2
American Redstart 19
Northern Waterthrush 24
warbler sp. 17
Bobolink 400
Baltimore Oriole 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)