Another unexpectedly decent flight for south winds. Over 200 Sharp-shinned Hawks flew by, and remained steady throughout the day. We hit a milestone for Peregrine Falcons today, as the
1,300th of the season passed by the Hawkwatch at 4:59 PM, with one minute to spare before the end of the count.
On the non-raptor front, the juvenile Blue Grosbeak continued right around the platform for most of the day associating loosely with at least 8 juvenile White-crowned Sparrows. 6 Pine Siskins, a Purple Finch, 3 Eastern Meadowlarks, a Great Cormorant, and a Pectoral Sandpiper were individual species highlights. The most interesting spectacles were the relatively large migrations of American Robins, Northern Gannets, and Swallows. The Swallow flight was comprised almost entirely of Tree Swallows (as expected), although a single Cliff Swallow and 5 Northern Rough-winged Swallows added some spice (however scant).
Location: Cape Island--CMPSP--Hawkwatch Platform (CMBO hawkwatch)
Observation date: 10/26/10
Number of species: 79
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan X
Gadwall X
American Wigeon X
American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal 1
Northern Shoveler X
Green-winged Teal X
Ring-necked Duck 1
Greater Scaup 13
Surf Scoter X
Black Scoter X
Ruddy Duck 52
Red-throated Loon 1
Common Loon 5
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Great Blue Heron 3
Great Egret 1
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 10
Osprey 6
Northern Harrier 23
Sharp-shinned Hawk 204
Cooper's Hawk 29
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 4
Merlin 26
Peregrine Falcon 39
Killdeer 4
Greater Yellowlegs 9
Lesser Yellowlegs 15
Sanderling 25
Semipalmated Sandpiper 8
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Dunlin 18
Laughing Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull X
Forster's Tern 1
Royal Tern 600
Black Skimmer 280
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Belted Kingfisher 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 75
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Fish Crow X
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Tree Swallow 9000
Cliff Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
Carolina Wren X
Golden-crowned Kinglet X
American Robin 7500
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
American Pipit 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) X
Song Sparrow 3
Swamp Sparrow 6
White-throated Sparrow 3
White-crowned Sparrow 8
Northern Cardinal X
Blue Grosbeak 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Eastern Meadowlark 3
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird 150
Purple Finch 1
House Finch 350
Pine Siskin 6
American Goldfinch X
House Sparrow X
Cape May
Cape May Point, New Jersey, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 26, 2010
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 82 128
Turkey Vulture 0 648 846
Osprey 6 1756 4497
Bald Eagle 0 209 385
Northern Harrier 23 829 1300
Sharp-shinned Hawk 204 10684 15904
Cooper's Hawk 29 2576 3460
Northern Goshawk 0 2 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 56 61
Broad-winged Hawk 0 748 1201
Red-tailed Hawk 0 253 392
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 3 3
American Kestrel 4 2329 5128
Merlin 26 1233 2054
Peregrine Falcon 39 1023 1300
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 0 1
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 0
Total: 331 22431 36662
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 06:15:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 9.75 hours
Official Counter: Doug Gochfeld
Observers:
Weather:
SW/S Winds; Mostly cloudy all day.
Raptor Observations:
1,300th Peregrine Falcon of the season came by at 4:59 PM.
Non-raptor Observations:
Blue Grosbeak, Cliff Swallow, American Pipit, Eastern Meadowlark, Great
Cormorant, 5 Northern Rough-winged Swallows, Great Cormorant, 13 Greater
Scaup, Pectoral Sandpiper, 6+ Pine Siskin
Predictions:
S winds, intermittent thunderstorms. Hard to say but it could be decent for
Peregrines again with all the rain to our west.
Cattle Egrets continued to zip around Cape May at regular intervals this weekend - a recent big movement of the species into the inland northeast is perhaps related to the birds here now. 
Which one of these is not like the others? A tiny Cackling Goose (second from the right here) passed over the Higbee Dike on Friday morning with Canada Geese. Lots of visitors got to see the goose and enjoy the superb Zeiss-sponsored bagel breakfast/ optics demonstration (thanks again to Rich Moncrief and Steve Ingraham from Carl Zeiss Optical!).
While I was waiting for the Henslow's Sparrow to pop out of the grass at Higbee Beach, Roger and Kathy Horn found an Ash-throated Flycatcher less than a hundred yards away from where I was standing. The slim build, pale gray and yellow underparts, and undertail pattern (dark webs hooking around the tip of the rufous part) are good ID points and help separate this vagrant from other Myiarchus species.
Golden Eagles were seen on Cape Island on each of the last three days! This juvenile bird was trapped, banded, and released - in this photo it is seen beating a hasty departure from an admiring crowd in Cape May Point State Park.
Making a strong showing for October on Friday with 40 individuals, Cave Swallows are decidedly "in"; this now-classic late fall vagrant used to be a major rarity in the northeast, but with expanding populations of the Mexican subspecies pelodoma and a growing understanding of fall dispersal in the species, we now expect to see at least a few each year in Cape May.
If I could pick only one species to highlight, this was THE one that was just incredible on Saturday at Cape May - Hermit Thrushes were everywhere! On my predawn drive north through the woods at Higbee Beach, my headlights illuminated over 100 Hermit Thrushes on the dirt track, and I saw hundreds more in the fields later in the day. Wow!
