Ridiculous. Phenomenal. Absurd. Incredible. All of these adjectives would probably still fall short of aptly describing today at the Hawkwatch.
Tony Leukering hammered this juvenile Northern Goshawk as it motored by the platform at point blank range to the delight of all who still remained at 4:00 PM. (photo copyright Tony Leukering)It started off with a very interesting and diverse flight of passerines coming in off the water. Amidst the several hundred American Goldfinches, a few thousand American Robins and swarms of Blue Jays and the common Icterids were several each of Eastern Meadowlark, American Pipit, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin. Some of the Pine Siskins even dropped in and stayed around the platform all day and gave excellent views a few times through the day. The Sparrow show in the bushes around the Platform was excellent all day, and included Clay-colored (obliging for most of the day), Vesper, and multiple White-crowned Sparrows, in addition to a drab Dickcissel. Perhaps the most out of place bird in that immediate area, however, was a Sora that Tony Leukering pointed out as it scampered through the bushes behind the Clay-colored Sparrow at one point. Rarely seen from the Platform was a Swainson's Thrush sitting up eating Porcelain Berries in the sparrow bushes at dawn
Of course, even on a day as great as this one there must always be one species that is the best (or at least rarest). This day that distinction clearly went to the adult Scissor-tailed Flycatcher which was spotted by a group of visiting Danes as it engaged in morning flight. The Flycatcher flew from east to west just north of the Platform, eventually going behind the Lighthouse before meandering below the treeline and out of sight somewhere over Cape May Point. Other notable flybys today included 5 Cattle Egrets early (4 together and then 1 a bit later), 4 Snow Geese, 2 Chimney Swifts, a Northern Rough-winged Swallow, and a White-breasted Nuthatch. The latter, while being generally rare on the southern portion of Cape Island, is not extremely surprising considering the number that Tom had flying out by the Dike this morning.
Oh, and of course since this is the Hawkwatch blog, we should probably mention some of the raptors that were around. The flight was pretty decent, with good numbers of birds moving on a light NW wind. Unfortunately due to the lack of clouds the birds got extremely high early, and since the winds were so light many of the birds stayed a bit to the north. There were decent numbers of Accipiters moving, with Cooper's slightly outnumbering Sharp-shinneds. There were a decent number of Northern Harriers, and the last few hours of the day saw a nice spurt of Peregrine Falcons. The highlights were two first of the seasons. First a juvenile Golden Eagle was spotted to the north of the Hawkwatch. Unfortunately, while it drifted around for a while giving some prolonged decent scope views, it never came very close. However, as cool as the Eagle was, it was blown out of the water by the awesomeness of the juvenile Northern Goshawk (pictured above) that buzzed the platform late in the day. It came off the dunes by the Bunker hard, and after a brief pre-occupation with some Passerines in the Bayberries it powered hard by the platform coming right at us and in front at point blank range.
One of these birds is not like the other (and for that matter the other is not like the one). Here Michael O'Brien captured an interesting comparison shot of these two large raptors. While in this view the identification is very straightforward, these two may present some slight difficulty at a distance, as they are the only two locally regularly occurring large raptors that display a consistent dihedral. (photo copyright Michael O'Brien)
And another one because Golden Eagles are awesome. (photo copyright Michael O'Brien)Complete eBird List followed by Hawk Count season totals below:
Location: Cape Island--CMPSP--Hawkwatch Platform (CMBO hawkwatch)
Observation date: 10/18/10
Notes: Light NW and N winds. Mostly clear skies.
Number of species: 96
Snow Goose 5
Canada Goose X
Mute Swan X
Wood Duck 16
Gadwall X
American Wigeon X
American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal X
Northern Shoveler X
Northern Pintail 28
Green-winged Teal X
Surf/Black Scoter X
Ruddy Duck 14
Common Loon 5
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Northern Gannet X
Double-crested Cormorant 6000
Great Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 1
Cattle Egret 5
Black Vulture 6
Turkey Vulture 76
Osprey 17
Bald Eagle 13
Northern Harrier 38
Sharp-shinned Hawk 262
Cooper's Hawk 283
Northern Goshawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 20
Broad-winged Hawk 21
Red-tailed Hawk 60
Golden Eagle 1
American Kestrel 18
Merlin 10
Peregrine Falcon 32
Sora 1
Killdeer 4
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Lesser Yellowlegs 6
Sanderling X
Pectoral Sandpiper 1
Wilson's Snipe 1
Laughing Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Forster's Tern X
Royal Tern X
Black Skimmer 400
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Chimney Swift 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 20
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 1
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Fish Crow X
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Tree Swallow 3000
Carolina Chickadee 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren X
Golden-crowned Kinglet X
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Swainson's Thrush 1
American Robin X
Northern Mockingbird X
European Starling X
American Pipit 8
Cedar Waxwing X
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 500
Blackpoll Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat X
Chipping Sparrow 2
Clay-colored Sparrow 1
Vesper Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 20
Swamp Sparrow 15
White-throated Sparrow 1
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 1
Northern Cardinal X
Indigo Bunting 2
Dickcissel 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Eastern Meadowlark 8
Common Grackle 75
Brown-headed Cowbird 200
House Finch 40
Pine Siskin 12
American Goldfinch 600
House Sparrow X
Cape May
Cape May Point, New Jersey, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 18, 2010
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 6 65 111
Turkey Vulture 76 439 637
Osprey 17 1684 4425
Bald Eagle 13 175 351
Northern Harrier 38 620 1091
Sharp-shinned Hawk 262 8467 13687
Cooper's Hawk 283 2211 3095
Northern Goshawk 1 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 20 46 51
Broad-winged Hawk 21 726 1179
Red-tailed Hawk 60 174 313
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 1 1 1
American Kestrel 18 1994 4793
Merlin 10 1000 1821
Peregrine Falcon 32 910 1187
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: 858 18513 32744
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Observation start time: 06:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 10 hours
Official Counter: Doug Gochfeld
Observers:
Weather:
Light N and NW winds all day, mostly clear skies.
Raptor Observations:
Juv. Golden Eagle 1:54 PM, Juv. Northern Goshawk 3:59 PM.
Non-raptor Observations:
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher(adult) flyby, Clay-colored Sparrow, Vesper
Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrows, 5 Cattle Egrets, numbers of Pine Siskins,
Purple Finches, Eastern Meadowlarks, American Pipits.
Predictions:
NE Winds, Possible showers. Should be some birds around, especially if the
precipitation holds off here and at points to the north.
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