Eastern Meadowlark. Higbee Beach (Tom Johnson).I heard a pretty good selection of superlatives being thrown around this evening during a gathering of Cape May birders in reference to today's birds. Whether you were birding at Higbee, the Point, Avalon, or probably anywhere in between, it seemed likely that you were running into lots of interesting things with wings.
Today did not rack up a massive total number of landbirds at the Higbee Dike, but in terms of the diversity of uncommon species, it was absolutely stunning. At some point during the first hour after sunrise, I turned around to the north and was intrigued by a long-tailed, medium-sized passerine bounding with fast-flickering wingbeats along the north edge of the dredge spoil. After shouting "SHRIKE" several times interspersed with some of my favorite expletives (which, much to my chagrin, often surface in these circumstances), the bird disappeared into the phragmites along the canal. I was thrilled when the bird eventually reemerged and perched atop a bare tree for about five minutes, showing off obvious flank barring, pale gray upperparts, a thin black facemask, and a thin, strongly hooked bill - a first cycle Northern Shrike! Eventually the bird booked it up into the lower reaches of space as it headed north along Delaware Bay, clearly not landing again in our zipcode.
Not to be upstaged by a single northerly invader, the Dike had quite a few more surprises in store today - a Dickcissel, a Clay-colored Sparrow, Winter Wren, over 2000 American Robins, over 2000 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and wonder of wonders, a new Cape Island high count of White-breasted Nuthatches with 23, shattering the record set last week of 18. Oh right, and there were also 220 Red-breasted Nuthatches, the second highest count for this fall and one of the top five or so highest counts ever in Cape May. Thanks to Tony and Melissa for helping to pull out those last few nuthatches at the end of the morning!
Non-passerine highlights this morning included Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Cattle Egrets, Great Cormorant, and several Bald Eagles.
Because of the great diversity this morning, I included all species on the following eBird checklist, not just species engaged in morning flight.
Location: Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA--Dike
Observation date: 10/18/10
Notes: wonderful morning at dike; 46 to 65 degrees F with light WNW wind
Number of species: 97
Brant (Atlantic) 1
Canada Goose 55
Mallard 2
Surf Scoter 2
Black Scoter 80
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Common Loon 2
Double-crested Cormorant 400
Great Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Cattle Egret 3
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 35
Osprey 2
Bald Eagle 4
Northern Harrier 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 45
Cooper's Hawk 6
Broad-winged Hawk 12
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 3
Merlin 1
Killdeer 2
Dunlin 6
Laughing Gull 130
Ring-billed Gull 20
Herring Gull 90
Great Black-backed Gull 80
Forster's Tern 6
Royal Tern 10
Black Skimmer 2
Rock Pigeon 22
Mourning Dove 18
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 11
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 5
Downy Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 6
Eastern Phoebe 6
Northern Shrike 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 40
American Crow 6
Fish Crow 55
Horned Lark 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Tree Swallow 200
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 220
White-breasted Nuthatch 23
Brown Creeper 4
Carolina Wren 3
House Wren 1
Winter Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 11
Eastern Bluebird 4
Swainson's Thrush 1
American Robin 2386
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 2
European Starling 180
American Pipit 12
Cedar Waxwing 22
Northern Parula 5
Cape May Warbler 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 3
Black-throated Green Warbler 3
Pine Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 22
Blackpoll Warbler 64
warbler sp. 564
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 5
Clay-colored Sparrow 1
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 5
Song Sparrow 10
Swamp Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 6
White-crowned Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco 27
Indigo Bunting 1
Dickcissel 1
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 700
Eastern Meadowlark 19
Rusty Blackbird 5
Common Grackle 5
Boat-tailed Grackle 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 60
Purple Finch 124
House Finch 420
Pine Siskin 50
American Goldfinch 110
House Sparrow 25
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
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