Weekend Update - Part I

The nocturnal migration of songbirds over Cape May on Thursday night into Friday morning was one of the most spectacular things I've seen in my life. Untold tens of thousands of American Robins and sparrows flew over the beach, heading west, and some were low enough to be lit up from below by the street lights. A wandering group of astonished birders gathered on the promenade on Beach Avenue and watched. And watched. And watched. There were so many birds that some of us stuck around until after 2 AM, walking the streets and looking at birds that had landed on the streets, in yards, under cars, in storefront flowerboxes. American Woodcock, Northern Flicker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Barn Owl, Gray Catbird, Eastern Towhee, and many other species were picked out of the stream of thrushes and sparrows overhead - I must say that seeing and hearing a yipping Red-breasted Nuthatch flapping overhead at 1130 PM is something I won't soon forget. Sparrows blanketed parts of the ground along the beach, dominated by Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, but there was tremendous diversity - I think we ended up SEEING 14 or so species of sparrows during the night, including Vesper, Seaside, Saltmarsh, Nelson's, Grasshopper, and a variety of others. A few of us tried to capture the spectacle with long exposure, grainy photos of some of the grounded birds in the dark - here are a few of mine.


This Eastern Towhee landed, along with a few Song Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a Common Yellowthroat along a brightly lit strip of shops on Beach Avenue.

Common Yellowthroat is one of the few warbler species still moving through Cape May this late in the fall.

This Saltmarsh Sparrow was clearly disoriented by artificial lighting - originally spotted in the middle of the street, the bird later was seen hopping around a glass storefront.

Among the most surreal memories of the evening was this Marsh Wren silhouetted under a park bench on the Cape May promenade.