9 September 2011 - Migration... finally!

After about a week and a half of waiting, we finally had a nice taste of fall migration today in Cape May. A large passerine flight was in evidence pre-dawn, dominated by Bobolinks. The morning flight at Higbee Beach was pretty nice with several hundred warblers, but it became cloaked in cloudy darkness which made identification of many of the warblers more challenging than normal. The morning flight was highlighted by 3 Connecticut Warblers.
The Hawkwatch at Cape May Point State Park was very good today, with the first triple-digit raptor count of the season (dominated by a midday push of Osprey and a nice smattering of kestrels). Even the nice raptor showing was overshadowed by the excitement of an adult male Magnificent Frigatebird that cruised south along the beach from Avalon to Cape May Point before crossing Delaware Bay. Gail Dwyer originally found it up in Avalon and alerted the masses, who gathered in waiting down at Cape May Point. Very conveniently, the bird finally appeared over Cape May City and then drifted almost directly over the heads of 50+ very happy birders in the state park!

We were pleased to confirm the identification of this bird as a Magnificent by noting the overall black underparts and red throat combined with dull brownish bars on the inner portions of the upperwing. Since frigatebirds can be extreme vagrants (there are a few Great and Lesser Frigatebird records scattered across North America), it is important to look carefully at all out-of-range frigatebirds. On the other side of that coin, Tropical Storm Lee blew lots of Magnificent Frigatebirds inland from the Gulf of Mexico recently, and the mid-Atlantic has been feeling the effects of that storm over the past few days. It seems highly likely to me that the Cape May frigatebird started out in the Gulf of Mexico sometime last week.


Other highlights at the hawkwatch today included a flyby Hudsonian Godwit, multiple Whimbrel, an elusive American Avocet, and two separate Buff-breasted Sandpipers (one whipped past within 100 feet of the platform). Gull-billed Tern, Black Terns, Brown Pelican, Common Nighthawk, and Cape May Warblers rounded out a fantastic day on the platform.In addition to Merlins and American Kestrels, which frequently pick off dragonflies as a snack during migration, we noticed a few other birds targeting dragonflies during the day's vigil, including this Snowy Egret!

This Gull-billed Tern was also hammering the darners at Cape May Point State Park this afternoon.

Small numbers of Black Terns continue to grace Bunker Pond with their spritely presence - this fall has been a great showing for the species, which can be a scarce migrant at Cape May.

On a more silly note, while going through my photos from the hawkwatch taken on 7 September, I was checking a few shots of a large flyover ibis flock when I noticed that one of the birds had a pinkish face and a red eye - TROUBLE! This White-faced Ibis seems to have snuck past undetected at the time. Even at a location where a fairly high percentage of the rare birds might be found just because of the sheer number of birders looking, it is interesting (and humbling) to know that rarities do get through unnoticed, sometimes directly overhead.

White-faced Ibis (the one with the pink face and red eye) over Cape May Point State Park on 7 September 2011.

[All photos by Tom Johnson]