Cape May County, NJ ~ Shorebirds

A trip around Cape May County the past few days has seen and increase in the numbers of shorebirds.

Yellow Legs at Stone Harbor Point

Least Terns mating ritual Cape May Point State Park

Red Knots and other peeps near Kimbel's Beach

Ruddy Turnstones near Kimbel's Beach

Dunlin at the Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor

 Dunlin and other peeps at the Wetlands Institute, Stone Harbor

 

Nummy Island ~ More spring arrivals

Spring at Nummy Island is always a treat as the shorebirds begin to arrive bringing life back to the area.  It gives me hope after a long winter.

Yellow Legs

Killdeer

Little Blue Heron

Black-bellied Plover

Outer Banks, NC ~ Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge

Yellow Legs & Black-necked Stilt

Yesterday evening we stopped at the North Pond of the Pea Island NWR and walked along the trail.  We saw some great birds but dusk was falling and we knew we needed more time to explore.  Up early this morning we arrived at the Salt Flats Wildlife Trail at about 8AM. As we walked the trail we could see shorebirds including a large flock of Avocets out in a pond area over the salt marsh.  The bugs were biting so bug jackets were a must.  While there we talked with a local who suggested we use the bird blind to get a closer look at the birds.  I was able to walk down onto the salt flat and get closer views of the birds including a Black Skimmer who spent about 15 minutes skimming for fish right in front of me.  It was an awesome experience. Then we went over to the North Pond wildlife trail where we saw a rare for them Lark Sparrow.  It was a great morning.

Yellow Legs & American Avocet

Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet

Black Skimmer skimming

Black Skimmer

Lark Sparrow

CA ~ Famosa Slough, San Diego

Whimbrel, Marbled Godwit, Yellow Legs and Western Willet

Today was a transition day with me driving from Palm Desert to San Diego.  My sister and hubby flew in from PA where I met them at the airport.  Since we couldn't get into our rental until 3 PM we decided to drive over to the Famosa Slough.  What a great decision!  We saw 25+ species of birds including great looks at Black-necked Stilts really up close and personal, Marbled Godwits, American Avocets, Brown Pelican, Egrets and Herons and new life bird Eared Grebe

Eared Grebe

Black-necked Stilt

Birding - Nummy Island

  

This morning I stole 2 hours to go birding before I went to work.  The forecast for today is 50 degrees with winds about 10 MPH so I'll be leaving work early.  I normally only work about 24 hrs per week but have been working 32-40+ hrs per week so today's a day to recharge my mental batteries.  First stop was Nummy Island where at first I saw my first of the season Yellow Legs. I also saw a Great Blue Heron fishing, Red-throated Loons, Horned Grebe and had close looks at about 2 dozen Greater Scaup.

Post Hurricane Sandy

It's been an anxious time for me waiting out the storm and worrying how my property would fare.  Over the past several days we heard many senerios about where the eye of the storm would hit.  Each time the forecaster would change the projections slightly.  The one thing I did get out of the reports was that if you were south and east of storm you would have more high winds whereas if you were north and west of the storm  you would experience higher tides and tidal surges.  That's exactly what happened.  The eye of Hurricane Sandy came in just around Atlantic City on 10/29 about 7PM.  Because it met up with upper level air it then became classified as a NorEaster.  Damages from Atlantic City up through Conneticut were beyond extensive.   The damage to NYC plus some of the cities in the upper 1/3 of NJ along the coast will never be the same.  It's hard to believe all of the destruction with homes being moved off their foundations, other houses and business flooded by the water, roads and cars buried under several feet of sand, the Altantic Ocean meeting the bays and so much more it's is hard to process.  As one reporter said it looks like a war zone.  I think we are so lucky in Cape May County because we had some damages but nothing like the mid to upper part of the state.  Personally, I had very little damage.  The beach along the Dealware Bay where I live lost 3-10 foot of the dunes.

One thing I learned last year after Hurricane Irene was the hurricanes bring rare birds to the area and that a good place to look for those birds is in Cape May Point at Diamond Beach.  So after I checked out my house and property I headed over to Cape May Point to join any other birders who might be hanging out there.  Well, due to all of the damage in Cape May and in West Cape May all access was blocked to the Point.  So I headed back towards home.  While on New England Avenue I passed a field that was flooded There were about 18 Yellow Legs along with 2 dozen Mallards in the area. 

When I got home I was surprised to find a Monarch Chrysalis hanging off the back steps.  It had to have been there before the hurricane came through so with all those winds we had it's amazing that it was still intact.