Warbler Washout, or: I Hate Higbees

Shari & I spent the weekend in South Jersey, mostly in Cape May County birding various hot spots. We did pretty well, especially for shorebirds, but we'd gone there specifically to find warblers in migration which had been reported in great numbers the last few days. We found 3. Pine, Prairie and Common Yellowthroat. Since we left Saturday morning, we knew we'd be too late to find warblers so we planned to bird the coastal hot spots. At the Wetlands Institute on Stone Harbor Causeway we found a Solitary Sandpiper as well as Willets, Yellowlegs and Blackbellied Plovers. Nummy's Island had lots of blackbellies as well as Dunlin and our year's first Ruddy Turnstones. The State Park yielded the expected egrets and ibises as well as Piping Plover and Spotted Sandpiper. There was even a Pine Warbler in of all places, a pine tree. We did well at the Cape May Meadows: a VIRGINIA RAIL calling (life bird) along with Killdeer, American Oystercatchers, Sanderling, and 3 more Piping Plovers.  So we were fairly satisfied with the day's birding even after checking out The Beanery & Higbees Beach in the late afternoon and finding them extraordinarily quiet.

Higbees. I hate the place. This is blasphemy, I know. It is the Mecca inside of Mecca, a migrant trap, a place full of different habitats where all kinds of birds shows up, common & rare, and what we hear when we go there is "Yep, pretty slow today, not like yesterday. Yesterday was great. Yesterday the trees were dripping with birds. Yeah, pretty slow."

Now, it isn't that we haven't see interesting birds there. The last Yellow-breasted Chat I saw was in a tree in the first field, and Shari once found a Yellow-billed Cuckoo hidden in a tree along the road. Even yesterday we had a Bald Eagle flyover. But there weren't any warblers that we could find aside from a couple of Prairie and a few Yellowthroats. In fact, until we were ready to leave, we'd only heard the Yellowthroats--witchety witchety witch--& while that counts, it isn't nearly as satisfying. But, giving the place a last shot out by the beach, one popped up out of the reeds singing in full view. It made me inordinately happy to see it, not just because it's a handsome bird (Shari thinks, with its mask, that it looks like the Frito Bandito), but because I didn't have to break my neck looking high in the treetops for a little flitting bundle of yellow & gray.

Then today I look on eBird to see what was reported there yesterday and I see 45 species (to our 19) with 6 species of warbler to our 2. I don't think as birders we're that bad and I don't think we're just unlucky so it must be a timing issue (like getting there at dawn instead of 7:15 A.M.) but whatever it is, I hate the place. And will continue to bird it whenever I'm down there.

Most interesting birds of the weekend? The Snow Goose at Brigantine on the way home certainly has to qualify as the most of out season bird, and little sad too, if you want to anthropomorphize, since the rusty face indicates breeding plumage and it is alone. (Shari digiscoped a photo)

The Virginia Rail being a life bird has to be one of the interesting birds and I like finding the Solitary Sandpiper and seeing a huge flock of Whimbrels made us happy. Bald Eagles are always appreciated too.

Best looking birds? The Barn Swallows, bright blue on the back, brick red beneath, along with the yellowthroat and Dunlins and Black-bellied Plovers in breeding plumage.

Silliest looking birds? It is between the Whimbrels with their disproportionate decurved bills and the American Oystercatchers with their bright red beaks and black faces, but I have to give it to the oystercatchers, since they look silly and are colorful too.

The list for the weekend, 77 species:
Cape May, Cumberland, Atlantic Counties May 1 & 2, 2010

Location(s):   CMBO Northwood Center; Cape Island (Cape May Co. south of the Cape May canal); Cape Island--Cape May Migratory Bird Sanctuary (Meadows); Cape Island--Cape May Point SP (CMPSP); Cape Island--Higbees Beach SWA; Cape Island--New England Rd.; Cape Island--Sunset Beach/Concrete Ship; Cape Island--The Beanery (Rea Farm); E. B. Forsythe NWR--Wildlife Drive; Norbury's Landing; Nummy Island; Stone Harbor Causeway--Wetlands Institute; Thompson's Beach 

Snow Goose (!)

Brant

Canada Goose

Mute Swan

Gadwall

American Black Duck

Mallard

Green-winged Teal

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Tricolored Heron

Glossy Ibis

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Bald Eagle

Red-tailed Hawk

Peregrine Falcon

Clapper Rail

Virginia Rail

Black-bellied Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Piping Plover

Killdeer

American Oystercatcher

Spotted Sandpiper

Solitary Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Willet

Lesser Yellowlegs

Whimbrel

Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Dunlin

Short-billed Dowitcher

Laughing Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Forster's Tern

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Belted Kingfisher

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Fish Crow

Purple Martin

Tree Swallow

Northern Rough-wing Swallow

Barn Swallow

Carolina Chickadee

Carolina Wren

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Northern Mockingbird

Brown Thrasher

European Starling

Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Eastern Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Boat-tailed Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Baltimore Oriole

House Sparrow