September Summary--The One That Got Away

Despite 136 species for the month (last one was today, an immature Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on a backyard tree); despite two great trips each to Brigantine and Cape May; despite the highly unlikely appearance of a Crested Caracara in Mercer County; despite seeing a slew of warblers and vireos, it was a frustrating month of birding due to one bird--our official nemesis bird, the Elegant Tern. Four (count 'em, four) death marches we made through miles of sand to the tip of Sandy Hook, trying to get this life bird and all for naught.

It seemed like each time we had a variation on, "Ooh, you just missed it!" The last time we ventured out there with a large group we saw a couple standing on the other side of the inlet, searching, we assumed, for the same elusive tern we were. Returning home that day, I read a post on Jerseybirds that the Elegant Tern had been spotted at exactly the same time as we were there, by those two birders, who had a different angle on the large flock of Common Terns in which it was "hiding." No consolation that the poster said it was easily absorbed into the flock and was difficult to find, nor that he only saw the bird for about 10 seconds. It was there and we didn't find it.

Piping Plovers, Sandy Hook
Photo: Shari Zirlin

On the positive side, each time this month I went out I felt like I was learning something new about identification by sight, sound, or behavior and that's a satisfying feeling. October tomorrow; I'm up for the challenge.

11 FOY for the month.
Counties Birded
New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean
New York: New York

Species	First Sighting
Canada Goose	Brigantine
Mute Swan	Brigantine
Wood Duck	Brigantine
Gadwall	Brigantine
American Wigeon	Cape May Hawkwatch
American Black Duck	Brigantine
Mallard	Brigantine
Blue-winged Teal	Brigantine
Northern Shoveler	Brigantine
Northern Pintail	Brigantine
Green-winged Teal	Brigantine
Ruddy Duck	Brigantine
Wild Turkey	35 Sunset Rd
Pied-billed Grebe	Cape May Hawkwatch
Double-crested Cormorant	Brigantine
Brown Pelican	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Great Blue Heron	Brigantine
Great Egret	Brigantine
Snowy Egret	Brigantine
Little Blue Heron	Wetlands Institute
Tricolored Heron	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Green Heron	Eno’s Pond
Black-crowned Night-Heron	Brigantine
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	Brigantine
Glossy Ibis	Brigantine
Black Vulture	Cape May Hawkwatch
Turkey Vulture	White's Bogs
Osprey	Brigantine
Northern Harrier	Brigantine
Sharp-shinned Hawk	35 Sunset Rd
Cooper's Hawk	White's Bogs
Bald Eagle	Cape May Point SP
Red-shouldered Hawk	Cape May Hawkwatch
Red-tailed Hawk	Sandy Hook
Clapper Rail	Brigantine
Sora	Brigantine
Common Gallinule	Brigantine
Black-bellied Plover	Brigantine
Semipalmated Plover	Brigantine
Piping Plover	Sandy Hook
Killdeer	Cape May Point SP
American Oystercatcher	Brigantine
Spotted Sandpiper	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Solitary Sandpiper	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Greater Yellowlegs	Brigantine
Willet	Brigantine
Lesser Yellowlegs	Brigantine
Ruddy Turnstone	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Sanderling	Sandy Hook
Semipalmated Sandpiper	Brigantine
Western Sandpiper	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Least Sandpiper	Brigantine
Pectoral Sandpiper	Cape May Meadows
Dunlin	Brigantine
Buff-breasted Sandpiper	Sandy Hook
Short-billed Dowitcher	Brigantine
Laughing Gull	Brigantine
Ring-billed Gull	Brigantine
Herring Gull	Brigantine
Great Black-backed Gull	Brigantine
Caspian Tern	Brigantine
Black Tern	Sandy Hook
Common Tern	Sandy Hook
Forster's Tern	Brigantine
Royal Tern	Brigantine
Black Skimmer	Brigantine
Rock Pigeon	Central Park
Mourning Dove	Brigantine
Common Nighthawk	35 Sunset Rd
Eastern Whip-poor-will	35 Sunset Rd
Chimney Swift	Sandy Hook
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	35 Sunset Rd
Belted Kingfisher	Eno’s Pond
Red-bellied Woodpecker	35 Sunset Rd
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker	35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker	Cattus Island County Park
Hairy Woodpecker	Brigantine
Northern Flicker	Brigantine
Crested Caracara	Village Road East Sod Farm
American Kestrel	Cape May Hawkwatch
Merlin	Central Park
Peregrine Falcon	Brigantine
Eastern Wood-Pewee	Central Park
Eastern Phoebe	White's Bogs
Great Crested Flycatcher	Central Park
Eastern Kingbird	Brigantine
Philadelphia Vireo	Central Park
Red-eyed Vireo	Brigantine
Blue Jay	Brigantine
American Crow	Brigantine
Fish Crow	Brigantine
Tree Swallow	Brigantine
Barn Swallow	Brigantine
Cliff Swallow	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Carolina Chickadee	Brigantine
Tufted Titmouse	Cattus Island County Park
Red-breasted Nuthatch	Cape May Point SP
White-breasted Nuthatch	White's Bogs
House Wren	Brigantine
Marsh Wren	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Carolina Wren	Brigantine
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	Brigantine
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	Cape May Point SP
Eastern Bluebird	Whiting WMA
Veery	Central Park
American Robin	Brigantine
Gray Catbird	Brigantine
Northern Mockingbird	Central Park
Brown Thrasher	Central Park
European Starling	Brigantine
Cedar Waxwing	Sandy Hook
Northern Waterthrush	Cape May Point SP
Black-and-white Warbler	Cape May Point SP
Nashville Warbler	Cape May Point SP
Common Yellowthroat	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
American Redstart	Central Park
Blackburnian Warbler	Cape May Point SP
Yellow Warbler	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Chestnut-sided Warbler	Cape May Point SP
Black-throated Blue Warbler	Cape May Point SP
Palm Warbler	Cape May Point SP
Pine Warbler	Double Trouble State Park
Canada Warbler	Central Park
Yellow-breasted Chat	Central Park
Eastern Towhee	35 Sunset Rd
Chipping Sparrow	Brigantine
Savannah Sparrow	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Saltmarsh Sparrow	Sandy Hook
Song Sparrow	Cattus Island County Park
Northern Cardinal	Brigantine
Red-winged Blackbird	Brigantine
Common Grackle	35 Sunset Rd
Boat-tailed Grackle	Great Bay Bvld. WMA
House Finch	Cattus Island County Park
American Goldfinch	Brigantine
House Sparrow	Central Park

Geology on the 6 O'clock News

During a report on the construction of new housing on Harlem's Coogan's Bluff (site of the storied Polo Grounds), the reporter, referring to difficulties the developer was encountering, said that it wasn't easy digging "the decades old bedrock." Yes, about five hundred million decades.

This reminded me of the time when Clinton Street, in Brooklyn, was being dug up to put in new water lines and the road crew extracted from the ground a gigantic boulder that was in the way. They left it on our corner. Marveling at the size of it and intrigued that it had been hidden only a few feet below ground, one of my neighbors said that it was amazing that it had been there since "before the Revolutionary War." Yes, way before.

Cape May 9/16--Warbler Mania: Nashville, Blackburnian, Chestnut-sided, & Black-throated Blue Warblers

Yesterday, during our ill-fated attempt at the Elegant Tern, someone mentioned that the northwest winds boded well for raptors down at the Cape May Hawkwatch, so we decided to go down there this morning. Naturally, the winds shifted to the east and there was a dearth of raptors (though we did see a few--it's Cape May after all).

However, warblers were abundant in the state park. We walked along the trails for a bit and immediately found (with a little help) Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler (female), Chestnut-sided Warbler (immature), and American Redstart (female). 3 FOY in the first 10 minutes (not to mention a Killdeer in the parking lot) was good enough for me, but better still was when we drifted over to the East Shelter next to the Hawkwatch. We sat on the ground in front of a small stand of cedars and just let the birdies come to us: Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-White Warblers, Common Yellowthroat, Black-throated Blue Warblers, and Palm Warblers, along with the birds in the "not a warbler category" like Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. It was amazing what turned up in just a tiny area.

Up on the Hawkwatch things were slow, though in the 15 or 20 minutes we were there we did see Cooper's Hawk, American Kestrel and a couple of Bald Eagles. Not much else turned up at our next 2 stops, the CMBO Northwoods Center and the Beanery. A walk around the Cape May Meadows produced a flock of Black Skimmers, always amusing to watch, a few Green-winged Teal and a couple of species of peeps.

On the way home we turned off the Parkway at Shellbay Avenue and drove down to the pier. There we found a lot of Shari's favorite, American Oystercatchers, a profusion of egrets & Black-bellied Plovers, a few Royal Terns and 1 Caspian Tern plunging into the still waters of the bay to grab a fish. I also watched a Herring Gull try to swallow an eel. It would get the eel about halfway down and then the eel would slither back up out of its gullet. The gull would tilt its back as far as it good to try to force the eel to slide down but the eel was in "I don't think so" mode. This little fandango was repeated 3 or 4 times before I lost interest in who would eat or be eaten.

In all we had 56 species for the day:

Species          Count     First Sighting

Canada Goose     6     Cape May Point SP

Mute Swan     10     Cape May Point SP

Gadwall     10    Cape May Hawkwatch

Mallard     5    Cape May Hawkwatch

Northern Shoveler     7     Cape May Point SP

Green-winged Teal     3    Cape May Meadows

Double-crested Cormorant     3     Cape May Point SP

Great Blue Heron     1    Cape May Meadows

Great Egret     1    Cape May Hawkwatch

Snowy Egret     1    Cape May Meadows

Turkey Vulture     4     Cape May Point SP

Osprey     2     Cape May Point SP

Sharp-shinned Hawk     2     Cape May Point SP

Cooper's Hawk     1    Cape May Hawkwatch

Bald Eagle     3     Cape May Point SP

Black-bellied Plover     60     Shell Bay Landing

Killdeer     1     Cape May Point SP

American Oystercatcher     17     Shell Bay Landing

Semipalmated Sandpiper     1    Cape May Meadows

Least Sandpiper     8    Cape May Meadows

Laughing Gull          Cape May Point SP

Ring-billed Gull     2    Cape May Meadows

Herring Gull          Cape May Point SP

Great Black-backed Gull     2     Shell Bay Landing

Caspian Tern     1     Shell Bay Landing

Forster's Tern     10    Cape May Hawkwatch

Royal Tern     3     Shell Bay Landing

Black Skimmer     25    Cape May Meadows

Mourning Dove     2    CMBO Northwood Center

Red-bellied Woodpecker     1    The Beanery

American Kestrel     1    Cape May Hawkwatch

Red-eyed Vireo     1     Cape May Point SP

Blue Jay     1     Cape May Point SP

American Crow     1     Cape May Point SP

Fish Crow     1     Cape May Point SP

Carolina Chickadee     2     Cape May Point SP

Red-breasted Nuthatch     1     Cape May Point SP

Carolina Wren     3     Cape May Point SP

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     1     Cape May Point SP

Ruby-crowned Kinglet     2     Cape May Point SP

Gray Catbird     3     Cape May Point SP

Northern Mockingbird     4     Cape May Point SP

European Starling     3    Cape May Meadows

Northern Waterthrush     1     Cape May Point SP

Black-and-white Warbler     2     Cape May Point SP

Nashville Warbler     1     Cape May Point SP

Common Yellowthroat     1     Cape May Point SP

American Redstart     5     Cape May Point SP

Blackburnian Warbler     1     Cape May Point SP

Yellow Warbler     1     Cape May Point SP

Chestnut-sided Warbler     2     Cape May Point SP

Black-throated Blue Warbler     3     Cape May Point SP

Palm Warbler     4     Cape May Point SP

Northern Cardinal     1    CMBO Northwood Center

Common Grackle     4    CMBO Northwood Center

House Sparrow     5    CMBO Northwood Center