Cape May County 11/2--White-winged Scoter, Northern Gannet

I thought I had a good idea today when I suggested we go down to the Avalon Seawatch on a day that was not bitterly cold, windy and gray. Looking at the eBird reports I saw that literally thousands of scoters were being recorded in the last few days. Granted, those counts are over a long day, but I thought we'd be able to see some good numbers of ducks. But I was wrong. There was very little action this morning and what action there was, well, it was going on too far away for these old eyes to identify. I guess when the weather is not lousy, the ducks are scarce. It is a commonplace that stormy weather brings in the birds. I suppose we'll try again on some sub-freezing day in January.

Despite being wrong, we still managed to get a couple of year birds today, plus we saw some birds that for us are out of the ordinary. Like the FOS Purple Sandpiper on the rocks at Avalon which was literally the first bird I saw today. Too far away to get any decent pictures. Also far away, but obvious in flight, were our FOY Northern Gannets. How we managed to not see gannets all year mystifies me. Shari was sure we had, but my records say "no."

Peering over the rocks I could see some ducks in the water but our angle of view was lousy, so we drove around the corner and walked on the jetty and there we were able to view a small mixed flock of hen White-winged Scoters and Black Scoters. I thought the Black Scoters were the new birds for the year but the FOY turned out to be the White-winged variety. Very small numbers in comparison to recent listings but, as I always say, you only need to see one.

As if I ever needed proof that I should never try going on a pelagic, I got motion sickness just looking at the rough ocean through the scope. Motion sickness standing motionless on dry land--pathetic.

We drove down to the Wetlands Institute to each our lunch on the picnic table and were happily surprised to find an immature White-crowned Sparrow. A couple of trees, one bare and one evergreen, were alive with Yellow-rumped Warblers and Shari pointed out, mixed in with them, a Palm Warbler, pumping its telltale tail.

With Avalon turning out to be a busy we were at a slight loss as to what to do next and decided that we were so close to Cape May we might as well go down there. I was pretty sure we'd find ducks there and we did, though they were ducks you'd expect find on ponds and marshes not the ocean. American Wigeons dominated the counts. There was a report of a Eurasian Wigeon on Lighthouse Pond but despite a thorough search of each and every wigeon on the pond we came up empty.

We had 41 species in Cape May County which is pretty shabby but I can think of the day as the Quality vs. Quantity kind.

Species                            Location

Canada Goose     Cape May Point SP

Mute Swan     Cape May Point SP

Gadwall     Cape May Point SP

American Wigeon     Cape May Point SP

Mallard     Cape May Point SP

Northern Shoveler     Cape May Point SP

Northern Pintail     Cape May Point SP

Green-winged Teal     Cape May Point SP

Lesser Scaup     Cape May Point SP

White-winged Scoter     Avalon--8th St. Jetty

Black Scoter     Avalon--8th St. Jetty

Ruddy Duck     Cape May Point SP

Pied-billed Grebe     Cape May Point SP

Northern Gannet     Avalon Seawatch

Double-crested Cormorant     Avalon Seawatch

Great Egret     Wetlands Institute

Snowy Egret     Wetlands Institute

Little Blue Heron     Wetlands Institute

Turkey Vulture     Wetlands Institute

Sharp-shinned Hawk     Cape May Point SP

American Coot     Cape May Point SP

Ruddy Turnstone     Avalon Seawatch

Sanderling     Avalon Seawatch

Purple Sandpiper     Avalon Seawatch

Ring-billed Gull     Cape May Point SP

Herring Gull     Avalon Seawatch

Great Black-backed Gull     Cape May Point SP

Mourning Dove     St. Mary's dune crossing

American Crow     Cape May Point SP

Tree Swallow     St. Mary's dune crossing

Carolina Chickadee     Cape May Point SP

Carolina Wren     Cape May Point SP

Gray Catbird     Cape May Point SP

Northern Mockingbird     Wetlands Institute

Palm Warbler     Wetlands Institute

Yellow-rumped Warbler     Wetlands Institute

Song Sparrow     Wetlands Institute

White-throated Sparrow     Wetlands Institute

White-crowned Sparrow     Wetlands Institute

Northern Cardinal     Cape May Point SP

House Sparrow     Wetlands Institute