I think we may be caught up with this post - finally! On 9/30, Dave and I hopped a plane to Philly. From there, we rented a car and headed to Cape May NJ to see birds. Or boids. Haha.
We had four days to watch the fall migration. I'd been to Cape May about 14 years before during the Spring. Well, turns out it wasn't quite Spring, but more like Winter. I think I saw only three Canada Goose on that trip. There may have been more birds, but it was too darn cold to get out of the car!
Dave hadn't been to Cape May but had read a lot about it regarding bird photography. We stayed at a fun B&B called the Mooring. It was centrally located, quiet and everything one would want in a B&B.
Our first day in Cape May offered some scrappy weather. We still hit all the birding hotspots though we spent most of the time at the Observatory chatting, chasing warblers and oogling new binoculars.
Dave kept tempting me to look through some really nice binos. I resisted for a while. Then I looked. Big mistake. I'm happy to say that my new binoculars are amazing. Following a trend for the year, they cost more than my first car!
The second day brought beautiful and perfect weather. We saw a ton of warblers and other birds. (Full list below). And most of them were at eye level and could be watched without binos! Very cool stuff.
We took advantage of many of the seminars available regarding birds. During one of the we got to see a juvenile Red-Tail Hawk up close (he'd just been banded).
We were really lucky to have this awesome day of birding because the next two were marked by a lot of wind, rain and cold. We saw a few more birds here and there, but not many. Again the observatory was the best bet, but it was nothing like the previous day.
I thought I'd ID the birds shown here. Starting at the top: 1) Cape May Warbler; 2)Black & White Warbler; 3) Black & White Warbler; 4) Bobolink; 5) Monarch Butterfly (it's their migration too - they were everywhere!); 6)Red-Tailed Hawk; 7)Black-Throated Blue Warbler; 8)Black-Throated Blue Warbler; 9) Northern Mockingbird; 10)Northern Parula; 11) Bird watchers on the Hawk Watch platform; 12)A shy Flycather; 13) Northern Parula; 14) Blackburnian Warbler; 15) Cape May Warbler; 16) Catbird.
Full list of birds seen:
European Starling
Mourning Dove
Crow
Blue Jay
Black Backed Gull
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Rock Dove
Mallards
Black caped Chickadee
House Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Northern Parula
Crested Cormorant
Northern Shoveler
Killdeer
Trumpeter Swan
Great Egret
Wigeon
Osprey
Snowy Egret
Downy Woodpecker
Peregrine Falcon
Yellow Shafted No. Flicker
Merlin
No. Mockingbird
Pintail
Blue Wined Teal
Many Peeps
Catbird
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Yellow Rumped Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Common Yellow Throat
White throated Sparrow
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Palm Warbler
Tree Swallow
Caroline Wren
Black Vulture
Black Throated Blue Warbler
Brown Creeper
Coopers Hawk
Red Tail Hawk
American Redstart
Blackburnian Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Red Breasted Sapsucker
Belted Kingfisher
Brown Thrasher
American Goldfinch
Sharp Shinned Hawk
Harrier
Great Blue Heron
Kestrel
Bald Eagle
Magnolia Warbler
Black Poll Warbler
Tufted Titmouse
Bobolink
Common Grackle
American Oyster Catcher
Eastern Phebe
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
1 comment:
Hi I am very impressed with your photos of the different birds. I have a question and not sure if this is possible, however the last picture which is a beautiful light blue bird, would I be able to use this image for my business website? If not I totally understand as you own the image, however I thought it would not hurt to ask. Thank you. Annie
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