Cape May Fall Migration, Part 2

12/12/2021

Norther Flicker, yellow-shafted, over Higbee Beach during the sunrise bird count, October 15, 2021.

For Part 2, we are still in Cape May, New Jersey, this time catching the sunrise bird count at Higbee Beach, where there is a two story viewing platform and a raised berm between the beach and the inland understory. After a midday visit to the annual Audubon Festival, we tour the salt marsh in the afternoon.

[Full disclosure: We really toured the salt march on Thursday the 14th, and the morning watch on the 15th, but I have applied some "literary license" to keep a sunrise to sunset theme, and get the high points of the trip into 4 posts.]

Sunrise at Higbee Beach

The Higbee Wildlife Management area is on the western shore of the peninsula, just south of the ferry terminal. See the map to the right from Lightroom. The red box shows where the images shown here were captured. We parked at the northern edge of the area and walked down the road to the two story viewing platform, just east of the berm, shown in the lead photo above. On Friday morning the Audubon Festival was in full swing and the area was crowded with birders waiting for the sun to rise, as well as the diehard bird counters (above) who put in long days with clickers counting the species flying overhead.

Here are some of the many species we saw.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

The rising sun caught this Sharp-shinned Hawk cruising overhead at 7:13 am. For those of us from SE Arizona, the "Sharpie" is an unusual sighting, we see more Cooper's on the prowl. However, at Cape May, Sharp-shinned Hawks are very common.

The images above and below show some key characteristics of the Sharp-shinned that distinguish it from the Cooper's. The Sharp-shinned has a squared off tail, clearly evident here, where the tail of the Cooper's is rounded. Second, the Sharp-shinned will often fly with the leading edge of the wing at or in front of the head, a characteristic not seen during flight of the Cooper's Hawk.

This trip confirmed what every wildlife photographer knows, that the best images are captured in early morning or late afternoon light. The time window is narrow. It does not take long for the sun to get high in the sky. In addition, as every birder knows, activity is higher is the morning. In our case, night time migrants are scrambling for land as the sun rises, and looking for breakfast.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

This Yellow-billed Cuckoo was sitting on as branch waaaay in the distance in the understory, but I was able to catch a few good images. Here is the best.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo's are members of the family Cuculidae, the sole family in the order Cuculiformes. Among the cuckoo species, residents of SE Arizona are most familiar with the Roadrunner. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo breeds in the eastern U.S. and parts of Mexico and winters in South America. My guess is that this bird is migrating south. They have long slender tails with bold white spots, seen here, and are commonly perched in deciduous woodlands looking for caterpillars. We were lucky to spot this bird perched in the morning light at 8:15 am.

Common Yellow-throat

The Common Yellowthroat is one of our most abundant warblers, breeding throughout the U.S., living year round in the southeast U.S., and breeding in Mexico and Central America. Cape May is right at the edge of their year round territory, so this bird could be migrating, or a local catching all the fuss of the Audubon Festival and getting some breakfast to boot!

Northern Flicker, Yellow-shafted

Northern Flickers are large woodpeckers who spend most of their time on the ground eating ants and beetles. In the west we see the red-shafted subspecies, and in the east, the yellow shafted as shown in the portrait above.

It is hard to catch them in flight, but at 8:30 am I caught the bird below in flight, showing his feathers. You will see flashes of yellow, the color of the feather shaft, and a white rump. The red nape is characteristic of the male.

In this series of images we see a good example of intermittent flight an energy saving strategy. Small to medium sized birds will employ flap-bounding, consisting of active flapping to gain altitude followed by brief "bounds" when the wings are flexed against the body.

Mathematical models suggest that flap-bounding offers savings in energy expenditure during fast flight at maximum range speed or faster. The wings when flexed will maintain some lift. Flap-bounding becomes less efficient as the bird's body mass increases, hence we see it more commonly in small to medium sized birds. The alternative strategy is Flap-gliding which is more efficient at slow to intermediate speeds. (Reference: Lovett and Fitzpatrick, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology Handbook of Bird Biology, Third Edition, 2016, pp. 161-162).

This bird was in a hurry to get somewhere, and calling at the same time.

The yellow feather shafts and white rump are quite evident in this series.

The bird in the images that follow are likely a different Northern Flicker flying toward me, in the direction of the Delaware Bay, employing the Flap-bound strategy. The "bound" looks like he is riding a boogie board in the air!

For the photo geeks: October 14, 2021, 8:45 am. Canon R5 with RF 100-500 lens at 500 mm., f/7.1, 1/2000 second (faster would have been better), ISO 1000, shot at + 1 1/3 stops to the right (1 1/3 EV) to compensate for the bright milky sky.

Osprey

In the first post of this series, we saw an Osprey do battle with a Bald Eagle over a fish. The eagle got the fish, no big surprise. Here we see another Osprey carrying a fish in typical head first position, likely a preference to reduce drag in flight.

Ospreys are widespread throughout North America, breeding in the Pacific Northwest, sections of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana as well as sections of the east coast. Cape May is one of their prime breeding spots. They winter in the southern U.S. coastal areas, as well as coastal Mexico and Central America.

They are unique among North American raptors for their diet of live fish and the ability to dive into the water as far as 3 feet deep to catch them.

Swamp Sparrow

Swamp Sparrows breed in central and eastern Canada and winter in the U.S. south of the Middle Atlantic states and east of the Mississippi River. They have a year round presence in New Jersey, so our bird here could be a migrant or a local. They live in bogs, swamps, marshes, and wet brushy meadows, making Cape May an ideal habitat.

Note: most of the images above were captured from the top of the two story observation tower, which puts puts observers at the height of the upper understory, and provides a good view of the sky and horizon.

Audubon Festival

Our week in Cape May coincided with New Jersey Audubon's Cape May Fall Festival, October 14th-17th. This year the festival was back in person after a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic. We attended a talk on sparrow identification, and perused the exhibits, with the various vendors being back in force. Next year the festival will be October 13-16, 2022. More information will be available in summer of 2022.

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Salt Marsh Boat Tour

Our tour boat, The Skimmer. Photo from the Salt Marsh Safari website.

The afternoon of Thursday October 14th we boarded The Skimmer, a pontoon boat operated by Salt Marsh Safari. Along with a boatload of avid birders, we ventured out into the marshes just west of the shore of the Atlantic. Great trip, with great bird ID and narration!

Night Herons, Black and Yellow crowned

December 14, 2021: Correction. I initially thought that I had images for two Black-crowned Night Herons, an adult and an immature. However, Andy Jones, our guide and my major helper in ID for this post identifies the second bird as an immature Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, an unusual sighting in Cape May this late in the fall. I have corrected the post, and again thank Andy for his help.

The Black-crowned Night-Heron, shown above, is in the order Pelecaniformes, wading birds that include the herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills and pelicans. They are in the family Ardeidae along with the other herons and egrets. They are stocky, especially compared to other herons, and are most active at night or dusk to forage in wetlands. During the day they tend to perch, making good subjects for boat tours!

They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and breed in colonies. They are widespread throughout North and South America, breeding in the U.S. and central Canada. They eat almost everything a wetland provides including leeches, earthworks, insects, crayfish, clams, mussels, fish, lizards, snakes, turtles, rodents, birds and eggs. They will also eat carrion and plant material. This wide ranging diet helps to explain their extensive range. Almost anywhere they go they find food. Rather than stabbing their prey as other herons do, they grab their prey in their strong bills.

The birds shown above and below are adults. This could be a male or female; they have similar appearances.

The heron below is an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron. It is distinguished from the immature Black-crowned by the dark bill, finer spots on the wings, and long thin legs. This link from Cornell's All About Birds has a good side by side comparison to show the differences. This bird likely was born in the marsh and should be heading south soon to winter in southern Florida or the West Indies.

Double-crested Cormorant

Cormorants are diverse and widespread family of shorebirds, known for their ability to dive for fish propelling themselves forward with powerful webbed feet and grabbing fish with a hooked bill. Their feathers allow water to penetrate, likely due to a combination of the oil content and structural aspects of the feather. A wet cormorant needs to dry out the feathers before it can fly.

Here we see Double-crested Cormorants, characteristically brown-black, with a small patch of yellow-orange skin on the face. Immatures have paler breasts. In the second frame below we see how flexible their necks are, as a bird preens. Note that birds have a uropygial gland at the base of the tail that produces oil used for preening, likely the reason for this convoluted pose!

We will see more cormorants in the air in Post 4.

Forster's Tern

The Forster's Tern is a Shorebird (Charadriiformes) in the family Laridae along with gulls, skinners, and other terns. They winter on the southern coasts of the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, breed in Canada and sections of the NW U.S. They are the only medium-sized tern found in the U.S. mainland in winter. In non-breeding plumage they sport a distinctive black eye patch, as need above.

This tern really shows his stuff when flying above shallow waters of marshes and coastlines looking for fish. I have added (below) an inflight image from our trip to Avalon Beach (preview of Post 4!) on Sunday to show the striking wings and long forked tail.

Royal Tern

Here is a Royal Tern in non-breeding plumage, with a white forehead and a shock of black at the rear of the crest. The legs are black, the bill is orange, and if you look very closely, you will see that this bird has been banded.

Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron is a majestic bird with blue-gray plumage often seen in marshes or at the water's edge scanning for prey. They wade slowly and purposefully, but strike quickly to stab prey with their long bill. They live throughout North America and Mexico, breeding further north into the central U.S. and Canada.

In the image below we see a Great Blue in flight close to the marsh. They pull their necks back into an s-shape in flight.

Ruddy Turnstone

The Ruddy Turnstone is a stocky Shorebird in the family Scolopacidae, along with other sandpipers. They breed in the arctic tundra and winter in coastal North America including Mexico and Central America. We see the non-breeding adult above. The breeding adult is said to look like a calico cat. For better views of breeding plumage book your trip to the arctic now!

Black-bellied Plover

Black-bellied Plovers are Shorebirds in family Charadriidae. When breeding in the arctic tundra they sport a black belly, but in their winter grounds, coastal North and South America, the belly is white. Regardless of season they retain their black auxiliary feathers, the "armpits" that we see in the image below and in flight.

Nelson's Sparrow

The Nelson's Sparrow was one specific species we were hunting for on this day trip. The captain of the Skimmer made a couple of bow-first landings into the sand of the marsh to get us close to the grasses, and on one of our forays we spotted this bird clinging to the grasses deep in the marsh, and I got this photo.

Nelson's Sparrows breed in central Canada in marshes of the northern great plains, and winter the SE coast of the U.S. from Texas to Delaware, favoring salt marshes. This bird could be a migrant heading farther south, or may be staying for the winter. They spend most of their time on or near the ground in dense marsh vegetation, and are tough to spot.

The yellow color on the throat of this bird indicates it is an interior breeding bird. The coastal-breeding Atlantic form is more muted with pale gray on the upper back and gray on the throat.

Thanks to Andy Jones for the identification of this bird, and the crew of the Skimmer for putting us in the right place.

Seaside Sparrow

Here is another bird that likes to stay out of sight in the reeds. Seaside Sparrows are large and dark, with yellow highlights, including the yellow patch in front of the eye, which we can just see above and below. They breed in the coastal U.S. from Virginia to New England, and winter in marshes from the Carolinas to the Texas Coast.

I have added a photo, below, from our 2019 trip to the Texas coast. It shows better detail, with the bird as always clinging to grasses. For more, see Texas Coast Part V.

Seaside Sparrow, Galveston Island, April 2019. See Texas Coast Part V.

Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon is in the family Falconidae, the sole family in the order Falconiformes, along with caracaras. The Peregrine is considered the most widely distributed warm-blooded terrestrial vertebrate, living world wide throughout both hemispheres. They are the largest falcon over most of this continent with long pointed wings and a long tail. They breed in open landscapes with cliffs or on skyscrapers. They eat mostly birds, of an enormous variety, at least 450 North American Species, and an estimated 2,000 world wide.

This Peregrine has caught a White-throated Sparrow, ID thanks to Andy Jones, one of our two guides on this trip who made the ID from this photograph. Andy noted white patches in front of the sparrow's eye. Also note that this falcon is banded.

Sunset!

Another beautiful sunset at the end of a great day! This was taken at Sunset Beach, facing toward Delaware. As the sun gets low it is common to see the evening ferry to Delaware move right to left across the bay. We will learn more about the ferry and see birds on the Delaware side of the bay in Post 3.

Note the large chunk of cement on the horizon toward the middle of the frame. This is what remains of a cement-hulled cargo ship, SS Atlantis, initially built during WW I, but phased out due to weight. The ship was bought for a planned ferry terminal but in 1926 as it was being towed to Cape May, it ran aground in a storm, and has been there ever since. All that is left now is the deteriorating hull.

Stay tuned for Post 3, Fort Miles, Delaware and Henlopen State Park.

Happy trails!

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