Cape May Lighthouse in the State Park at sunset. 

Cape May, New Jersey 

18-21 October 2023

    A flock of mainly adult male Black Scoters in joined by one adult male Surf Scoter near the front of the queue.

My annual pilgrimage to Cape May took place in mid-October, a famous time for falcon migration at the Cape. I camped at the Depot Travel Park in West Cape May and visited many of the regular birding sites: Coral Avenue, the State Park and hawk watch platform, the TNC West Cape May Meadows, and the North Wildwood Breakwater. I was joined by David Wilcove and two of his Princeton grad students (Dan Liang and Fengyi Guo). In mornings we hung out with Michael O’Brien and Louise Zemaitis at the Coral Avenue platform overlooking the offshore “rips” which are good for waterbirds. And we bumped into friends from years past (naturalist Mark Garland, the ever-ebullient Amy Donovan and hubbie Tom O-Toole with Ruby their Tibetan Mastiff, among others). 

    Male Downy Woodpecker drills on a plant stem to draw out tiny insect prey.

Although weather.com had initially promised luscious northwest winds, when the time came, the weather forecasts degraded and our three days were punctuated by rain and poor wind direction. We saw very few falcons (not one American Kestrel!). Still, Cape May in October is fun even when the weather does not cooperate. We lowered our expectations and focused on enjoying what birds we could find in numbers: kinglets of both species, Myrtle Warblers, scoters, and Tree Swallows. I logged 85 species for the visit, which is not bad, considering the poor weather conditions. Highlights were Eared Grebe (at the Bunker Pond), Dickcissel, Bobolink, American Pipit (all three songbirds high overhead and calling), and Parasitic Jaeger (chasing terns in the Rips). A cuisine highlight was an early dinner visit to Cape May Pho and Boba Tea, at Cape May Courthouse where we dined on delicious variations of pho as well as other southeast Asian tasty delights. And we did lots of walking out in Nature, which is never a bad thing.

What follows are a few images that capture some of the visit’s natural pleasures… each image is captioned.   

    Look closely and you can see a few flecks of red atop the head, telling us this is a male Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

    The beauty of backlit Phragmites americana (?) in the West Cape May Meadows of the TNC reserve.

    Some red in the yellow crown of this Golden-crowned Kinglet tells us this is a male.

    Note the distinctive face pattern of this Lesser Black-backed Gull--a winter adult.

    Royal Terns flock along the beach.

  Otherwise ho-hum Canada Geese are picturesque when backlit (creating the "art shot"). 

 

    This banded Northern Mockingbird at the HawkWatch Platform has plenty of fruit in this adjacent bush.

    This flock of Black Scoters seems to be led by a female scaup.

    A threesome of Mute Swans, sounnding like jets going over. Big, heavy, and noisy in flight!

    This flock of Tree Swallows resting on the beach was perhaps 5,000 or more... The sighting of the weekend! 

    A decade ago this flock of White Ibis would have drawn shouts of excitement. Now this expanding species nests in NJ.

     Autumn colors in this sumac.

    At the very end of the day I came upon this Sharp-shinned Hawk on the lawn of the State Park when dusk was upon us.

    Another Sharpie at Coral Avenue--a young bird.

    An autumn-plumaged Myrtle Warbler, which we saw by the hundreds.

    A winter-plumaged Sanderling at the North Wildlife breakwater. No Purple Sandpipers yet! 

                                                         Amazing video of the great flock of Tree Swallows!