Hawk Mountain and Cape May in the Fall

Here we go. Our Summer, er, Fall Vacation. So's not to
completely bore you, I won't mention ALL the birds we saw, just
the neat ones. I'm sure you don't want to hear about all the
times we saw Blue Jays and House Sparrows. I will post this trip one or two days at a time. We'll build the excitement to a fever pitch. Will Kate and Jim get that Connecticut Warbler???

Day 1, Saturday

After a couple of wrong turns from Philadelphia, we arrived in
Kempton, PA. On our way up, we noticed that this area of
Pennsylvania was having a serious Bag Worm problem. Many of the
trees were just denuded of leaves. In fact, a couple of them
were so webbed up, it made me think of the nest in "Alien2"

Our first trip bird was a Rock Dove that Kate spotted at the
airport while our plane was taxiing to the gate. She was anxious
to get started but it made me wonder. How many other trip lists
start with Rock Doves? And, how big of a list could you amass,
with just the trash, abundant, can't miss birds that exist within
a 10 minute drive of the airports of the world? I'll have to do
a study of this whenever I find myself with plenty of time on my
hands and unlimited access to airline tickets.

We stayed at the Hawk Mountain Inn (610-756-4224). Just take the
road the that runs up to the sanctuary entrance for 8.5 miles
east and you're there. It's a pretty nice place, a B&B with a
very good gourmet restaurant.

We went to bed looking forward to the next day. The weather
appeared to be cooperating with the cold front moving through
during the evening and clear skies promised for tomorrow.

Day 2, Sunday

Per advice from Carolyn, we arrived at Hawk Mountain very early.
In fact, we were the third car to park at the entrance to the
trail. We began our hike up at about 6:45am

The trail was not a difficult climb, certainly not what I was
expecting. Although I'm glad we wore hiking boots as opposed to
just sneakers. We arrived and found Carolyn, the counter and
only two other people at the North Lookout.

The view was breathtaking. The sun had just risen and the mist
was coming up from the valleys. While the patchwork of the
fields and woods means forest fragmentation, it sure does make a
beautiful scene. Soon the hawks started rising.

It seems like most of the BROADWING HAWKS came by between 7:30am
and 9:30am. It was pretty spectacular. I figured we were having
a good day when the counter joked about there being too many
birds and how much he hoped his assistant would appear pretty
soon. You would see a constant flow of birds rising from the
trees, forming kettles and streaming past us. For the day, there
were something like 700 to 800 Broadwings. Very cool.

By late morning, the birds got pretty high and we only had the
occasional glimpse of a kettle very high up. It was a beautiful,
blue sky day.

As the broadwings were going by, we also had a respectable
showing by KESTRALS, SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, NORTHERN HARRIERS,
OSPREYS and COOPER'S HAWKS. A MERLIN flew by very fast. And
Kate got a RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD as it speeded by.

We also saw two adult BALD EAGLES.   In both cases, they appeared
when things had gotten very slow and needed perking up. And
since they were identified from pretty far off, they provided
nice, long, exciting looks.

A group of college students appeared about 9am. They were
obviously there with their teacher who was dragging them up to
see hawks. They were joking around and obviously there under
duress, until the first of the Bald Eagles showed up.

Spending the day watching hawks is kind of like watching the
Indianapolis 500. Several exciting moments interspersed among
lots of sitting around waiting for something to happen.

Some hints for those of you who have not been there:

-No matter what spot you'll choose, you'll probably not like it
after a while.

-Sit as close to the counter's position as you can. You'll know
what you're looking at. Plus some of the other regulars wind up
there.

-Be early. The hawks can rise early and you want to beat the
crowds.

-Bring something soft to sit on; the rocks are of an unusual
type, the hard kind. They have not installed padded, theatre
style seating yet <<GG>>. This is something that the Cape May
Hawk Watch has over Hawk Mountain. More comfortable seating -
with backs.<<GG>>

That evening we topped off an excellent day with a fine dinner
with Carolyn. We got all the inside poop on life as a CIS
Section Leader <>GG>>

Day 3, Monday

As Kate was getting ready, she was calling out birds that she was
hearing from the window (one of the first was, of course, BLUE
JAY).

Today, was an unexpected luxury. We had planned to use today as
our second day on HM, but since yesterday was so spectacular, we
decided to take a more leisurely drive to Cape May and enjoy the
beautiful New Jersey scenery. Since we had the leisure time, we
had a chance to eat the breakfast (it was, after all, a Bed and
Breakfast). B&B Pop Tarts are the best!

Speaking of being a tourist in the Garden State, when our non-birding friends would ask where we were going on vacation, we
would tell them "New Jersey". They would then smile and say "Oh,
do you have family there?" And we would say "Nope, just a
vacation." Then they looked very confused. And they would start
looking for escape routes when we told them we were birders.

We arrived at Cape May early enough to drive around and scope out
the locations of such holy sites as Higbee Beach, Cape May Bird
Observatory, 2nd Avenue Jetty, the Hawk Watch, the Beanery and
the Meadows. I was surprised at how close everything is. You
can probably get from one point to the other in less than 5 or 10
minutes. We were also surprised by the city of Cape May. I had
this impression of a sleepy little resort town with a nice beach,
a few motels, inns and a couple of restaurants. I was mistaken.
Luckily, the birding season doesn't match the tourist season or I
would have had a very testy mate on my hands. Kate's vacation
happiness index is inversely proportional to a complex
calculation involving miniature golf courses, T-shirt vendors,
arcades and fudge shops. Luckily, I didn't go for lodging in the
Wildwoods. That is truly a scary place. I'd be in the process
of a messy divorce right now ("I get the scope - OK but how do we
split up the tripod?")

Our accommodations were at the Periwinkle Inn (609-884-9200)
which turned out to be a very nice place. As we were checking
in, we saw a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT in the bushes. We hoped it was
a good omen.

One nice thing about the town was the promenade (basically a
blacktop boardwalk). This stretched almost the entire length of
the town and was a very nice, relaxing place to walk, people
watch and buy fudge. In fact, on our first day there, we picked
up all the gull species I expected to get, just by walking all
the way from our motel (at the east end of the boardwalk) to the
2nd Ave. Jetty (at the west end): HERRING GULL, RING-BILLED
GULL, LAUGHING GULL, GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL, ROYAL TERN, COMMON
TERN and FORSTER'S TERN, We also saw a small flock of RUDDY
TURNSTONE's running around on one of the jetties.

Day 4, Tuesday

We started off with a Cape May Bird Observatory bird walk led by
Pete Dunne at the Nature Conservancy Meadows. He did a great job.
We saw 46 species including EASTERN KINGBIRD, BLACK-CROWNED
NIGHT-HERON, BELTED KINGFISHER, PALM WARBLER, billions of TREE
SWALLOWS that were not very happy about the PEREGRINE FALCON,
RED-EYED VIREO (interesting how they come down and feed in the
lower vegetation during migration), EASTERN PHOEBE, NORTHERN
FLICKER, GLOSSY IBIS, GREEN-WINGED TEAL, MUTE SWAN (I was
surprised at the large number of these monsters), CAROLINA WREN
(lots of these around...don't get them very often in the Chicago
area), MERLIN, AMERICAN WIGEON, SNOWY EGRET (another bird that is
common in NJ that we just don't get often in Chicago), PIED-BILLED GREBE, WOOD DUCK, COMMON SNIPE, GREEN-BACKED HERON, and
GREATER YELLOWLEGS.   At one point, a couple of the Mute Swans
took off and flew within 10 feet of us. The wings made a very
intimidating sound.

As a bit of avian news, Pete Dunne is again the CMBO Director.

By previous arrangement, we met up with Jim Bangma here and went
on to Higbee's Beach. Bless his heart (said with a twang), Jim
was gonna get us a Connecticut Warbler and a Blue Grosbeak.
Unfortunately, it had gotten on to mid-morning and the birds were
not very cooperative. We got neither of our target birds, but, in
stomping around the hedges, we did pick up a NORTHERN CARDINAL,
WHITE-EYED VIREO (heard, mostly), SOLITARY SANDPIPER, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO (spotted by my beloved wife...she has been a
champion at spotting cuckoo's the last few weeks), BOBOLINK,
BROWN THRASHER and (drum roll) a male __WESTERN TANAGER!!!__
This was Jim Bangma's state bird.

As we were walking through one field, I was scanning the tree
tops, as I am wont to do. I spotted this bird sitting there and
put the old Zeiss's on him and got just a glimpse of reddish
head, yellow/green body and bold yellow wingbars. I called out
what I could see while Jim and Kate looked to see it. However,
almost immediately, the bird flew off with Jim being able to
"get" it, but not Kate. Jim looked at me and said "Do you know
what that was? I wasn't expecting to see this bird in New Jersey
and just muttered something about it seeming like a tanager. Jim
quizzed me again on what I saw and we came to the conclusion that
it was a Western Tanager. Meanwhile, poor Kate is looking around
saying, "Where did it go?, this way?" I feel really bad when I
get a lifer that Kate misses. In fact, I am usually under
specific instructions to not see anything good when I bird
without her. But Jim assured us that we should see Western
Tanagers on our trip to the Rockies next year, so Kate felt just
a tad better.

She made up for not seeing the tanager by picking up a life
insect - a PRAYING MANTIS - I didn't realize they were so BIG.
Particularly chilling was the way it looked first at Kate while
it was clinging to its perch, then slowly turned its head and
looked at me. As if to say "Ok, you've had your look, now would
you move on...I'm waiting for lunch."

After discussing the other birds on our target list, Jim
suggested Kate and I drive up to Stone Harbor, the Wetlands
Institute and Nummy's Island. We did not see anything in the
marshes on the road to the Wetlands Institute but we did have a
good visit there with YELLOW WARBLER, MAGNOLIA WARBLER, LITTLE
BLUE HERON, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, SONG SPARROW and BOAT-TAILED
GRACKLE being additions to our trip list.

In addition, we got to see both a COMMON TERN and a FORSTER'S
TERN sitting next to each other on the platform. We watched the
Common Tern fishing. He would perch on the railing, start
adjusting himself for a quick take off, hurl himself into the
water and come out with a fish. He would then fly up into the
air, flip the fish into his mouth in mid air, then return to same
position and try again.

We also picked up a life crustacean, FIDDLER CRABS that were
crawling around in the mud. As we approached where they were
feeding, they appeared to feel the vibration of our footsteps and
scampered back to their holes.

After enjoying the Wetlands Institute, we drove down toward
Nummy's Island and stopped just before the entrance to the first
bridge south of Stone Harbor. From there we added BLACK-BELLIED
PLOVER, AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER, RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD and a flock
of about 100 or so __BLACK SKIMMERS__, another lifer and target
bird. We got excellent looks, they were about 200 feet away.
And they were doing their skimmer thing too. I just love to see
the birds act the way they are supposed to.

At the end of the day, we stopped at the far east end of Cape May
and saw a BROWN PELICAN.

After dinner, we enjoyed a cloudless night and a full moon and
walked along the boardwalk, in search of dessert. I wound up
with a yogurt cone that tasted kind of ... unusual.

Day 5, Wednesday

Well, let's see. What can I say about today. Let me just
recommend to anyone planning on sampling the yogurt cones along
the boardwalk in Cape May...be very careful...if you catch my
drift.

The bright side, though, we slept in today. We don't get to do
that very much on one of these birding trips. We had _planned_
on taking the ferry over to Lewes, DE and we had _planned_ on
visiting Bombay Hook NWR, but, instead, Kate sat around waiting
for me to feel up to lifting my head off the pillow.

In the afternoon, we _did_ go over to the Hawkwatch, however.
Nice, easy, not too strenuous birding. The hawk flight was not
too bad. There were enough KESTRALS, SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS,
MERLINS, PEREGRINES and HARRIERS to keep it interesting. Also,
we got one lifer...a EURASIAN WIGEON. The hotline had reported
that one in eclipse plumage was hanging around in Bunker Pond in
front of the Hawkwatch platform.   When we got there, we asked
about it. One of the regulars said that they had seen it
earlier, but that it was in a bay not visible from the platform.
About this time, a Peregrine flew over and flushed about 20
wigeons. Someone spotted the EW but we were not able to get it.

After sitting on the platform for a while, we decided to walk
along the path and see if we could get a view of the bird. We
didn't have to go to far when Kate called out that she had the
Eurasian Wigeon. We could see the reddish head very clearly
through the scope, a very satisfying look. We looked back and
saw all eyes on the platform focused on the wigeon as well.
Evidently, he had moved into view as we were walking down the
path.

That evening, we went to the members' night at CMBO and saw a
presentation on the MONARCH BUTTERFLY migration. It was not
deeply technical but I learned a few things: Monarchs do not
overwinter here, in any form. They migrate south to Mexico, then
leap-frog migrate in the spring back north. Monarchs do not have
a problem migrating over water; apparently, they use the wind to
their advantage. CMBO not only does a Monarch count in Cape May,
but they send someone out on the ferry a couple of times a week
to count Monarchs seen over water. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks
for one Monarch to make it from New Jersey to the wintering
grounds in Mexico. It just amazes me that such fragile little
critters can make that trip.

Tomorrow - Brigantine with Jim Bangma (the sparrow god).

Day 6, Thursday

We met Jim Bangma at Brigantine NWR. It was very drizzly and
did not show much promise.   After checking out the "book of
lies" (as Bangma calls it), we headed out on the roads and
basically drove at walking speed down the dikes.

The weather was crummy, drizzly and rainy. We could only have
the windows down on the passenger side, my side was facing into
the wind and I gave my binoculars a bath whenever I opened my
window.

Periodically, we would stop and scan the marsh, looking for
Whimbrel heads but seeing nothing. At one point, in a hedge
about 75 feet from the road, we saw some interesting, but hard to
id, sparrows and Kate had a fleeting look at what Jim said was a
Clapper Rail. We also had about 10 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERONS in
the same hedge.

At one point, I asked Jim if we should be seeing CATTLE
EGRETS...we had not seen any on the trip. As if on cue, one of
them appeared in the road ahead of us with a mouse (or some other
small rodent) in its bill. It struggled with the furry beast for
a minute or two, then managed to get it down. We were able to
trace the mouse's progress down its throat. Then, of course,
CE's became trash birds.

Periodically, Jim would have me stop the car and he would spot a
sparrow across the water. But Kate and I were not able to get
anything. Suddenly, a sparrow popped up in the grass right next
to the car...a very bedraggled SHARP-TAILED SPARROW. We followed
him along the dike for a few minutes when another one popped up
and sat on top of the brush for a while...a beautiful DRY sharp-tailed sparrow. He was very cooperative and we got lifer quality
looks at him. As we continued, we kept having sharp-tails pop up
out of the grass. They became trash birds, I hate to say. Then,
a much darker bird hopped up, with a bit of yellow before his
eye, definitely not a sharp-tailed...a SEASIDE SPARROW!. Another
very cooperative bird. First of all, he stayed up for a _long_
time and was only 15 ft from the car...secondly, he was a
terrific specimen. We got excellent looks. At this point, Kate
and I knew we were in the presence of the _sparrow god_. We were
prepared to bow down in adoration, but Jim graciously insisted
that we not make a fuss. <<GG>>

In our scanning of the salt marshes, we also came up with SNOW
GEESE and TRICOLORED HERONS. More trip birds. As we scanned the
mudflats (through the rain spots on my 'nocs) we added PECTORAL
SANDPIPER, LEAST SANDPIPER, WILLET, DUNLIN, STILT SANDPIPER,
SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER, LESSER YELLOWLEGS,
LESSER GOLDEN-PLOVER, SEMIPALMATED PLOVER and AMERICAN BLACK DUCK
to our trip list.   Credit due to Jim Bangma, that list would be
much shorter if we had not had someone to help us out,
particularly the Willet...ahem. We also had several SAVANNAH
SPARROWS hopping around on the road in front of us.

Brigantine was partially under contruction so we were not able to
see some of the other areas that Jim thought might have been
productive, particularly for White-rumped Sandpipers. And the
Barn Owl box was also inaccessible. Nevertheless, it was a
spectacular day, with 41 species...not bad for a day of birding
in very yucky weather.

Which leads to a poser to the reading public. As we watched
these very cooperative sparrows, we wondered if the reason that
they were up and very cooperative is that the undergrowth was so
wet because of the rain. Is it possible that where they normally
skulk around in was so wet that they stayed up higher simply
because it was drier, even though it was precipitating? If so,
Kate and I may have to go birding in the rain more often.

After having lunch with Jim, we headed back to Cape May. The
weather was getting progressively worse but we stopped by the
hawkwatch, just for the hell of it, and did not find anyone
there. I kidded Jerry Ligouri on Friday about not seeing him and
he said that he was there, he was just sitting in the pavilion.
Truly an heroic effort.

That evening, the weather was really bad. We had winds of up to
50 mph and lots of rain. The power flickered once or twice. I
was glad we were on the second floor of the motel.

Day 7, Friday

Well, the storm was mostly over by morning. There were some
residual winds and it was still drizzly so we improvised and
headed down to the 2nd Avenue Jetty. We were hoping for a nice
quiet sit while we watched many and varied seabirds.
Unfortunately, the winds (or sea?) had blown down a shelter
nearbye that had been under construction. So there were many
sidewalk superintendents "lending a hand".   We felt kind of
wierd being the only two people out of about 50 to be NOT
stareing at the wreckage, so after picking up SANDERLINGS, we
skidadled.

We decided to drive back up to Stone Harbor to chase the elusive
Clapper Rail. Jim Bangma had suggested that we check out the
marshes west of the Wetlands Institute and we did just that...and
got our CLAPPER RAIL. It was not a very good look, flying away
from us, but it was enough. A few minutes later, Kate made up
for missing the tanager by getting a much better look as another
one was walking around in the grass on her side of the road. By
the time I was able to pull over and look, it was gone.

We stopped in at the Wetlands Institute and added YELLOW-RUMPED
WARBLER,
SPOTTED SANDPIPER and HOUSE FINCH. Ok, we weren't trying really
hard for the House Finch but, what the heck. When we saw it,
Kate asked if I had ticked it off for the week and I didn't so I
did.

We finished the day at the hawkwatch where I chatted with the
counter, Jerry Ligouri and checked out the new Zeiss 7x45's that
he was using for the season. Not bad, but I like my 7X42's
<<GG>>. As we were sitting there, we watched a "foreign" Mute
Swan land in Bunker Pond. It was entertaining to watch the two
"owners" raise their wings, curl their necks and imperiously sail
in the invader's direction, obviously to suggest that he move on.
They didn't have to spend much time showing their intention when
he took off, only to land at the other end of the pond. This
time, they became more impatient and flew over to greet him.
There were a few words and the outsider left.

A little later, as we were watching hawks (it is, after all, a
hawkwatch platform), Jerry commented to someone that "the
Peregrine had flushed the scoters". We immediately took off for
the beach to see them. As we crested the dunes, we saw a raft of
about 100 BLACK SCOTERS drifting around the Bunker, lifers for
both of us.

That evening, CMBO sponsored a dusk field trip, at the Meadows,
led by Bill Glaser and Pat Sutton. The light was fading fast but
we picked up trip birds of VIRGINIA RAIL, MARSH WREN, COMMON
MOORHEN and GADWALL. There were just clouds of TREE SWALLOWS
flying around, trying to find a place to roost for the night.
And, as we were walking along the beach, we picked up another
life crustacean, a GHOST CRAB.

Two restaurants were patronized today...lunch at the famous C-View Inn - not bad crabcakes for a bar. And, for our last
evening, we ate at the Rose Garden, in Cape May. It was pretty
expensive, but the food was superior and the service was very
good. Both get a thumbs up.

Day 8, Saturday

We arrived at Higbee Beach and the parking lots were already
full. It was a beautiful day. We walked down to the canal,
walked around the hedges and did pretty well. We got our BLUE
GROSBEAK, although Kate gets all the credit for that one. We had
heard a group mutter about a Black-billed Cuckoo in the brush and
Kate and I had rushed over to join in the search. As we were
watching, grosbeaks kept popping around. I just wrote them off
as female Rose-Breasted, since we had seen a male just before.
Kate quietly leaned over to me and whispered "Those are fall
Blue Grosbeaks!"   Indeed, they were. Brown wingbars, no
patterning on the head. Lifer!
We arrived back at the hawkwatch platform in time to watch the
hawk banding demonstration.   It was facinating to see the birds
close up.   I believe the speaker was Chris Schultz. He kept a
Kestral intent on his finger, demonstrated the body moving but
the head staying still and managed to get a male and female
Sharp-Shinned Hawk screaming at each other.

The night before, Bill Glaser told us about a Lesser Black-backed
Gull that was seen on some pilings about a half mile north of
Sunset Beach. As our last bit of birding in Cape May, Kate and I
set off up the beach on the Chase. Luckily I was scanning the
pilings from afar and I noticed one the of the people on the
beach did not seem to have swimming trunks on. Then it hit me.
Ol' Bill had sent us up toward the nude beach. Kate and I
decided, after a little further optically enhanced inspection,
that there was no point in further advancement, so we retreated.
No Lesser Black-backed Gull, but no embarrassment either.

Now I'm not sure that Bill doesn't play that joke on all the
"dudes" he can. But if he doesn't, he should <<GG>>

As we were leaving Sunset Beach, we noticed the fenced in area
north of the road. And we noticed a couple of Kestrals perched
on the barbed wire. At the hawkwatch platform, Jerry Ligouri
mentioned the area as being one of the main routes the birds take
on their way out of town. Is this area good for _perched_
raptors? Given its location and the high number of Kestrals, we
wondered if there was ever anything else interesting there.

We stopped at Reeds Beach and Jakes Landing on the way back to
Phildelphia in search of better looks at Clappers.   Reeds beach
didn't seem too hopeful but Jake's Landing seemed like a likely
candidate the next time we're in the area.

By the way, Mr. Bangma, you would have been proud. We wound up
pitting the rental car out nicely.

Summary for the trip:123 birds seen from 9/17 to 9/24, 8 lifers
for me and 9 lifers for Kate and 2 life crustaceans.

A great trip! and thanks to Carolyn Hoffman and Jim Bangma and
anyone else who provided advice.

Jim Frazier