Birding Cape May Point - Saturday, March 26th, 2016

It was a nice surprise this morning to see two Purple Martins, first-of-season birds for most of us, perched on the poles that will soon hold the martin houses in which they’ll breed. Other early migrants included Rough-winged and Tree Swallow, Osprey and Laughing Gull. Northern Gannets were putting on a show over the water close to land and three male Blue-winged Teal, much less common here than Green-winged Teal, showed off their breeding finery. Leaders: Kathy Horn, Karl Lukens, & Kyle Chelius.
44 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose  8
Mute Swan  12
Gadwall  55
American Wigeon  1
Mallard  12
Blue-winged Teal  3
Northern Shoveler  8
Northern Pintail  1
Green-winged Teal (American)  11
Bufflehead  10
Hooded Merganser  2
Northern Gannet  12
Double-crested Cormorant  2
Black Vulture  7
Turkey Vulture  12
Osprey  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs  2     Seen in flight; brown-backed shorebirds with long yellow legs and long bill
Laughing Gull  1
Herring Gull (American)  7
Great Black-backed Gull  8
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  5
Mourning Dove  3
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)  2
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  4
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1     Perched in good view,  brown - backed swallow without neck band
Purple Martin  2     Early arrivals perched on nest box poles
Tree Swallow  18     Swallow with clean white underside,  dark upper;  calling
Carolina Chickadee  6
Carolina Wren  4
American Robin  14
Northern Mockingbird  2
European Starling  7
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  10
Field Sparrow  4
White-throated Sparrow  4
Song Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  5
Red-winged Blackbird  18
Common Grackle  9
Brown-headed Cowbird  3
House Finch  1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Osprey [Photo by Karl Lukens]