After a couple of days of rain, it was nice to get back out in the field again and, despite a keen and chilly north-west wind, we had a pleasant two-hour walk around Cape May Point and the State Park.
An early look at the bay revealed an impressive passage of adult Northern Gannets - impressive because so many were close in and gave great views. Black Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser and Red-throated Loon were all on the water. A loop around the Red Trail boardwalk was windy but gave us a nice array of ducks (including the lingering male Eurasian Wigeon) and a Raccoon pottering around out in the open.
We concluded our walk with a turn around the block in Cape May Point, where participants from Maine and Massachusetts enjoyed getting good looks at Carolina Chickadees, and we focused on distinguishing Fish Crows from American Crows by their silly calls! Walking back to the parking lot, Warren spotted two River Otters in Lighthouse Pond which gave us all great scope views as they fed on some very unfortunate fish.
A full species list follows:
Location: Cape Island--Cape May Point
Observation date: 3/31/10
Number of species: 48
Canada Goose 5
Mute Swan 4
Gadwall 6
Eurasian Wigeon 1
American Wigeon 11
Mallard 10
Northern Shoveler 1
Green-winged Teal 6
Ring-necked Duck 15
Black Scoter 200
Red-breasted Merganser 2
Red-throated Loon 2
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Northern Gannet 40
Double-crested Cormorant 25
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 1
American Coot 5
Bonaparte's Gull 15
Laughing Gull 2
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Rock Pigeon 8
Mourning Dove 10
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 6
Fish Crow 10
Carolina Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 1
Carolina Wren 4
American Robin 50
Northern Mockingbird 2
Brown Thrasher 2
European Starling 20
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Song Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 10
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 3
Northern Cardinal 10
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Common Grackle 40
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
House Finch 4
House Sparrow 12
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)
