Birding Cape May Point - Wednesday, April 7 2010

A dedicated few put in an appearance on this beautiful sunny morning and we were all rewarded with a nice run of early April birds, with a mix of lingering winterers and spring arrivals. Five Purple Martins were showing interest in the boxes at the state park headquarters as we headed out towards Lighthouse Pond. On the pond, just four American Wigeon remained, but our one, trusty male Eurasian Wigeon was still there too and later we were pleased to add both Green-winged and Blue-winged Teals to the list. A flurry of activity in the bushes provided us with several Yellow-rumped Warblers, a male Pine Warbler, Hermit Thrush and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - all much appreciated.

Our biggest surprise of the morning was the discovery of a Great Horned Owl sitting on a shabby bunch of sticks that once was probably a Cooper's Hawk nest. The owl stuck well out on both sides and it's going to be a real squeeze once the chicks start growing!! Ospreys fished the ponds as we headed for the beach, where we watched a Piping Plover in display flight and enjoyed a constant stream of Northern Gannets cruising by. Full circle brought us back to the parking lot, via a small party of Barn, Tree and Northern Rough-winged Swallows.

Looking smarter than ever - our long-staying Eurasian Wigeon [photo by Karl Lukens]

A Great Horned Owl on the nest was a nice highlight on our morning walk today [photo by Mike Crewe]

Full list for the walk follows:

Location: Cape Island--Cape May Point
Observation date: 4/7/10
Number of species: 57

Canada Goose 6
Mute Swan 4
Gadwall 15
Eurasian Wigeon 1
American Wigeon 4
Mallard 10
Blue-winged Teal 2
Green-winged Teal 2
Surf Scoter 20
Black Scoter 20
Red-throated Loon 3
Common Loon 5
Double-crested Cormorant 80
Northern Gannet 150
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Merlin 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
American Coot 3
Piping Plover 2
Killdeer 2
American Oystercatcher 2
Laughing Gull 30
American Herring Gull 2
Great Black-backed Gull 10
Forster's Tern 1
Rock Pigeon 12
Mourning Dove 6
Great Horned Owl 1
Northern Flicker 2
American Crow 4
Fish Crow 10
Purple Martin 5
Tree Swallow 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 4
Carolina Chickadee 5
Carolina Wren 5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 10
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 10
Yellow-rumped Warbler 8
Pine Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 3
Northern Cardinal 10
Red-winged Blackbird 50
Common Grackle 10
Brown-headed Cowbird 30
House Finch 4
House Sparrow 2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)