Birding Cape May Point - Saturday, July 26th, 2014

Migrants may be arriving (we had several Yellow Warblers on this morning's walk) but that doesn't mean the breeding's done! If you look up 'Blue Grosbeak' in Kaufman's "Lives of North American Birds", you'll see "nesting activity may last late in summer in some areas". This is clearly one of those areas because when we came out of the back woods at the State Park, a brilliantly blue grosbeak was displaying in the center of the boardwalk. With cocked tail and fluttering wings, he stretched his head first to one side, then the other. We were impressed, and hopefully so was the female grosbeak that flew out of the cattails as we approached.  Leaders: Kathy Horn, Karl Lukens, and Mike Hannisian.
57 species

Canada Goose  45
Mute Swan  28
Wood Duck  1
Mallard  36
Great Egret  1
Green Heron  2
Black Vulture  2
Turkey Vulture  2
American Oystercatcher  3
Killdeer  1     heard
Spotted Sandpiper  2
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
Least Sandpiper  12
Laughing Gull  X
Ring-billed Gull  1
Lesser Black-backed Gull  5
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Common Tern  8
Forster's Tern  30
Royal Tern  4
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  5
Mourning Dove  18
Chimney Swift  2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Eastern Kingbird  8
White-eyed Vireo  1     heard
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  2
Fish Crow  5
Purple Martin  55
Tree Swallow  7
Bank Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  9
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  1     heard
House Wren  4
Carolina Wren  6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1     heard
American Robin  15
Gray Catbird  3
Northern Mockingbird  2
European Starling  15
Cedar Waxwing  6     One on nest
Common Yellowthroat  11
Yellow Warbler  6
Yellow-breasted Chat  2     heard
Song Sparrow  4
Northern Cardinal  4
Blue Grosbeak  2     Male displaying on path, female nearby
Indigo Bunting  5
Red-winged Blackbird  X
Common Grackle  11
Brown-headed Cowbird  5
Orchard Oriole  1
House Finch  4
American Goldfinch  2     heard

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (/content/nj)

Blue Grosbeak [Photo by Karl Lukens]

Purple Martins [Photo by Karl Lukens]