Birding Cape May Point - Saturday, July 18th, 2015

Although summer isn't the height of longitudinal bird migration, it is a time when young birds "migrate" from nest sites to surrounding areas, allowing us to study different ages and their plumages. At the State Park, Laughing Gulls on the beach now may be adults, 2nd year birds - hatched last summer - or "birds of the year" - this year's fledgling. The 'older' young American Oystercatchers are almost the size of the parents but sport a shorter bill with a dark tip. Young Forster's Terns have started showing up and are as easy as non-breeding adult Forster's Terns to identify since they too have the distinctive black eye patch. Green Herons in flight, a close singing Blue Grosbeak and lots of Purple Martins flying overhead added to our interesting morning. Leaders: Kathy & Roger Horn, and Karl Lukens.
53 species

Canada Goose  72
Mute Swan  25
Mallard  15
Great Egret  2
Green Heron  2
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  1
American Oystercatcher  6
Killdeer  2
Least Sandpiper  5
Short-billed Dowitcher  1
Laughing Gull  42
Herring Gull (American)  3
Great Black-backed Gull  8
Least Tern  26
Common Tern  10
Forster's Tern  14
Royal Tern  1
Black Skimmer  21
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  9
Mourning Dove  11
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1
Chimney Swift  3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  3
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)  1
Eastern Kingbird  2
American Crow  2
Fish Crow  3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2
Purple Martin  54
Tree Swallow  2
Barn Swallow  3
Carolina Chickadee  2
House Wren  3
Carolina Wren  5
American Robin  14
Gray Catbird  3
Northern Mockingbird  5
European Starling  9
Cedar Waxwing  3
Common Yellowthroat  6
Yellow-breasted Chat  1
Song Sparrow  3
Northern Cardinal  4
Blue Grosbeak  2
Indigo Bunting  3
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Common Grackle  6
Brown-headed Cowbird  9
American Goldfinch  2
House Sparrow  3

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

Forster's and Common Terns [Photo by Karl Lukens]

Common Yellowthroat [Photo by Karl Lukens]