Birding Cape May Point - Saturday, August 1st, 2015

Tern numbers are increasing at the State Park. But as July fades to August, some of the features that distinguish tern species from each other begin to change. Common Terns are losing their gray-shaded chests, their bills are changing from mostly orange to mostly black, their capped look is receding and dark carpal bars are beginning to appear on lesser coverts. Forster's Terns are becoming unmistakable as a portion of their molt into non-breeding plumage involves losing all the black on the head except for a distinct eye patch. Royal Terns now lounging on the beach are distinguished by their larger size and the fact that they're the only birds on the beach having a bad hair day! Purple Martins can be seen and heard throughout the park, with begging fledglings from all those carefully tended "condos" off the parking lot, perched in trees and on fence posts. And the butterflying was good, too! Leaders: Kathy & Roger Horn, Karl Lukens, Cindy Bamford, and Deb Payson.
55 species

Canada Goose  65
Mute Swan  38
Mallard  17
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  6
Turkey Vulture  2
Osprey  4
American Oystercatcher  2
Killdeer  4
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  11
Sanderling  16
Least Sandpiper  5
Laughing Gull  42
Herring Gull (American)  7
Great Black-backed Gull  9
Least Tern  70
Common Tern  22
Forster's Tern  27
Royal Tern  7
Black Skimmer  24
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  6
Mourning Dove  7
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Eastern Kingbird  3
White-eyed Vireo  1
American Crow  2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2
Purple Martin  48
Tree Swallow  23
Barn Swallow  4
Carolina Chickadee  4
House Wren  3
Carolina Wren  4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2
American Robin  14
Gray Catbird  1
Northern Mockingbird  2
European Starling  9
Cedar Waxwing  8
Common Yellowthroat  6
Yellow Warbler  6
Song Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  7
Blue Grosbeak  2
Indigo Bunting  8
Red-winged Blackbird  12
Common Grackle  3
Brown-headed Cowbird  14
Orchard Oriole  2
House Finch  6
American Goldfinch  2

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

Purple Martin juvenile [Photo by Kathy Horn]

Red Admiral butterfly [Photo by Kathy Horn]