Hawks, Trails and Beach - Saturday, November 12th, 2016

This was the last HTB walk of the season. Knowing the tundra swan had been observed on the third plover pond, we changed our route to include this pond and then continued onto the blue trail. We were not disappointed. The tundra swan was located along with two Eurasian Wigeons and many other duck species: Mallard, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Ring-necked, Wood, Bufflehead, Northern Pintail, Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, and Hooded Merganser. A few participants viewed a late Blackpoll Warbler and a Fox Sparrow. The participants were treated to a magnificent sunset at 4:48 pm. The walk ended with a Great Horned Owl. Bert heard it calling and then one thrilled participant saw the owl fly. We were able to get the owl in the scopes for all to see and noted that there were actually two owl hooting back and forth. Leaders: Bert Hixon, Kyle Chelius, and Barb Bassett.
46 species

Snow Goose  4
Canada Goose  30
Mute Swan  6
Tundra Swan  1
Wood Duck  1     Female
Gadwall  40
Eurasian Wigeon  2     Both seen at same time on Plover Pond #3
American Wigeon  10
Mallard  30
Blue-winged Teal  2
Northern Shoveler  10
Northern Pintail  20
Green-winged Teal  40
Ring-necked Duck  4
scoter sp.  200
Bufflehead  7
Hooded Merganser  4
Northern Gannet  10
Double-crested Cormorant  4
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  1
Turkey Vulture  6
American Coot  4
Killdeer  1
Ring-billed Gull  10
Herring Gull  20
Great Black-backed Gull  20
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  4
Mourning Dove  4
Great Horned Owl  2     Calling to reach other. One visible.
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)  2
Merlin  1
Blue Jay  2
American Crow  1
crow sp.  3
Tree Swallow  6
Carolina Chickadee  1
Carolina Wren  2
American Robin  2
Northern Mockingbird  1
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  7
Fox Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  30
American Goldfinch  4

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

Tundra Swan (center) with Canada Geese, Mallard, Ring-necked Duck and Northern Pintail
[Photo by Barb Bassett]

Sunset at Cape May Point State Park [Photo by Barb Bassett]