Field Trip Reports: Birding Cape May Point

Cape May Point State Park ponds are ideal for shorebird feeding right now, with lots of good, muddy edges just in time for hungry shorebird arrival. In one area where these muddy edges are close to the trail, we had really good looks at a very handsome Pectoral Sandpiper, a first-of-season bird for most of us. The "pec" was feeding alongside a Least Sandpiper and a Lesser Yellowlegs so we had an excellent opportunity to compare these similar shorebirds. Indigo Buntings are still sitting up singing and a Prairie Warbler was so busy feeding in a cedar tree on the Yellow Trail, it paid little heed as we watched it moving among the branches. Leaders: Kathy Horn, Roger Horn, Michael McCabe, Karl Lukens, & Cindy Bamford.
Number of Taxa: 52

41 Mute Swan
42 Mallard
1 Great Blue Heron (Blue form)
2 Great Egret
5 Osprey (carolinensis)
7 American Oystercatcher
3 Killdeer
21 Least Sandpiper
1 Pectoral Sandpiper
1 Semipalmated Sandpiper
1 Solitary Sandpiper
1 Greater Yellowlegs
14 Lesser Yellowlegs
25 Laughing Gull
2 Herring Gull (American)
4 Great Black-backed Gull
1 Common Tern
25 Forster's Tern
1 Black Skimmer
5 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
7 Mourning Dove
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
3 Eastern Kingbird
2 Fish Crow
28 Purple Martin
9 Tree Swallow
2 Barn Swallow (American)
4 Carolina Chickadee
7 Carolina Wren
7 American Robin
1 Gray Catbird
4 Northern Mockingbird
4 European Starling
3 Cedar Waxwing
7 Common Yellowthroat (trichas Group)
1 Yellow Warbler
1 Prairie Warbler
1 Yellow-breasted Chat
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
5 Northern Cardinal
5 Indigo Bunting
15 Red-winged Blackbird (Red-winged)
1 Eastern Meadowlark (Eastern)
2 Common Grackle (Purple)
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 House Finch
6 American Goldfinch