Scouting for the World Series

This weekend has been mostly about scouting birds and locations for the World Series of Birding next Saturday. I’ve done some scouting in the past, but this year I’m doing more as I’m part of the planning committee for our team. I volunteered to do scouting for the north half of Cape May County, our territory, while Roger and Kathy Horn are doing the south half. It’s fun, though not always easy. Sometimes when you want to soar with Eagles you have to work with Turkeys…or Turkey Vultures, as above, standing in my way en route to Stipson Island yesterday. He moved aside as I approached, and I did actually see a beautiful adult Bald Eagle there.

We’re trying a very different route and game plan this year, though the final route won’t be completely decided until the day before our Big Day, and might still change on the day, depending on how things go. Jakes Landing, above, as been our traditional last stop for many years. This year we might not get to it at all.

The many Marsh Wrens there won’t miss us. And we’ll be hearing and seeing others in a different place. Much of my scouting has been in Belleplain State Forest, which is fairly close to home for me, and I know it well. It’s been interesting over the last few weeks visiting the same areas and seeing/hearing the breeding birds arrive. Acadian Flycatcher has been the most elusive. I finally heard one Saturday morning in an unexpected place. This morning there were two in the usual spots, so they probably just arrived last night.

I also did some scouting on the Atlantic side of our county at places like Shell Bay Avenue, where Ellen and I found an amazing flock of over 30 Whimbrel, a large shorebird that we usually have a hard time finding and then only a few individuals. That’s the way it goes with birding. They move around. They often aren’t where you expect them. Sometimes you get a nice surprise like this. Will they be there on May 14th, when we need to count them for our fundraising efforts? Who knows! We always miss some species we thought would be easy, but we also usually get a few nice surprises, too.

One last appeal, New Jersey Audubon’s Cape May Bird Observatory could use your help with this fundraiser. We’ll be trying to see as many different species as we can in one day. You can help by pledging any amount from 10 cents per species up. We hope to see about 130 species or so, thus a ten cent pledge would be about $13.00. Please email me (or message me on Facebook) if you can help. The birds and I would be grateful!