2015 World Series of Birding Report

Images © Todd Klein, except as noted.

Our long birding day began at 5 AM in predawn darkness in the parking lot of the Cape May Meadows, the Nature Conservancy preserve in Cape May where 19 participants, including team chief Mike Crewe and other leaders, loaded our gear on the small shuttle bus we used for the first time this year to get us around. The weather was cool but not cold, and foggy, so rather damp. Fog is not typical in our area, where the prevailing wind is from the west, but this week we’d had warm winds off the ocean from the southeast, creating fog off and on for several days in a row. The temperature was cool but comfortable, very light wind, and the promise of clearing later.

As we began birding with a walk through the Cape May Meadows preserve, it became clear that much of our checklist would come from birds heard and barely seen, if seen at all. This is fine of you know the songs, as heard counts the same as seen. There were no brand-new team members, everyone had been on at least one previous World Series with us, so we knew what to expect, and as songs were identified, we all ticked them off mentally. The beginning of the day is always the best for that, when everything counts from Starlings and House Sparrows to rarities, and our list grew quickly.

As it got lighter, we were able to see some birds, which made it more fun. Cape May has many kinds of ducks in the winter, but most of those had flown north already, so we didn’t see many.

I have few bird photos this year, as usual, because many of the birds we were counting were too far away for a good picture with my camera, but the always photogenic and cooperative Great Egret was an exception.

The wetlands were beautiful in the fog, but it made bird identification difficult, and we missed things we should have seen because of it. For instance, we never had a clear view of the ocean and the birds that stay out on it. This was true in other places through the day. Also, the weather had kept new migrating songbirds from arriving in our area, while most of the previous ones that don’t nest here had already moved on, thus our checklist had a low total this year. So it goes sometimes.

The checklist highlight of the day came at our next spot, where a male Painted Bunting had been hanging out for a few days. It’s a bird that shouldn’t be in New Jersey at all, a rare visitor who strayed north from his usual habitat further south, and we found him without too much searching, singing and in plain, though foggy, view.

Image © Jess Yarnell.

The male Painted Bunting is one of the most striking and colorful birds in North America, here’s how it looks under ideal conditions. We didn’t have those, but still enjoyed seeing it for several minutes. It’s a bird not on our printed checklist, so we wrote it in, always a fun thing to do. The two ticks I picked up on the day were probably from the tall grass we had to walk through to see it, but well worth it!

Our next stop was Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area, where it was less foggy. We found more birds for our list there, but not the large number of migrating songbirds that are present when conditions are right.

There was a Field Sparrow singing quite close to us at one point, as seen above. This is a bird whose song is described as a bouncing ping-pong ball, in that the notes get gradually shorter and faster. You can hear it on the video at the end of this report.

At 8:20 AM with 66 species on our checklist, we drove from Cape Island at the southern tip of New Jersey to Belleplain State Forest at the northwest corner of Cape May County to find more songbirds. Our team only birds in Cape May County, so this was as far as we’d drive in one go, about 40 minutes, but we crossed the county several times as the day progressed. There were many good birds in Belleplain, and we heard or saw nearly all of the nesting songbirds we expected there. Nearly all, but a few were silent and staying hidden and again very few migrants. After birding in several places in Belleplain, we headed south again to the Delaware Bayshore with 88 species on our list at 11:30 AM.

Our first stop was at Cooks Beach, were there were few birds…

…but I did get a good picture of Horseshoe Crabs laying eggs. This is a major source of food for migrating shorebirds, some rare or endangered, and crab numbers have dwindled alarmingly due to over-harvesting. But the harvesting has been banned for several years now, and the crabs are just starting to make a comeback. Whether it will be in time for some shorebirds like Red Knot remains to be seen.

Also at Cooks Beach were massive swarms of biting gnats, known locally as “no-see-ums.” We saw far too many of them, and unfortunately most bug repellents don’t work on them, so you just have to put up with their annoying bites. They get into your ears and eyes, too. Nasty creatures! We found a few species here, including a soaring Bald Eagle, then moved on.

Next was Reeds Beach, where there were lots more birds like this mass of gulls feeding on Horseshoe Crab Eggs. They’re mostly Laughing Gulls, the ones with the black heads, and their calls are deafening! You can hear them on the video.

Also there were lots of Double-crested Cormorants, many perched on this row of posts.

We made a few more stops, including the Cape May County Airport for Horned Lark. Our total reached 100 species at 1 PM, but all the easy ones were checked off now, and it would get much harder the rest of the day. Fortunately we were ready for a great lunch at the Cape May Point State Park, prepared and provided by Shari Rosenbloom, one of our team! It was incredibly good and wonderfully generous of her, much better than any WSB meal we’ve ever had! I made a large wrap with tuna, salad greens and grilled vegetables. Yum!

Then we got back on our bus, excellently driven all day by co-owner Chris, renewed and ready for more birding.

After our late lunch we went to The Beanery, a working farm in Cape May where New Jersey Audubon leases birding rights. There, in wet woods, some of us were able to see or hear a pair of nesting Prothonotary Warblers. Our team rule is that at least one participant has to see or hear any bird we count as well as the leaders, and most are seen and heard by many participants, but with 19 people, everyone is bound to miss things. We were working hard now on a warm and mostly sunny afternoon to get one new bird at a time.

We stopped for a scan of the Cape May Harbor as we headed north again, and found a Common Loon there, and a few other species.

In Avalon, on the ocean side of Cape May County, we were able to find Piping Plover, another endangered species that is getting harder to find every year. There the fog was beginning to roll in again.

Elsewhere in Avalon we found Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons, and I got a good photo of an Osprey, we’d seen plenty of those. We found more birds on Nummy Island, and other places at the shore, then headed west again with about 118 species on our list at about 6 PM. With about three hours of daylight left, we thought we’d add at least another 10 species, but it wasn’t to be. Cattle Egret was spotted in Swainton, then we headed back to Belleplain, hoping to find a few things we’d missed in the morning.

At the Boy Scout camp, we had great looks at a singing male Scarlet Tanager, but we’d already heard one earlier, so it wasn’t new for the list.

As the sun went down we searched Belleplain in vain for new things, and just as we were about to leave at about 8 PM, a Summer Tanager gave its distinctive call of “pitti-tuck,” so we were able to add it as species number 121.  A trip to Jake’s Landing is usually our final daylight stop, and one where we get at least a few more species, but there the fog had moved in, and we saw and heard nothing new. So, around 9 PM we headed south to our starting point to get our cars.

We said goodbye to Chris and his bus, and all drove to the Grand Hotel for the Finish Line, and more food as well as time to rehash our day and go over our checklist before turning it in. One change this year is that our team did not compete for the Level 1 awards, along with 40 or so other top teams, our leader Mike Crewe decided we should be a Level 2 or non-competing team this year. We were never in contention for the awards anyway, so I thought that was fine. The only drawback is our result doesn’t appear on this year’s OFFICIAL RESULTS. If it did, we’d be about in the middle of our Cape May County-only group, as usual. It’s tough to beat teams who spend nearly all of 24 hours at it, and many days beforehand scouting and preparing. Our team is more relaxed and fun, and we like it that way!

Here’s that video I put together, a few clips from various times during the day. Despite weather problems, we had a great time. 121 species seen this year, way down from last year’s 139, but we worked hard for it, and hopefully next year’s total will be higher. And once again I have to offer huge heartfelt thanks to my World Series supporters who this year have allowed me to raise nearly a thousand dollars for the excellent work the Cape May Bird Observatory does. You know who you are, huge applause!