Day One
Cloudy, 66F NNE winds 17mph, gusts 23mph
They were calling for high winds today - 23mph with gusts of 30+mph. I decided not to take the 1.5 hour ferry ride, to make the drive instead. They were not calling for rain, but just the same a mist began to follow me. Leaving the house about 7:20 I arrived at the hawk watch platform at 10:30am. There was a heavy cloud cover, the misty rain mostly stopped. The winds were NNE, 17mph. The winds were high, which is good, but not from the ideal direction which is NW. I first noticed the hundreds of tree swallows. They circled above, sometimes dropping down to get a quick drink from the pond. The Audubon staff explained these tree swallows were not necessarily in the process of migrating. That they stayed around for a bit, sometimes growing in very large numbers before moving on.
Then the raptors started to show up. I hear “Peregrine Falcon heading to the left of the platform”. This “call out” did not come form the CMBO staff - I look behind me to see who it was and see it’s Pete Dunne. What a surprise. With the CMBO staff he continues to call out the raptors and giving us identification tips.
My friend Judy Wink worked on several projects with Pete. I texted her to let her know he was there. She asked that I extend a hello to him. I introduced myself and relayed the message, he graciously returned the greeting.
Eyes back to the sky my flyover sightings included:
-The raptor movement was not necessarily constant, but they were coming by-
1 Herring Gull
5 Laughing Gulls
1 Royal Tern
2 Double-crested Cormorants
7 Brown Pelicans
1 Great Blue Heron
1 Great Egret
7 White Ibis
3 Turkey Vultures
2 Osprey
2 Northern Harriers
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
4 Cooper’s Hawks
1 Bald Eagle
2 Northern Flickers
3 American Kestrels
2 Merlins
350 Tree Swallows
I decided to walk the nearby Red Trail which takes you through a variety of habits including the Lighthouse Pond East. This turned out to be another good location to view raptor flyovers. I saw:
1 White Ibis
1 Osprey
1 Bald Eagle
3 American Kestrels
3 Merlins
1 Peregrine Falcon
Speaking with other birders I learned there was an Eurasian Wigeon at Al’s Pond, along the Blue/Yellow Trail. I decided the walk the roughly half mile to see it. And I did:
Note: Click on the image for a full view.
After visiting the pond I headed back to the hawk watch platform. I then see my birding friends Sue and Alan. A couple of weeks ago while attending a bird walk with the Anne Arundel chapter of the Maryland Ornithological Society (MOS) I mentioned to Sue and Alan I was going to Cape May, they replied “We are too, same date.” The last time I had seen them before this walk, was in the Spring - I bumped into them at the New Jersey Audubon shop in Cape May. - I did mention this is a very popular place to bird.
