Cape May Autumn Weekend 2005
My trip was from October 26th - October 30th; the first two days spent in a Raptor Workshop, the last three days at the Cape May Autumn Weekend. I spent most of my festival time participating in the guided field trips, usually three per day. I did take one afternoon to attend the live Raptor show, browse through the "expo," and do a bit of tripod shopping. A fun but fruitless adventure was a late-night owl-banding demonstration. They were attempting to capture and band Northern Saw-Whet Owls, but didn't have any luck. But it was a good excuse to do some incredible star gazing in a dark place.
The photo gallery...
I'm not very proficient at taking photos of birds in flight; and most birds were too flighty or far away. But I got a few interesting shots. To view the album, follow this link: http://www.kodakgallery.com/bellhanley/cape_may_fall_2005
Highlights of the trip:
- Spending two days learning about in-flight raptor identification from the experts: Pete Dunne and Pat Sutton;
- Huge kettles of Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures;
- Scanning the kettles to see what hawks were hiding among the vultures;
- The incredible numbers of hawks passing overhead; with Accipiters leading the count. Many hawks were life birds for me. Since I'm a beginner, that's not hard to accomplish! Hundreds of Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks and many American Kestrels were the stars of the show!
- Several Bald Eagles, including one fun chase where a Bald Eagle forced a Caspian Tern to drop his fish. Then the eagle chased down an Osprey until the Osprey dropped his fish as well;
- Many Osprey fishing the ponds around the Hawkwatch platform. There were always Osprey in the air, sometimes as many as 10 at a time. They were fishing quite successfully;
- Clouds and clouds of swirling Tree Swallows in almost unimaginable numbers! We saw one get nabbed by a Merlin...
- The profusion of Kinglets and Yellow-Rumped Warblers everywhere we looked;
- A Sandhill Crane flying low overhead as he came in for a landing;
- A Winter Wren, who to the puzzlement and delight of the experts around me, decided to sing a beautiful melody for quite some time, despite it being late October;
- A Peregine perched with her dinner on an Osprey platform where we could see her easily from our salt marsh safari;
Bird List
Birds I got decent looks at:
- Turkey Vulture
- Black Vulture
- Northern Harrier
- Broad-Winged Hawk
- Red-Shouldered Hawk
- Red-Tailed Hawk
- American Kestrel
- Merlin
- Peregrine Falcon
- Bald Eagle
- Osprey
- Sharp-Shinned Hawk
- Cooper's Hawk
- Short-Eared Owl
- Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
- Golden-Crowned Kinglet
- Palm Warbler
- Yellow-Rumped Warbler
- Nashville Warbler
- Black-Throated Green Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- Blue-Headed Vireo
- Catbird
- Northern Cardinal
- Scarlet Tanager
- Cedar Waxwing
- Carolina Wren
- Winter Wren
- Mourning Dove
- Rock Pigeon
- Carolina Chickadee
- Red-Breasted Nuthatch
- Downy Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Brown Creeper
- Eastern Phoebe
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Eastern Bluebird
- Hermit Thrush
- American Robin
- Baltimore Oriole
- White-Throated Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Lincoln's Sparrow
- Vesper Sparrow
- Chipping Sparrow
- Swamp Sparrow
- Savannah Sparrow
- Field Sparrow
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Purple Finch
- American Goldfinch
- Fish Crow
- American Crow
- Blue Jay
- Northern Mockingbird
- Brown Thrasher
- Killdeer
- Semi-Palmated Sandpiper
- Least Sandpiper
- Western Sandpiper
- Sanderling
- Dunlin
- Black-bellied Plover
- Semi-Palmated Plover
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Great Black-backed Gull
- Ring-Billed Gull
- Herring Gull
- Wilson's Snipe
- Caspian Tern
- Forster's Tern
- Northern Gannett
- American Oystercatcher
- Common Loon
- Horned Grebe
- Mute Swan
- Snow Goose
- Brant Goose
- Double-Crested Cormorant
- American Wigeon
- Gadwall
- Northern Pintail
- Northern Shoveler
- Green-Winged Teal
- Ruddy Duck
- Pied-Billed Grebe
- American Coot
- Great Blue Heron
- Great Egret
- Snowy Egret
- Sandhill Crane
- Tree Swallow
Birds that were seen on my field trip but I managed to miss:
- American Bittern
- Common Moorhen
- Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- Dickcissel
Birds flying at the "limit of conjecture" that the experts were able to identify:
- Wood Ducks
- Scoter (big hordes on the horizon)
- Northern Goshawk
- Rusty Blackbird
- Red-winged Blackbird
Birds that were only heard by the experts (I haven't learned to bird by ear...):
- American Pipit
- Kingfisher
- Tufted Titmouse
- Towhee
- Pine Siskin