Cape May

Mid-May, we left the warbler-adorned woods of eastern Pennsylvania and visited Cape May for a couple of days. Although passerine variety and numbers seemed (surprisingly) less than inland, there were good birds around. At South Cape May Meadows, I saw—among others— a single breeding plumaged Red Knot amidst various Short-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated, Solitary and and Least Sandpipers, Killdeer, 3 Blue-winged Teal, a few Glossy Ibises, (heard) White-eyed Vireo, Indigo Bunting and Parula and Prairie Warbler, some Yellowthroats, and a Yellow-breasted Chat.

Blue-winged Teal

Warblers and other migrants

As May develops, I’ve been seeing or hearing a welcome variety of migrating or in-for-breeding-season birds here in either the home patch or nearby John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. Highlights include a Whip-poor-will heard near the house, as well as Ovenbird, Redstart, Parula, Prairie, Black-throated Blue, Black and White and Yellow-rumped warblers. Towhees, Baltimore Orioles, Swifts, Kingbirds and Great crested Flycatchers have arrived, and I heard a Scarlet Tanager. Catbirds are back, thank goodness, A very high up Bald Eagle went over. At Heinz, a few more to the mix, either heard or seen or both: Black-throated Green, Magnolia, Chestnut-sided, and Yellow Warblers, an invisibly singing Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Northern Waterthrush. I’ve also been seeing both Yellowlegs, Solitary Sandpiper, Green Heron, and Osprey there.

From the homestead, a sunlit Yellow-rump:

And from Tinicum, a shadowed Yellow:

Early Spring Migrants

Ridley Creek State Park, near Media Pa.

I stopped in at a known spot for migrating Yellow-throated Warbler yesterday morning and was not disappointed: one individual was singing that sweet song on and off, and occasionally popping into view. Also in the area: a few Pine Siskins, probably on their way north after this past winter’s influx southward; a Pine Warbler, several Bluebirds seen or heard, Cowbirds, a Towhee singing rufously in the near distance, several trilling Chipping Sparrows, Goldfinches, and a Red-shouldered Hawk calling from somewhere east of the Towhee. A pair of Great Blue Herons squawked while passing high overhead. Bonus was a loud and cheerful Louisiana Waterthrush heard from the car as I was headed homeward along the creek. No camera involved in this outing, so I attach a photo from the same place last year.

Yellow-throated Warbler

Morning Owl Evening Moon

The pleasure of off-kilter schedules …

Some Spoons

Some more old photos: 3 different Spoonbill species.

Black-faced Spoonbill, Baekryung Island

Baekryung is a large, remote island off the far northwest coast of South Korea: if you could look a little above and past this spoonbill, you would see the (beautifully uninhabited) North Korean coast. The very charismatic Black-faced Spoonbill is a critically endangered species, endemic to East Asia, and I was overjoyed to find a few of these birds—and evidence of breeding!—at this hitherto unsuspected site. The birds and their rocks were protected by the ubiquitous barbed-wire fences that shield border areas in the peninsula. Unfortunately, I heard from a colleague who visited this spot a year later the Spoonbills were no longer in evidence—probably driven off by islanders who had reached the spot by boat in order to gather seagull eggs.

Roseate Spoonbills. Florida.

These birds were protected by a different kind of barb—the photograph is from St. Augustine’s Allligator Preserve, where the large number of toothy reptiles prevent nest-raiding raccoons from swimming out to the trees of the wader rookery.

Eurasian Spoonbill. Gageo Island,South Korea.

Maybe my favorite Spoonbill—I’ve had a thing for them since I was (for a while) a kid-with-binoculars in England. I like their faces … This individual was a migrant, stopping over for one morning only on an equally remote island, this time off the very southwestern corner of the Korean peninsula.