Trip ReportBRANT 1

Cape mayMigration magicOctober 26th to November 1st, 2015Leaders: Doug Gochfeld & Michael Hilchey

Day 1 - October 26thTravel day for everyone. The group had staggered arrivals at Philadelphia airport in the afternoon, with Doug and Michael bringing

Blackpoll Warblers gave brief views as they zipped overhead giving flight calls. As we finished up there, we got word of a good duck flight at the Avalon Seawatch, and away we went. On the way to the Seawatch we came across a road-killed Common Gallinule that had likely become disoriented while migrating the night before. Upon our arrival at Avalon we were treated to an excellent duck flight, along with hundreds Northern Gannets hurtling south as well. It ended up being the largest flight of Green-winged Teal of the season.

people into Cape May in two batches. Everyone enjoyed the vibrant colors of the fall foliage of southern New Jersey on the drive along the Atlantic City Expressway. The entire group came together for the first time for delicious dinner at Panico’s Italian Bistro.

Day 2 - October 27thPre-dawn wake up and everyone’s first taste of Michael’s culinary skills. We started at Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area (WMA), where there was a modest morning flight. This allowed everyone to get a glimpse of active passerine migration. Our first

BRANT 2During just two hours there, we saw over 600 flying south. Everyone then had their first taste of Wawa for lunch, followed by a leisurely drive down the Avalon and Stone Harbor beachfronts, with a few stops along the way, one of which produced over 700 (!!) Red Knots, including several banded birds and a couple that even had geolocators on them. A short afternoon break preceded an evening jaunt at the Nature Conservancy’s South Cape May Meadows. It was here that we saw an immature Plegadis ibis that ended up giving superbly close views and appeared to be a very rare-for-the-area White-faced Ibis! Dinner was at Lucky Bones, where the bacon-wrapped scallops joined all the main courses as show stoppers.

Day 3 - October 28thDespite the fact that this was the day of gray skies and rain, it also brought us a couple of the most memorable experiences of the trip. We started out at Sunset Beach, doing a sheltered seawatch that ended up being very interesting and quite productive. The highlight here was an excellent study of Great Cormorants. We had all three ages of Great Cormorant: an adult, a first-year bird, and a second-year bird. The latter two stayed around for a long time and allowed a very good study of the differences between the ages and the differences between Great and Double-crested Cormorants as well. We then went over to Cape May Bird Observatory’s (CMBO’s) Northwood Center for a presentation on Monarch Butterflies, and the importance of Cape May in their migration, as well as a Monarch tagging demo. We couldn’t have possibly imagined that our timing would coincide with one of the wonders of nature: Right in the middle of our talk, one of the Monarchs in a chrysalis started emerging and became a butterfly right in front of our eyes!

After this awe-inspiring scene, we headed up to Brigantine (Edwin B. Forsythe NWR), 40 miles to the north. We waited out a heavy rainstorm inside the visitor’s center where we had Don Freiday, the Visitor Services Manager at the refuge (and a former staffer at CMBO) give us an in-depth overview of the function of the refuge, and some of the great research that’s being done

BRANT 3there regarding sea level rise and storm mitigation. We finished up and headed out onto the auto loop just as the rain slackened. In addition to more waterfowl than you could shake many sticks at, especially Northern Pintail, we were privileged to see both Nelson’s and Saltmarsh Sparrow, as well as multiple perched American Bitterns trying to blend into the marsh. We also had great comparative looks at White-rumped Sandpipers and Western Sandpipers, as well as good numbers of more common shorebirds. We shot back down to Cape May, where we enjoyed yet another satisfying dinner at Lucky Bones.

Day 4 - October 29thWe started at Cove Pool, where we enjoyed seeing Delaware Bay and the Cape May Point Lighthouse lit up in the distance by a phenomenal sunrise. The White-faced Ibis paid us a brief visit here, landing and being quite active for a minute or so before flying off again. Our next stop was the Cape May City beachfront, where we located a large flock of Black Skimmers, one of which was a banded bird whose band we were able to read. It had been banded in Nassau County, NY, over a hundred miles to the north, just a few months earlier. It was exciting to be able to contribute to another piece in the never-ending puzzle that is understanding bird migration! Next up was a long-anticipated boat ride. Despite the fairly strong wind, the back bays of Cape May County were calm, and we were able to get a backstage view of the saltmarsh that is the backbone of the ecosystem in the region. We also saw our only Tricolored Heron of the tour while out on the boat.

A casual afternoon stroll around Cape May Point State Park yielded a couple of male Eurasian Wigeons, and a brief view of a Ribbon Snake. Dinner was at local BYOB favorite, Bella Vida, which didn’t fail to impress!

Day 5 - October 30thBlackbirds, Robins, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and others were migrating north overhead as we enjoyed an impromptu sparrow workshop back at Higbee Beach WMA again. Most people in the group got a glimpse of an Orange-

BRANT 4crowned Warbler, and we all got good looks at Palm Warbler here as well. It was then time to get up close and personal with raptors. We were entertained by an informative raptor banding demo given by Ashley and Arthur, of the Cape May Raptor Banding Project. We followed this up with a special behind-the-scenes visit to the raptor banding blind, which also put us right under the main raptor flight line. We even got to watch the trapping process, as they caught and banded a couple of birds while we were in the blind! A brief sojourn for lunch at the Cape May Point State Park Hawkwatch platform was followed by another visit to the Northwood Center, where we got some up-close-and-personal optics advice from Pete Dunne, and Bonnie got herself an excellent new pair of binoculars! An evening trip to the Magnesite Plant yielded great looks at Eastern Meadowlarks, Field Sparrow, and several Northern Harriers, all in excellent light. We then had dinner at the new Exit 0 Cookhouse.

Day 6 - October 31stToday we changed our morning flight venue to the Coral Ave. dune crossing at the tip of Cape May Point, and we weren’t disappointed. Our vantage of the ocean allowed for some great studies of Northern Gannets coursing low over the waves, while swarms of Icterids, Robins, and Yellow-rumped Warblers flew overhead, trying to figure out whether or not to continue their southbound migration across the 13 miles of open water that is the mouth of the Delaware Bay or if they should continue up the west side of the Cape May peninsula until the bay narrows to a more comfortable crossing point. It was amidst this throng of migrating passerines that we would see the locally rarest bird of the trip: a Townsend’s Solitaire. It was only the 2nd record of the species for Cape May County, and the first photographed one! Along the dunes we got great views of perched Blackpoll Warbler, and then we moved onto the Rea Farm (The Beanery), where we saw good numbers of sparrows and a spectacle of migrating raptors, including several Red-shouldered Hawks and Bald Eagles (including 3 of the latter flying around together!). An afternoon break was followed by a trip to Cox Hall Creek WMA, where a late Baltimore Oriole joined the good numbers and diversity of sparrows as the highlight. This concluded our Cape May birding…or so the

BRANT 5group thought. After another winning dinner at Bella Vida, and finishing up the daily checklist (which was complete with cake celebrating Linda’s birthday!), everybody was in for one last surprise. We went back out into the darkness and ended up at The Meadows for the second time during the tour. After a brief waiting period of looking at the excellent night sky with a few other locals in the know, the stars of the show were brought out by Katy Duffy, the owl bander. Her annual Northern Saw-whet Owl banding project is a staple of November in Cape May, and tonight was extra special: Not only was there an adorable little fluffball of a Saw-whet Owl, but they had caught a Long-eared Owl as well! What a way to finish the trip!

Day 7 - November 1stA leisurely morning finishing packing up and moving out of our victorian mansion that we had called home all week. We drove to the Philadelphia Airport and dropped off half of the group for early flights. The rest of us then spent the last couple of hours of the tour birding at John Heinz Tinicum NWR, right in Philly. Large numbers of Tree Swallows, and waterfowl highlighted our stop here, with a couple of lingering Northern Rough-winged Swallows thrown into the mix for some extra swallow flavor. One last stop at Wawa for lunch was on the docket before we officially ended the tour at the Philadelphia International Airport departures drop-off area, ending a rousingly successful inaugural BRANT Cape May tour.

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Cheers and happy birding!- The BRANT Team

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