2006 World Series of Birding team report

This was our first World Series of Birding and we look forward to many more. We were not able to reach our goal of 150 species, but we had lots of fun tracking down 124 species and raising money for NJ Audubon Society.

We started at around 4:30am and finished at around 9:00pm. Our first stop was Brigantine NWR and we were very happy to hear both Chuck-will's-widow and Whip-poor-wills right off the bat. This was followed by calls of a Great Horned Owl at around 6:00am . It got even better as we saw a pair of Black-necked Stilts fly over. Moments later we were able to spot a Least Bittern and by the time we left the refuge, we had a respectable total of 75 species (resident Peregrine Falcon included).

Bellplain was our next stop. A very late arrival (10:30am) resulted in only 15 new species. Highlights were a flitting look at a Wild Turkey and the beautiful sights and sound of Prothonotary Warblers and Scarlet Tanagers.

Cape May Point gave us some good birds such as a surprising Merlin, a Bobolink and a Yellow-breasted Chat along with a Ruddy Duck, Piping Plovers and Northern Gannets. But it was getting late and we were starting to realize that we will be short of our initial goal.

We finished off the day at Jake's Landing hoping to hear the elusive Black Rail. We spent about an hour after dusk listening intently, but all we heard was Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows. To our surprise, we later found out that some teams reported that they heard Black Rail at that location. Maybe our hearing is not as good or our timing was off :)