World Series of Birding 2010

Wow!! What a turnaround from last year’s disappointing run. We had a great WSB surpassing our target of 150 birds by 1. We decided not to do the entire state and concentrate on Cape May County and that paid off as we spent a lot less time driving (260 miles vs 600) and more time birding. At the end everyone in the team was happy with our run.

The heavy rain and lightning that persisted for a number of hours before the race stopped right before midnight. We arrived at Cedar Swamp Creek at around 11:35pm and when we saw that the Cornell team (The Redheads) was also there, we knew that Bob had picked a good starting point. Soon after midnight a King Rail called and that was followed by Clapper Rail call. We stayed in the area until 1:10am and we ended up with 11 species including American Bittern, Great-horned Owl, Seaside Sparrow, Veery and Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Next stop was Butler Rd where we stayed for 15 minutes but did not add to our count (we heard King Rail and Great-horned Owl). We arrived at Jakes Landing at 2:20am and stayed there through 3:10am. Whip-poor-wills were calling non-stop and we also had Virginia Rail but no Black Rail although we listened for it intently in a number of areas. Sharp-tailed Sparrow was another bird that we had no luck with.

Next we arrived at Bellplain State Forest and we had a distant Chuck-will’s-widow along with a Wild Turkey and a Catbird at Thomas Field Rd, Sunset Rd and Long Swamp Rd between 4:10am and 4:50am. We then moved to the BSF main office area at around 5:00am. With daylight came an onslaught of bird calls. We had the local breeders we wanted to get at this area (Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Yellow-throated Warbler) as well as Wood Thrush and a number of common birds.

Lake Nummy and Kubiak Rd from 5:25am to 5:45am produced Pine Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, Summer Tanager and Indigo Bunting among others. Pine Swamp Rd from 5:50 to 6:00am produced White Nuthatch, Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker and Carolina Wren. Between 6:05 and 7:25am we visited Sunset Bridge Rd, Thompson Rd and the ‘triangle’. We had numerous birds including Worm-eating, Black & White, Blackburnian and Chestnut-sided Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, White-eyed, Red-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireo, Blue Grosbeak and Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Lehner Rd and Paper Mill Rd produced some great birds between 7:30 and 8:10am; at least 2 American Pipits, a number of Horned Larks and Solitary Sandpipers, American Redstart, Prairie Warbler, House Wren, Baltimore and Orchard Oriole, Black and Turkey Vulture and Eastern Bluebird to name a few.

Stimpson Island Rd was also a great stop as we had Willow Flycatcher, Wilson’s Warbler!, Green Heron, a male Northern Harrier!!, Osprey and Bald Eagle (the only one we saw on the day!) all in a 15 minute span. A quick stop at Beaver Swamp at 9:00am produced a Great blue Heron along with two Spotted Sandpipers. We went after the Red-headed Woodpecker at Tamerlane Campground next but decided to use the parking area of the adjacent school in order to avoid the slow process of driving through the campground. We heard a bird calling at 9:15am (5min after we arrived there) so this approach paid off for us.

Sea Isl. Blvd at 9:35am produced distant views of a nesting Peregrine Falcon as well as Black-throated Green Warbler and Herring Gull. Surf Scoter, Black Scoter and Common Eider were hanging out together at JFK Overlook in Sea Isle City which made it very convenient for us. We also had Northern Gannet and a Common Loon diving close to the beach as well as some Sanderling.

Next we arrived at the Townsend’s Inlet at around 10:15am and had Little Blue Heron, American Oystercatcher, Purple Martin, Brant and Great Black-backed Gull among others. The Yellow-crowned Night Herons were easy to pick up at 34th street in Avalon and by 11:00am we were at Scotch Bonnet searching for and getting the elusive Tri-colored Heron as well as Whimbrel and Black-bellied Plover.

We then spent some time at Nummy’s Island looking for roosting Black-crowned Night Heron which was harder that we first thought. After a lot of searching Bob got one and soon there after we had a couple more nice birds in the nearby trees: Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Magnolia and Black-throated Green Warblers along with a Northern Parula. Last stop before we headed to Cape May Isl. Was Miami Beach at the Villas where we had a number of Ruddy Turnstones, Ring-billed and Bonaparte Gulls but no Red Knots.

Half way through we knew we were in very good shape. Turns out we had seen 136 of the 151 birds we would see on the day. We arrived at the Shunpike and Simpson Ln lake a little after noon and as we were looking for lingering ducks, Jonathan was able to pick out a Belted Kingfisher resting in a nearby tree. Next we drove along Bay Shore Rd and picked up Cattle Egret but missed the Snow Goose that was reported in the area. We then struck out on the Kentucky Warbler that Bob had staked out during scouting.

Higbee’s was next (1:00-1:40pm) were we had great looks at an adult Mississippi Kite and heard Yellow-breasted Chat and Field Sparrow. Hidden Valley produced a number of Bobolinks and another look on the Kite. We arrived at Cove Pool next where between 2:30-2:50pm we had Blue-winged Teal and Least Tern but no Snipe or Moorhen. Bunker Pond (3:00-3:45pm) produced Gadwall, Common Tern Cliff and Bank Swallows and Lilly lake (4:10-4:45pm) gave us the last swallows: Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

By now we were getting a little more sluggish and the desire to get as many birds as we could was not all there. We visited the Magnesite Plant for a while hoping for a lingering Savannah Sparrow but had no luck. Concrete ship did not produce Purple Sandpipers or a Great Cormorant. Scanning the sea for Parasitic Jaeger while in Cape May Point was also unsuccessful. We arrived at the Meadows next at 5:15pm and we had a Piping Plover soon thereafter. We had a surprising Caspian Tern but no Black Skimmers or Lesser Black-backed Gulls, birds we had there in previous years. In addition there were no signs of the Roseate Tern or Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that were in the area the day before. We also found out that one of the teams saw a White-faced Ibis later on the day but we only saw a couple of Glossy Ibis when we were there…

We did not have many more options at this point and we decided to drive back to Nummy Island for another shot at Sharp-tailed Sparrows and maybe a Godwit or one of the few shore birds that we did not have up to this point. Nothing new at this area as the high tide had disbursed the shorebirds and the sparrows were not active. One place where we knew we could get another species was Cape May Harbor and we did not have to get out of our car to count our last bird for the race: a female Bufflehead.

We returned to Cove Pool for another shot at a Snipe & Moorhen and possibly a Nighthawk but we saw nothing new. Our final stop was the Hawk watch platform hoping for a flyover or something new at Bunker Pond. The only thing we got was plenty of mosquito bites and at around 9:00pm we called it a day. We dropped of our checklist at the finish line where, thanks to some good food and company, we were able to get our fourth or fifth wind so that we can safely make it back home.

Left to Right: Jonathan, Bob, Shmuel and Nick