Purple Chickadee

Midnight. I am sleeping, but the hardcore Big Sitters are already at the hawk watch platform at Cape May Point State Park. 7 am. I arrive at the platform and watch the sun rise:

The day begins with many familiar sights and sounds: Yellow-rumps, egrets, ducks. A Meadowlark flies by and we are psyched. A few moments later, a Merlin flies over the lake in mad pursuit of a bird and catches it mid-air…

…and we realize it’s another Meadowlark that the Merlin has gotten. The Merlin flies over to the path near the platform and begins to kill and eat the Meadowlark:

Oh Merlin, why not a Starling?

We have many nice hawks, accipiters, and falcons flying over:

But the star of the day might just be this adult Bald Eagle, who flew directly over us:

Or, the star of the day might have been Monkey:

Here are some more images from a wonderful day. Click any photo to bring you to the full album, beginning with sunrise and ending with the moon!

She lurks. She hunts. She flies. She’s STILL THERE. Have you seen her? On September 19th, the Brown Booby disguised herself as a lowly Cormorant:

Who me? Yes you, Brown Booby….we see you. You don’t fool us:

Readying herself for the hunt:

She takes off, terrorizing fish near and far:

And returns…trying to blend in with the crowd. As if.

For a full slide show of the Booby and MUCH, MUCH more, start here and watch the entire album…if you DARE:

Some highlights include:

Click on any photo to enlarge it or go to the full album!

I went down to Cape May with one goal:

And I saw her. The amazing Brown Booby was such a treat to see. Bob and Dave from The Osprey boat got us so close to her. I have the whole boat trip chronicled. Begin here, click the photo, and you will see the whole album from start to finish:

I have many other pictures from the hawk watch and Pete Dunne’s Meadows trip after the boat cruise photos, as well. Enjoy!

Simon and I decided to go for it! And we were not disappointed, getting awesome looks at the bird for over an hour. Click on this photo, which will bring you to the full album. I blew up about 10 photos of the bird in the first part of the gallery, then after that they are all at regular size:

It was hot and humid, but Cape May still produced! I had a nice morning walk with Chuck and Mary Jane (volunteers with CMBO). There was a great Purple Martin spectacle in the parking lot:

A Black Tern flew over and landed briefly in Bunker Pond. I managed to get one photo of the bird, although it is very cropped:

Tern show:

I went on a whale and dolphin watching trip, and had awesome looks at a pod of about 75 Atlantic Bottle-nosed Dolphins and also 1 Minke Whale:

I lifed Wilson’s Storm-Petrel – saw 6 individuals and got very distant shots of one of the cute, dainty birds:

I waited until the rain passed and went over to Higbees Beach for an hour, where I became breakfast for mosquitoes. But I managed to see a female (or young?) Blue Grosbeak, 3 or 4 Indigo Buntings, a Yellow-breasted Chat, a Black-and-White Warbler, a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, 2 Great-crested Flycatchers, 2 RT Hummingbirds, and a very cooperative Yellow-billed Cuckoo – the bird was right over my head and very curious about the beeping sound my camera was making:

Click on any photo, which will bring you to the full album.

What a surprise waking up this morning to 10 poults and 2 adult Wild Turkeys under the feeders, having a feast! I suppose the family from last year decided this was a good place to hang around for food and water, so the adults came back again. Click photo for the full album:

On July 2 & 3, Bob and I went out on his sister’s boat in East Hampton. It’s a gorgeous 58-foot yacht. We anchored over at Shelter Island for about 4 hours, where I watched at least one pair of probable Bank Swallows fly in and out of the nest holes of these sandy cliffs and watched an Osprey pair flying around:

We had a friendly Mute Swan scavenging for food by us:

Later in the afternoon, we drove out toward a private island called Gardiner’s Island:

I have never seen baby Great Black-backed Gulls before, and there was a whole colony nesting here. I’d say we saw 75 to 100 gulls:

There were also about 300 to 400 Double-crested Cormorants roosting in the trees and flying in toward the island, as well as many Ospreys. Check out the platform next to the windmill:

Here we are back in the marina with a friendly local egret:

It was a gorgeous day! (Click any photo to enlarge it and/or see full album.)

I’ve been waiting for this! Boyd and Betty the Robins had a successful nest. Here are photos of the baby. It was stretching its wings and flying very short distances (two to three feet) on the tree trunk. Boyd was bringing food to the baby also:

Almost no tail:

It’s only a matter of days before we have babies everywhere. The Blue Jays and Grackles are busy taking peanuts that I put out back to their nests:

Today I had four green visitors at the feeders. I cracked open the back door and took some pictures:

Before I opened the door, I had taken some from inside while they were at the bird bath:

The Monk Parakeets are fairly regular visitors to my yard. Click on any photo to enlarge it and view the full album.

I struck out on the Curlew Sandpiper that was reported yesterday (it was not present while we were there, at least), but it was still great to see many shorebirds on the mud flats, including Semipalmated Sandpipers, some Dunlin, Semipalmated Plovers, 3 Spotted Sandpipers, and 2 Killdeer.

Near the Environmental Center, I got some great shots of some Tree Swallows and a Forster’s Tern:

Also, babies were everywhere:

Click on any photo to enlarge it and also see the full slide show/album.