At 7.30am
we joined a guided walk at Belleplain Forest State Park, lead by CMBO guides. More of a travelling convoy than a walk really, stopping off at key spots
within the forest for breeding species, although there were also migrants moving
through.
Even from
the car park we had a cracking male Black-throated Blue Warbler, with American
Goldfinch and Ruby-throated Hummingbird also present. The guides said we would
be 'birding by ear' and that the use of tapes etc would be frowned on (take
note, British birders!). It wasn't long until they had picked out singing males
of Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak. We also had female Pine Warbler
here, which is considered one of the drabber warblers, although US birders are a little spoilt...
At Nummy
Lake, within the forest, there was a summer plumage Spotted Sandpiper. Soon the
guides were on about getting us on to 'pizza'. Now I know Americans are known
for being 'hearty' eaters, but it was only 8am! All
soon became clear - 'pizza' was Acadian Flycatcher, a fairly nondescript
looking flycatcher; it is nicknamed after its call (which although distinctive
sounds nothing like pizza to me!). All perfectly logical then...
After
pizza we moved on to another spot, slightly more open, with fields on the
opposite side of the road to woodland. Here we had Blue Grey Gnatcatcher, a brick red singing male Summer Tanager, Eastern Kingbird, a few Northern Mockingbird and a
pair of Eastern Bluebird.
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| Summer Tanager |
The next
spot down had some longer grasses and we had a scope view of an Eastern Meadowlark
perched atop a sprinkler. We had a Great Northern Diver over (or Common Loon,
if you're American).
We
visited some spots around Sunset Bridge/Beaver Dam, which is more swampy and
thus a good spot for the likes of Prothonotary & Hooded Warblers and
Louisiana Waterthrush. The nearest we came to these three species was a singing
Hooded Warbler which refused to show, however we had a cracking pair of
Worm-eating Warblers, Red-eyed Vireo and a Wood Thrush.
The guides advised putting in some time at these spots for the target species, which we would surely do...
Next we
moved on to a further spot which had a few Prairie Warblers and the walk ended
on the star bird of the morning - a stunning male Blue-winged Warbler. An
Eastern Phoebe was near the forest office.
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| Prairie Warbler |
Next, the beach at East Point for a little wader watching. Within
a small flock there was Least, Semi-P & Spotted Sandpipers, a Greater
Yellowlegs, Sanderling, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher and Willet. Also Osprey,
Fish Crow, Great White Egret and a party of 12 Bonaparte's Gulls (all first
summers) congregated on the beach, making a refreshing change from the
ubiquitous laughers.
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At
Heislerville, our next site, there is a huge herony which contains Great White
& Snowy Egret, Black-Crowned Night Heron and Double-crested Cormorant.
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| Heislerville Herony |
Black
Skimmers are guaranteed here.
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| Black Skimmers - exciting you'd think, but asleep 99% of the time |
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| A rare shot of a skimmer awake by Richard Powell |
This is
also a very good site for wader watching, with huge mixed flocks feeding here
on the low tide. Waders included Kildeer, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs,
Willet, Short-billed Dowitcher, Grey Plover, Dunlin and Semi-P Plover.
Also
noted Black Duck, a male Orchard Oriole, Osprey and Eastern Kingbird.
At
Thompson's Beach a viewing platform offers views over the marsh. Osprey were
numerous here and we had a superb adult Bald Eagle, which was seen off by the
Ospreys. Up to 5 Clapper Rail were seen.
At the
final stop of the day, Jake's Landing, we added Seaside Sparrow, Marsh Wren and
Northern Harrier to our list. A further Bald Eagle, this time an immature and
Glossy Ibis were also noted.
2 Cattle
Egrets were noted that evening, one on the grass outside a local golf club.
Friday 10th May
Overnight
there had been south-westerly wind which is what you want here for migrants on the Cape. We joined a group here to find the trees literally dripping with
passerines.
From the
car park and the beginning of the path, this was pure fantasy birding. The only
problem was knowing where to look first! I was watching my first ever
Chestnut-Sided Warbler and Black-throated Green when someone called
'Blackburnian' - a stonker of a breeding male Blackburnian Warbler came working
through the trees along with Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler and a
few Black and White Warblers. Meanwhile Baltimore Oriole, Scarlet Tanager and
Rose-breasted Grosbeak were in the treetops. Up popped Vireos -
Yellow-throated, Blue-headed & Red-eyed. Ruby-crowned Kinglet also here. All in the space of about 10 minutes. Immense!!
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| The path to fantasy birding.... |
The place
reminded me of a larger version of Holme NWT, but with far more birds and wider range
of habitat. Along the many paths here, the action continued; more warblers -
Magnolia, Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Prairie and many Common Yellowthroat. More Chesnut-sided....more Parulas....
A couple of
Red-headed Woodpeckers over, a singing male Yellow-breasted Chat, a female
American Redstart, 2 Orchard Oriole, Blue Grey Gnatcathcher, Indigo Bunting,
Blue Grosbeak, White-throated &
Fields Sparrows, Eastern Wood Peewee and Great Crested Flycatcher were all
noted.
With this
area so good, it was best not to move too far. Back at the State Park there was
a Royal Tern dwarfing the Forsters on the jetty. Around the boardwalks there
was another Yellow-breasted Chat, a Veery under some scrub, singing male White-eyed
Vireo, 3 Magnolia Warbler, 1 Black & White Warbler, Carolina Wren and 2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow.
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| Black & White Warler |
The area
was now getting busy with birders ahead of tomorrow's World Series of Birding
(a big sponsored bird race type thing) as well as grockles and the passerine
action had died down. It had also gotten very hot, so after a short break from
the midday sun, we went to look at a couple of beaches on the west side of the
cape.
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| Magnolia Warbler - image by Richard Powell |
Norbury's
Landing and Reed's Beach as well as others along this stretch are the places to
view waders and gulls this time of year as they feed from the eggs of horseshoe
crabs. This process was really only in its beginnings, however still provided a
spectacle of mainly Laughing Gulls, along with American Herring Gulls and the
odd Willet and Turnstone feeding on the eggs. It was also nice and cool here
too...
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| Horseshoe Crab Frenzy |
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| Willet |
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| Laughing Gulls |
At the
last stop of the day at Cape May NWR at Kimbles Beach Road where we found a
White-crowned Sparrow at the side of the path. This is a scarce to rare spring
migrant here so we were chuffed.
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| White-crowned Sparrow |
