Time and Tide, and all that...

Well it's supposed to be the quiet time of year, but with all the upheaval at work and at home, it's been tough finding time to post on the blog. Since the trip to Barnegat Light on January 19th, I've not really done any proper birding, though living somewhere as wildlife-rich as Cape May, it's still possible to enjoy a lot of good stuff on pre-work and lunchtime walks locally. The house list and the year list both progress nicely, so here's a pot pourri of little bits and pieces, drawn from my diary (underlined species are new for the year).

January 20th
A lunch time walk in the woods near home provided an insight into the (mis)use of this lovely spot. A pig sty of a place, full of empty beer bottles and those hideous bright red plastic cups that they sell in packs of 50 at the local Acme store. Still, I found a nice White-breasted Nuthatch which is a scarce bird south of the canal as there is not a great amount of old woodland present here.

January 21st
Logged 23 species in the garden before work, including two Fox Sparrows, 12 House Finches (a record count for us) and our first Yellow-rumped Warbler. A walk at Cape May Point State Park lunch time got me my first Goosander (Common Merganser over here) for Cape May Island, some nice Hooded Mergansers and four Lesser Scaup. At one point, five species of raptor were up and soaring on a single thermal - Turkey and American Black Vultures, Red-shouldered and Red-winged Hawks and a Northern Harrier. Nice views of my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet for the year. All the ice was gone from the ponds for the first time this year (though this was not to last!!).

Male Hooded Merganser at Bunker Pond - a good contender for a mad hair award!

Male House Finch at the garden feeder. Essentially a New World rosefinch, this species was introduced to the eastern USA from the southwest of the continent.

January 22nd
Blew it by not taking the camera - though I might have regretted getting salt on the lens! With the coming of a northeast blow, I went up to Avalon this morning, in the hope of some offshore bird movement - fat chance!! I didn't see a single bird moving south, despite the weather, but this was more than amply compensated for by the spectacle of big rafts of Common Eider, Long-tailed Ducks and Surf and Black Scoters bobbing like corks on a very high swell. The dexterity of these birds in the face of a storm was remarkable; every wave was ridden perfectly, with smooth-topped waves surfed over and breakers dived into. Amazing stuff - but flippin' cold, so I didn't stay for too long. However, careful scanning of the rafts turned up two male Harlequin Ducks and an immature male Greater Scaup, the latter my first for Cape May.

After some shopping, I birded the garden and found three species of wren - the usual pair of Carolinas, a Northern House Wren which has been present for a while now and a surprise Northern Wren. Though widespread in an array of habitats in the UK, the latter species is an elusive woodland bird here, so nice to find one on the open clear-cut area opposite our house (and visible from the yard!).

Largely a southern species, Carolina Wren is on the northern edge of its range with us and the population suffers badly in cold winters.

Northern Wren paying us a visit; mostly a woodland species, I was surprised to see this bird in the cut over area across the road from our house.

This Northern House Wren is braving the weather well north of where most of his relatives are likely to be wintering. Very similar to Northern Wrens, these birds can be told by their longer tail, greyer upperparts and lack of an obvious supercilium which gives them a rather plain-faced look.

January 23rd
Not an ideal day for the avid birdwatcher, I spent most of today indoors at a sales and marketing meeting in north Jersey at Plainsboro. Still, there's always something to be gained from such things and I added Wild Turkey to the year list with the sighting of two beside the road in Ocean County as we headed northward beyond the pygmy forest (more of that place another time - for now, it's part of the New Jersey Pine Barrens). A nice bonus in the garden this morning was the sight of two adult and one immature White-crowned Sparrows coming to the bird seed.

January 24th
Got back from work slightly earlier tonight (ie, I left on time for once!) and had time for a dusk stroll to Hidden Valley and back. The return walk was perfectly timed for the evening flight of American Woodcock, leaving the woods to go out to feed (I won't say exactly where as some people get pleasure from blasting them out of the sky). I had a total of 15 woodcock whipping overhead and heard the first display calls of a couple of birds - a strangely reptilian 'beeep' sound! Another Ruby-crowned Kinglet was seen today too, this time in the hollies at work.

January 25th
A dull, dank day - not dissimilar to winter in the Norfolk Broads! Rain for much of the day, with a lunchtime visit to Sunset Beach proving somewhat futile as the sea fog pretty much obscured everything - including the concrete ship!

The Canada Goose flock seems to have taken to feeding north of the canal now and there has been no reports of the Cackling Goose for a while. The geese come back to roost at Lily Lake at night and often fly right over our house against a glowing amber sky.

January 26th
A day off work and took time out, on a nice sunny morning, to go down to the Cape May Ferry Terminal for the first time. Two juvenile Northern Harriers cruised right past the side of the car as I drove down to the ferry terminal viewpoint - all too quick for a duffer like me to get out with the camera, but great views nonetheless!

The Cape May canal is just about wide enough to consider Cape May Point as an island as it certainly functions as a major barrier to the movement of land animals, as well as to a number of sedentary birds such as nuthatches and some woodpeckers. The canal was dug as a wartime emergency measure to give ships a safer passage into Delaware Bay by avoiding German U-boats operating off Cape May Point.

The construction of the Cape May canal provided a perfect location for the establishment of a ferry terminal which had originally been planned for the end of Sunset Boulevard but had, until now, not been realised. The ferry crosses the Delaware Bay to Lewes, 18 miles away in Delaware with the journey taking around 80 minutes.

The Cape May ferry heads out of the canal on a cold but sunny morning.

Drove round to the Higbee's Beach side and walked out to the very end of the stone jetty that guards the mouth of the Cape May Canal, where 26 Bonaparte's Gulls were delicately catching small, surface-swimming fish with a peculiar, erratic, dashing action. Wonderful birds, very like a Little Gull head on a Black-headed Gull body and wings. Saddened - but not surprised - to find that all Wildlife Management Area signs, as well as the famous Morning Flight Project platform had all been vandalised by a retard with a spray can - though retard is too long a word for him to be able to write. As I write this, I hear that he has been caught by the police....

Bonaparte's Gulls grace the Cape May shoreline during the winter months.

Rounded the day off with a Great Horned Owl calling somewhere to the west of the house.

January 27th
Walked the State Park lunch time and finally got the Snow Buntings on the year list - on about the sixth attempt! About 45 birds were crouching in amongst tussocks of grass and careful stealth allowed me to get within just a few feet of them for some great photo opportunities.

In flight, Snow Buntings can be pretty obvious, but on the ground, it can be a different thing altogether.

When a Snow Bunting wants to stay hidden, they can be tough to find!

Making good use of available cover, Snow Buntings blend in well with their chosen surroundings...

...but with care and patience, close views can be rewarding.

The six Tundra Swans still hang out at Bunker Pond and a juvenile Bald Eagle caused havoc among the local ducks before cruising off west past the lighthouse. Some nice birds put in an appearance at work today, with Grey Catbird and Brown Thrasher around the feeders (both far from common in winter here) and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in one of the Chinese Elms.

Small numbers of Grey Catbirds hang on in New Jersey during the winter, but most head south for warmer climes.

January 30th
A nice male Northern Harrier checked out the sparrow flock right in our garden and some time watching the feeders allowed me to tot up counts of 14 Northern Cardinals, 15 White-throated Sparrows, five Song Sparrows, 60 Common Grackles, 20 Red-winged Blackbirds and 40 Brown-headed Cowbirds. A flock of 11 Field Sparrows fed on the front lawn for a while as the first flakes of what was to become eight inches of snow fell. I also spotted the first Hairy Woodpecker for the garden - which my sister managed to see all the way from the UK as we were on skype at the time!! It really was a raw day today and official figures show the lowest temperatures for the day as being -18C when the wind chill was factored in!

January 31st
With the return of snow, a lot of birds became evident along roadsides, as flocks of sparrows, American Robins, Northern Cardinals and others fed along road verges where gritting and snow ploughing had left clear areas. A check of Sunset Beach provided me with nice views of a male Peregrine who is wintering around the old Magnasite Plant and often roosts on the water tower there.

The Sunset Beach Gifts store without a hive of tourists!

At lunchtime, I was able to sit in the car right next to a roadside piece of flooded woodland, where flowing water had remained unfrozen. This allowed me to get accepted by a feeding party of a dozen or so Rusty Blackbirds and, while photographing these, a superb Virginia Rail crept out of the undergrowth and fed on the edge of the water right beside the road. The latter was a particularly nice find for me as it was a species I had never seen before - though last year I heard one, and found a fresh road kill - almost a tick!!

In the evening, two Buff-bellied Pipits flew over the garden and called as they headed north. So the year list now stands on 122 with the garden list reaching the magical 50 mark - 51 counting in Megan's Merlin that  I missed a few days back!

A Virginia Rail feeds beside the road at one of the few places left with open water.

Female Rusty Blackbird on Bayshore Road. This is a bird of marshland and wintering parties are usually found in wet areas in deciduous woodland.

Male Rusty Blackbirds are a smart combination of rusty brown and metallic blue-black. This species has been scarce at Cape May this winter, so a feeding flock for several days near The Beanery was much appreciated.

Barnegat Beauties!!

For any birdwatcher living in New Jersey or any of the surrounding states, there is one destination to which an annual winter pilgrimage just has to be made - Barnegat Light. On first appearances, Barnegat Light is pretty much like any other part of the Jersey shore; a small town at the north end of Long Beach barrier island, bordered by an inlet where the waters of the mighty Barnegat Bay spill into the Atlantic Ocean. The ends of the barrier islands bordering the inlet are protected - as at other inlets along the shore - by granite jetties that jut out into the ocean, providing a rocky coastline where naturally there would not be one. But Barnegat Light seems to offer something special, maybe it's just the fact that it juts out into the Atlantic further than any other point to the south; whatever it is, Barnegat Light attracts a great range of birds, most specifically, the spectacular Harlequin Duck. This is the most southerly point on the eastern Atlantic seaboard of North America where this species can be seen regularly and that makes it a very special place.

Barnegat Light is 85 miles from my house, but well worth the hour and a half that it takes to nip up the Graden State Parkway to enjoy some spectacular winter birding. I'll let the pictures tell the story...

To get the best out of Barnegat Light, it is usually necessary to walk down the stone jetty, as most of the birds favour the far end - wouldn't you just know it!!

Once out on the jetty, fine panoramic views can be had of the inlet and of the lighthouse which, built in 1859, gives the location its name.

When the tide is in, the stone jetty can be a great place for roosting shorebirds. Remarkably, if you walk carefully and feign disinterest in the birds, they'll let you stroll right on by. Having got them used to you, it is then possible to just sit down with them and snap away with the camera...

Dunlins are usually the commonest species within a winter roost at Barnegat. The plain grey upperparts are a real contrast to the strongly-patterned feathers of breeding plumage.

This dozing Dunlin will appear odd to someone used to British birds. Wintering birds in New Jersey are of the race hudsonia, a form which has a noticeably longer bill than Dunlin in the UK.

Roosting alongside the Dunlin in winter, will be darker-backed birds with ochre-coloured legs and a stocky shape...

...these are Purple Sandpipers, a species that winters on rocky coasts and ne which has benefited from man's use of rock jetties, which provide them with ideal feeding places.

Another snoozing Purple Sandpiper.

Chunky Ruddy Turnstones with bright orange legs are common at Barnegat too.

A handful of Grey Plovers also often join the roost - though over here I should be calling them Black-bellied Plovers of course!

Spending time with the birds will allow them to get used to you and some intimate shots are possible. I particularly like the birds that just keep an eye on you from behind a higher piece of rock, such as this Dunlin...

...and this Purple Sandpiper. Though it's great to be able to get such close shots, it is always of utmost importance to keep an eye on the birds' behaviour and pull back if they are getting disturbed from important rest.

Towards the far end of the jetty, flocks of sea ducks become more in evidence, such as this party of Surf Scoters. The white patches on the heads of the males earned them the local name of 'Skunkhead'.

In flight, it's easy to see the reddish legs of male Surf Scoter.

Red legs can be seen on the water too if the view is close enough. Evolution seems to have played a cruel trick on Surf Scoters though, as that gaudy bill really looks pretty horrible!

By mid-winter, first-winter male Surf Scoters will be moulting from their brown, juvenile feathers into adult-type black plumage. The multicoloured bill starts to bulge out and the eye gradually turns white. A bit of a mess to be honest!

In contrast to 'Skunkheads', Black Scoter really look pretty dapper.

Careful scanning through the ducks found me a nice female King Eider. At first she was way across the inlet with a group of Surf Scoter, but later the birds all moved in to feed close to the stone jetty and I got some nice shots. This is not a common bird in New Jersey, but one or two do appear annually at Barnegat Light. Note the all dark bill which is shorter than that of Common Eider and with a 'smiley' curl to the gape.

Well, I mentioned Harlequin Duck in the first paragraph just to tease you! Yes indeed, the reason for a drive up to Barnegat Light was to have a go at photographing this stunning bird. I had seen a party of five at Cape May back before the turn of the year, but it is at Barnegat Light where the opportunity to get close to this species can really be fulfilled. The males are a truly spectacular bird, but the females have a fabulous charm about them too. On the day I visited, a party of five Harlequin Ducks was feeding just a short way along the jetty and I managed to gradually get them used to me hanging around and looking like I was harmless. Eventually they trusted me enough to actually choose to swim along towards me and climb out onto the rocks some eight feet from me!! The group increased to nine birds and I snapped away for over an hour. Another 19 Harlequins were with the scoter at the far end of the jetty, making this a very special place for this species. I got carried away, filling three memory cards and then struggling to whittle down the pictures to a small selection for this blog! Enjoy the following pictures, then ponder on the fact that it is legal in the USA to shoot this species just for fun. Ponder on the fact that the government actually allow it, and ponder on the fact that people actually want to do it - just to take them home and have them stuffed, not even for food!!

Don't believe me? Check out http://www.alaskaduckhuntingguides.com/index.html.

Big gun small brain? What do you think? Still, it is in Alaska and we all know who comes from there.....

A first sighting of the Harlequin Ducks often involves a confusion of white blobs and stripes, bobbing in the water. Here, 14 birds feed in the rough water around the end of the jetty.

Careful approach will bring better views and the pattern on the males becomes clearer - and the rufous flanks can be seen too.

Like many bird species that spend their lives in open water, Harlequins search for food by peering into the water from the surface - like the female on the right here.

This male is having a good old peer too!

Having spotted a tasty morsel, Harlequins open their wings and literally fly through the water.

With far more skill and brain power than it takes to shoot a Harlequin Duck for fun, it is possible to acclimatize the birds so that really close views can be enjoyed.

Having decided I seemed harmless enough, the ducks started to come out onto the rocks right next to me.

Alert and a little nervous at first, the birds eventually got used to me and settled down for a rest after a hectic feeding session.

After a good rest, it's time for another feed.

Well, that's Barnegat Light and, more especially, that's Harlequin Ducks. It's going to be a difficult blog to follow, so apologies if the next post seems a little mundane!

Kicking off the garden list – and the 100th species for the year

Having moved into our house south of the Cape May canal, it’s been a busy time for us, unpacking boxes (yet again!!) and trying to work out where to put everything. More inspirational is the thought of developing the garden; we have an acre of land, most of which is currently grass, so we have pretty much a blank canvas to work with. The garden is bordered on one side by a strip of land that has been put into the local Green Acres program and is managed as wildlife habitat. This strip runs back and joins onto an outlying part of Higbee’s Beach Wildlife Management Area, which means we have good habitat right on our doorstep and it should be easy to allow the scrub habitat adjoining us to progress onto our land. We have a cluster of large shade trees around the house, including a couple of Red Maples, three Indian Bean Trees and a massive Chinese Elm. The latter is the largest tree in the immediate area so is favoured by a lot of birds as an ideal lookout spot. American Black Vultures often stop by and survey the area – though when it’s cold, they prefer the warmth of a brick chimney on a neighbour’s house! At the moment, though, the trees are far from a god-send; a flock of some 400 Common Starlings are working their way through the local juniper berries and, having gorged themselves, they then sit and digest. The end result? Wads of purple gunk splatting out of one end and the stone of the juniper fruit coughed up from the other end! And it’s all over our cars, our back steps, the drive – still you gotta luv ‘em!!

American Black Vultures warm their toes on the neighbour's chimney. This species is a relatively recent breeder this far north and is also incxreasing as a wintering species, thanks in no small part to Man's influence on the environment.

The lads!! A small part of the local Common Starling flock.

We’ve erected our feeders which have brought in quite a lot of birds already, though the ruffians are currently ruling the roost. Common Starlings, House Sparrows and the odd American Crow, Common Grackle and Red-winged Blackbird have been muscling in but other birds are finding their way to the feeders. Having moved from a house within the woods to one surrounded mostly by open fields and gardens, we’ve lost some of the species we had got used to, but gained some new ones. We still have Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers popping in, but have yet to see a Tufted Titmouse. House Finches are regulars though and the rosy males are a fine sight – though a bit shy so no pictures yet! Sprinkling seed on the ground along the edge of the scrubby area has attracted in a nice range of birds, including White-throated, White-crowned, Field and Song Sparrows and plenty of Northern Cardinals – though the latter are not popular with our resident Northern Mockingbird who thinks they’re going to steal all his rose hips that he’s been guarding to see him through the winter! A flock of up to 15 Cedar Waxwings has also been attracted to the rose hips.

Note a great shot of the Cackling Goose, but the light was going and this was just a quick shot from the car window on the way home from work one evening. However, it does show very nicely this species small size, relatively stubby bill and rather square head and darker breast, when compared with the Canada Goose behind.

Open land means open skies and we regularly get parties of Canada and Snow Geese flying over. I also added the Cackling Goose to our house list, which has been wintering in the area with a flock of Canada Geese. We actually started our house list on December 15th, the day we completed on the purchase, so here is the full list of species recorded so far:

Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Cackling Goose
Mallard
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
American Black Vulture
Merlin
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
American Woodcock
Ring-billed Gull
American Herring Gull
Feral Rock Dove
American Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Chickadee
Caroline Wren
Northern House Wren
Grey Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Common Starling
American Robin
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Northern Cardinal

Not a bad start!

Elsewhere, things have been a bit quiet over the past week. Temperatures have risen enough that the woodcocks have retreated back into the shadows and the Killdeers have stopped dodging traffic along Bayshore Road. My best find was an American Kestrel which was sitting beside Bayshore Road on the 15th, while a trickle of new birds for the year list came my way – oh, and the 100th bird? Turned out to be a nice little Northern House Wren that spent at least three days in the scrubby area across the road from our house.

Lunch time walks around Cape May Point State Park always offer something of interest. One one occasion, a party of Snow Geese were bathing at the Plover Ponds behind the beach.

Mystery in the Marsh! Many people are surprised by the mounds of vegetation that stand out prominently amongst the marsh vegetation at the state park, becoming all the more prominent as the vegetation dies down. Looking for all the world like bonfire heaps, they are actually the homes of Musk Rats and it's only when you see the heaps of vegetation scattered across the marsh that you realise just how common these chaps are.

New year birds
The following species have weedled their way onto the year list:

January 14th
Northern House Wren – Bayshore Road
Purple Sandpiper – One near the fish packing plants, Cape May Harbor
Canvasback – A male with Ruddy Ducks in Cape May Harbor

Male Canvasback with Ruddy Ducks in Cape May Harbor. Once a very scarce bird historically around Cape May, this species increased in occurence during the 1980s and 1990s, but has seemingly returned to its former scarcity in recent years.

Male Redhead on Lighthouse Pond with male Gadwall and female Ring-necked Duck. I include this Redhead picture to allow direct comparison with the Canvasback above. The two are essentially very similar, but Canvasbacks are much whiter on the body and, when it can be seen, have a black forehead. The long bill of Canvasback is also a give away when they wake up!

January 15th
American Kestrel – Bayshore Road by The Beanery
Red-throated Diver – off St Peter’s, Cape May Point

January 16th
Black Scoter – Good numbers at Townsend’s Inlet, Avalon
White-winged Scoter – A single female at Townsend’s Inlet, Avalon
White-crowned Sparrow – a first-winter bird in our garden

A trip over to Avalon on the barrier islands gave me an interesting insight into the feeding behaviour of Pale-bellied Brent Geese. It occurred to me that ducks and swans up-end to feed regularly, but I don't recall seeing geese do this before. These Brent Geese were up-ending during high tide, to reach a bed of Ulva (a type of seaweed) that was temporarily inundated by seawater.

So the total moves on to 107

For posterity, here's a record of the CMBO store as you may never have seen it before! Stripped to the bare boards and ready for a new carpet. Yep, we're already getting ready for the coming season...

Wonderful Woodcocks

A real highlight of the year so far has been the gathering of outrageously tame American Woodcocks around Cape May Point. It started in late December, after the first snow fell; then, woodcocks were coming out to feed at dusk and after dark along road verges where the snow was beginning to clear away sooner than elsewhere. With the ground having been largely frozen since then, they are probably struggling to find food, so are having to spend more time feeding. This means having to feed during the day as well as at night and brings them into closer association with us.

I started by trying to stalk woodcock in the grounds of the Northwood Center - and found it predictably near-impossible!! American Woodcock have eyes placed right round on the sides of the head, which means that they have 360 degree vision! Don't ever think that you can sneak up on a woodcock because they can see you coming from any direction. This is an amazing adaptation, but works well with their cryptic colouration, allowing them to sit tight and keep an eye on any potential predator. If they need to take flight, a whistling sound from the wings draws attention to the bird; this probably helps during the breeding season as it would draw attention away from a vulnerable nest or young. The whistling sound is created by another adaptation, this time to the wings. The outer three primaries have been reduced to thin blades which allows the air to pass between the feathers when they fly and creates the sound. It's a bit like when children put a piece of grass between their thumbs and blow across it; the air speeds up as it passes through the constricted gap and causes the grass to vibrate rapidly, which is what makes the noise.

Rear view of an American Woodcock - there's no doubt that he can see me as both eyes are clearly visible!

Left wing from below of an American Woodcock that I picked up dead on the road. Note the three narrow, outer primaries at the top of the picture.

Having spent time more or less unsuccessfully stalking wary woodock, the continuation of cold weather has pushed them into areas where they can't help but show themselves. At work this has meant the wonderful sight of woodcocks pottering about on the very steps leading up to the store, and ambling around in the front yard. I've seen up to 10 different birds during lunch time sorties around the local block, even coming across birds strolling across the road in the middle of the day! When walking out in the open, they adopt a peculiar rocking or slow bobbing gait which is out of cinc. with their leg movements. I'm not really sure why they do this; some people suggest that it mirrors windblown movements of vegetation, but this wouldn't work if they're going to do it when they're right out in the middle of the road!

Spot the woodcock! I took this picture from the front door of the store, to show a typical view of a cryptically-coloured bird doing what it does best. If you can't see it, it's in the leaf litter between the bench and the upright posts.

Cryptic plumage and bobbing isn't much good when you're crossing the road!

So, after all my stalking efforts, I eventually came down to just sitting with the birds and photographing them, at times from as little as eight feet or so away. I'd like to think that the local ones might get used to me and maybe I could offer them a few worms - wouldn't it be great to be hand-feeding your local woodcocks?! Having got so close, I could see two other amazing woodcock adaptations. The first is the use of the bill and the method of feeding. All woodcock species have a tactile tip to the bill, so it basically works in exactly the same way as our finger tips. If they touch something with the tip of the bill, they can tell pretty much what it is; whether it's soft, hard, granular, slimy. Ideal for detecting earthworms and soil borne invertebrates that are living below the surface. So, their feeding strategy is to stick their beak into the soil and just feel for a second or two. So this is what they do; they bury their beak and hold still. If there's something there, they will grab it, if not, they lift out and stick the beak in somewhere else. So they're not poking around and turning over the soil, it's a much slower and more measured action.

American Woodcock in feeding mode, with tactile bill tip placed well below the soil surface.

The final adaptation was one I was wholly unaware of and discovered when looking closely at the photos I had taken. This adaptation involves the positioning of the ear opening. Birds have open-barbed feathers covering their ear openings which are structured differently to the other feathers on the head. Thus, it is easy to see - on most birds - that the ear opening is situated behind and slightly below the line of the eye. Pretty much as ours are. However, with woodcock, it turns out that the ear opening is actually immediately beneath the front edge of the eye, in the middle of where we would expect the cheek to be! This is remarkable and I'm not sure why it should be that way, unless the ears are angled forwards to listen for invertebrate movement in the soil or leaf litter.

Note the open-barbed feathers covering the ear opening, in the pale area between the two dark stripes, immediately below the front (left in the picture) edge of the eye.

The forecast is for slightly warmer weather over the next few days, so I'm expecting my new-found friends to disappear for a while. However, I'll be happy in the knowledge that this actually means that living conditions have improved for them, at least for a while. So here's a few gratuitous woodcock photos of a few of the local guys - what a great bird this is!!

Scrambling across the rocks by the front pond.

This one looks rather dishevelled and has a broken left leg; I guess it probably got hit by a car. He's been around for a couple of weeks though and seems to be doing OK.

A nice contrast against the green Ivy leaves.

Nicely silhouetted on the front steps as the sun sinks low in the late afternoon.

In With The New....

Well the New Year is well and truly on us, though it's been a bit of a slow start for me birdwise, as we have uprooted ourselves again! Having jumped through all the hoops necessary to buy a house, we got a good team of local electricians in and got enough re-wiring done to allow us to move in to our new house. The electricians still have quite a bit to do, but we have the kitchen and the bedroom done so we have somewhere to eat and somewhere to sleep!

On the morning of January 8th we awoke to a couple of inches of fresh snow - not ideal house-moving weather! Notice how Megan gets on with the hard graft while I am charged with the important task of recording it for posterity!

Here we go again! Yep, another month, another house move. This time it's only 10 miles or so, so we're doing it ourselves - at least we got a tailgate!

Looks all too familiar - all those dreaded Pickfords wraps and boxes!

With Denali navigating we were bound to get there in good time.

Another house, another room full of boxes - will it ever end?!

The weather has also played a part in slowing up the start to the birding year; the Cape May Canal remains largely frozen over and temperatures above 32F are as rare as hen's teeth at the moment, due in no small part to the windy weather which is adding a wind chill factor to the ambient temperature.

Cape May Canal and the Route 626 bridge, looking like a piece of the Arctic.

So my birding so far has largely been restricted to lunch time wanderings from work - though at Cape May that still means some great birding! Lily Lake and all the ponds around the State Park remain mostly frozen, though the aerators keep parts of Lily Lake open, as does the very presence of the ducks - their body heat and constant movement is enough to keep small areas ice-free. Vegetation at the Cape May State Park is being cut at present, which is a pity, as it is completely the wrong time of year to be doing this - but both the state park and The Nature Conservancy property at the meadows are consistently badly managed and sadly progressively go down hill as good wildlife sites. The vegetation that is being cut at present should, of course, be cut much later, in March or there abouts. The very area that two days ago I was watching my first Cape May Orange-crowned Warbler feeding in (along with a busy flock of Carolina Chickadees and Carolina Wrens) was cut to the ground the next day. Birds find a mass of food in such habitats, particularly chickadees and warblers, who weedle hibernating insects and invertebrate larvae out of the plant stems. Cutting now denies them this food source at the very time when the weather is harsh and food is hard to find elsewhere; cutting in March denies them of the food from this source at a time when early invertebrate species are starting to emerge, thus providing them with an alternative food source.

Back to birds; American Robins and Yellow-rumped Warblers are plentiful right now and can be found in good number gobbling up ripe juniper berries (dropping from what over here are called 'cedars'!!!) and parties of Fox, Song and White-throated Sparrows are everywhere on roadside verges. Yesterday I heard a Red-breasted Nuthatch calling but couldn't locate it. Five of the six Tundra Swans that have been on Bunker Pond for some time were still there on the 12th and a nice party of Snow Geese flew in for a wash on one of the Plover Ponds. From the direction they came in, I would say that it was the flock that has been feeding regularly along Bayshore Road of late, just opposite the Beanery. Of particular interest on 10th was a flock of 18 American Black Vultures, soaring up above Stevens Street. This is a species which only in recent years has been wintering in the area and continues to slowly push its breeding range northward.

Driving to work along Seagrove Avenue in search of the elusive Cackling Goose one morning, I came across a small group of White-tailed Deer, including this handsome stag.

A Cackling Goose has been wintering with a Canada Goose flock on Cape May Island but I hadn't connected with it - in part because I hadn't really looked for it! The flock has been roosting on Lily Lake and feeding in fields between Sunset Boulevard and Seagrove Avenue and I eventually chanced upon the Cackling Goose on the way to work one morning. The diminutive size of this bird makes it easy to pick out among the Canada Geese. This bird is rather dark-breasted but structurally appears typical of the eastern form, known as Richardson's Cackling Goose.

Up to 10 Snow Geese have been hanging out on a small private pond along Shunpike Road. Among them is this bird, a dark individual of the form often referred to as a 'Blue' Goose. These birds are true Snow Geese, but are just a scarce colour form.

Part of a flock of 40 or so Snow Geese that dropped into the Plover Ponds for a bathe at lunch time on the 12th.

Ducks have always been of interest to me and looking closer can reveal more than may at first be apparent. On the face of it, this looks like a pair of Lesser Scaup, yet the patchiness of the plumage on the closer bird looks odd. It is in fact a first-winter male; it can be surprising how late some ducks moult from juvenile (female-type) plumage into their first adult type plumage and here, even in January, this individual still shows a lot of brown, juvenile feathering, as well as a rather dull bill.

Hog Heaven!! As someone who is a big fan of Common Starlings, I was a happy chappie to find these guys on the roof of the Sunset Gift Shop before work one morning - actually part of a flock of about 1000 birds. OK, I know that starlings are a big problem for native bird species in the USA but they are smart birds nevertheless. These smart birds were on the east side of the roof, which meant they were in full sun and out of the chilly westerly wind that was blowing.

Taking a closer look again: for much of the year, male and female Common Starlings can be told apart by the colour at the base of the bill - appropriately enough, it's pink for girls and blue for boys. So note the male on the left here and the female on the right. The bird in the middle still has a dark bill - the colour gradually comes as the bird comes into breeding condition.

Brown-headed Cowbirds have become best buddies with starlings and the two species often flock together outside the breeding season. This male cowbird is singing, which - for some reason - involves inflating the head. I've tried it on the wife but she wasn't impressed!

A local patch of roadside verge has consistently produced some great birding for me so far this year. And the good thing about roadside verges is that you can use the car as a mobile hide and get close to the birds. Grey Catbirds are thin on the ground here in winter, but a few do make it through the cold months.

Same day, same roadside verge! Hermit Thrushes are usually elusive woodland birds, but occasionally one bucks the trend.

Persistent calling by a pair of American Crows right outside my office window on the morning of January 5th just had to be checked out. The noisy neighbours led me straight to this fabulous Great Horned Owl roosting right out the back of the Northwood Center. Great Horned Owls have a long breeding season and consequently start early in the year. This bird was found on four days over the last week and is most likely a male settling into a daytime roost, perhaps indicating that a female is on a nest nearby somewhere.

Another shot of the Great Horned Owl at work, this time taken on January 8th.

Flocks of birds have descended en masse in the past week at Cape May Point State Park to mop up all the ripe juniper berries that have dropped to the ground by now. With few people visiting the park in the current cold weather, photographic opportunities are better than usual; here, American Robins, Northern Cardinals and Fox Sparrows litter the verge on the entrance road.

Adult male American Robin at Cape May Point State Park.

American Robins show a lot of individual variation and some can be hard to age and sex. Even so, this is probably an adult female. The head is not black like a typical male, but the bird is an adult based on the uniform greater wing coverts. (OK, that's far too technical, we'll come back to all that another time!).

Yellow-rumped Warblers are the only American wood-warbler species that winters in any number in New Jersey, the rest all heading south for the sun. Despite being essentially insectivores, Yellow-rumps survive this far north by turning to berries for food. This bird was feeding on bayberry...

...while this one was tucking into juniper berries.

I thought I'd finish this post with this perky little Swamp Sparrow who popped up to say "Hi" in the state park a couple of days ago. Swamp Sparrows are quite common here in the winter, though not often as obliging as this one and can often be down right elusive!

The Year list continues to grow and since the 71 species recorded on January 1st (70 on the CBC count plus Canada Goose which I saw outside my count area), I've added the following:

January 3rd:
Common Eider - four at Sunset Beach
Surf Scoter - two at Sunset Beach
Snow Goose - flock of about 20 flying north over the Northwood Center
American Woodcock - four flushed just before dusk at the Northwood Center
YEAR LIST 75 SPECIES

January 4th:
Bonaparte's Gull - three at Sunset Beach
Sanderling - one at Sunset Beach
Brown Thrasher - one at the Northwood Center
Northern Shoveler - three on the Shunpike Road pond
Tundra Swan - six at Bunker Pond
Buff-bellied Pipit - five at Bunker Pond
Mute Swan - two at Bunker Pond
American Coot - Lily Lake
American Wigeon - Lily Lake
Ring-necked Duck - Lily Lake
Gadwall - Lily Lake
YEAR LIST 86 SPECIES

January 5th:
Belted Kingfisher - one at the Shunpike Road pond
Great Horned Owl - Northwood Center
Cackling Goose - flying over the Northwood Center
Wilson's Snipe - one with ducks on the ice on Lily Lake
YEAR LIST 90 SPECIES

January 10th:
Orange-crowned Warbler - one at Cape May Point State Park
Swamp Sparrow - three or more at Cape May Point State Park
Eurasian Wigeon - two males on Lighthouse Pond
Sandhill Crane - on a pool east of Shunpike Road
YEAR LIST 94 SPECIES

January 11th:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - one flashed through the garden at home
Redhead - male on Lily Lake
Red-breasted Nuthatch - one at Cape May Point State Park
Snowy Egret - one in flight over Lighthouse Avenue
YEAR LIST 98 SPECIES

January 12th:
Northern Pintail - immature male on Lily Lake
YEAR LIST 99 SPECIES

So, What's going to be the big 100?!

An End Of Year Miscellany

So 2009 has come to an end, the turkey has been demolished and the New Year has arrived. The holiday period was a bit of a strange one for us, with all the Christmas decorations still packed in a box somewhere and Megan heading off on tour on December 26th, resulting in a bit of a quiet festive period. Still, with the weather being pretty awful, it wasn't really a time for doing too much out of doors. The snow disappeared after a week or so when a warm front brought a belt of rain on the 26th, but temperatures have remained low - indeed, we've experienced lows of -14C when the wind chill factor is added in! We're currently experiencing the second day in a row of very high winds and this morning there was ice on the brackish waters of the Cape May canal - and no sign of a warming up yet.

The New Year kicked off in an unusual fashion here; the Cape May Christmas Bird Count had been cancelled due to the snow over the weekend of December 19th/20th and was re-scheduled for January 1st. So, my first full year at Cape May kicked off with my first Christmas Bird Count (CBC). I was entrusted with a whole section on my own - which was pretty daunting for a first-timer - but I guess they must have had faith in me! The basic idea of a CBC is to count every bird in a given count area. Teams of people scour the area, then meet up in the evening to turn in the results (and have a few beers!). For a number of reasons, counting every single bird is probably nigh on impossible, so the best one can do is to try and standardise the count so that data can be compared from year to year.

Dawn on Route 47, between Rio Grande and Wildwood was lonely and pretty darned cold - it looked like it was going to be a long day! The day started badly as the hoped-for Saltmarsh Sparrows failed to materialise, perhaps because of the exceptionally high spring tide which flooded out all of the saltmarsh. However, this made duck counting easier as there were no channels to hide in. Highlights here included 59 Black Ducks, 475 Brant and 340 Buffleheads; nine Great Cormorants flew out from a regular roost on a nearby pylon. Moving round to Route 147 on the other side of my count area, I added another 340 Brant, two Great Egrets and three Great Blue Herons. The highlight came at the U-turn slip road when I noticed a couple of Savannah Sparrows on the verge. Parking up, I walked the edge of the road here and added both Nelson's and Saltmarsh Sparrows to the list - the Nelson's being a real bonus. A check of a small lake behind one of the trailer park areas off route 9 proved a good move as a duck count provided 41 Hooded Mergansers, 2 Common Mergansers, a Ruddy Duck and a Lesser Scaup - very nice!

The rest of the morning was spent cruising the local back streets with a pair of binoculars - something that's guaranteed to get you funny looks! Still, I managed to be as inconspicuous as possible and find a nice range of species, as well as some good counts of the commoner species. In the afternoon, I spent most of the time to the west of route 9, walking the old railway line north from Rio Grande to the Indian Trail Road. I thought this might prove a bit tedious but in the event, there was a good collection of birds, particularly along weedy field edges. A flock of 25 House Finches, mixed in with American Goldfinches, White-throated and Field Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds kept me busy, and three Eastern Bluebirds were feeding on Winged Sumach berries. By the end of the day, I had found 70 species within my area, a good contribution to the total of 151 species that we amassed between us at the final count. I've put the whole list that I recorded at the end of this post, so you can go have a look or skip it at your will!!

As I was manically counting everything that moved on January 1st, I left my camera at home, so here's a ragbag selection of things that came my way at the end of 2009 and the start of 2010.

With the snow hanging around for nearly a week, I was able to get several opportunities to photograph 'Ipswich' Savannah Sparrows. This was a new bird for me this winter and I really did take quite a shine to them!

With all the Cape May State Park ponds largely frozen over, open water was at a premium and six Tundra Swans regularly fed at a spot right beside one of the main pathways. This gave me plenty of time to take in the differences from birds in the UK. In the Old World, this species is represented by a different form, known as Bewick's Swan, which differs in having a much larger area of yellow on the bill. The North American form is also known as Whistling Swan.

A juvenile Tundra Swan, showing its largely pink bill. Note also that the plumage is pale grey and thus different to the brownish tones shown by young Mute Swans.

Just for comparison, here's a group of Bewick's Swans I photographed in Norfolk in January 2007. Note the bill colour.

Mammals haven't really featured on this blog yet, so here's some end of year furry beasties! Eastern Grey Squirrels are abundant in New Jersey and certainly make short work of any bird food we put out at the Bird Observatory!

Before the big freeze up, a family of five River Otters were seen on a regular basis, though variously popping up around Lily Lake, the state park ponds and across in the south meadows. Counts varied from four to five animals and three of them appeared to be youngsters, so it may be that the male was sometimes present, sometimes off a-wandering. This one (along with three others) was in Lily Lake back in early October and I spotted it whilst trying out the new Swarovski binoculars - which are due out this month!

White-tailed Deer have visited our garden on a regular basis, but remain very wary and unapproachable. I caught this one unawares at 6am one morning, but it looks like it's just got a wiff of me!

And talking of the garden, a few more yardbirds gave themselves up to the camera before the year was out, including this smart little Chipping Sparrow.

Our suet block continued to attract woodpeckers and this male Red-bellied Woodpecker has become a regular. Though often almost impossible to see in the field (due to it being pressed against a tree trunk!), the red belly that gives this species its name can be seen here.

More recently, a female Red-bellied Woodpecker has been showing up too. Note that she doesn't have the red extending across the top of the head, or on the face.

I'm still working on the ultimate Northern Cardinal shot, but this one wasn't too bad!

My second Sandhill Crane of the year came in the shape of one that dropped onto the ice on Lily Lake and didn't seem to mind being photographed from the car, which allowed me to make a close approach. Actually, when it first flew in, it missed the ice altogether and had to swim for it!!

Another picture of the Sandhill Crane, having a good old shake down. I managed to get this bird on my work list too, when we found a tiny gap in the trees that allowed us to set up a scope from within the warmth of the store!

One of the real highlights of winter around Cape May is the chance to seek out American Woodcock. Though quite common, their nocturnal habits and cryptic plumage make them hard to find and they are seldom seen by most people. However, during snowy weather, the first places to thaw are often roads and roadside verges, and up to seven woodcocks were regularly feeding around the junction of Lighthouse Avenue and Sunset Boulevard, just at the time that I was passing by on my way home from work.

It really has been a strange start to the year!! On my way home this evening, I spotted what I assumed to be an American Woodock waddling across the grass at the usual junction - but instead found a seemingly disorientated female Ruddy Duck!! I caught her quite easily under the street lights and added her to the strange but growing list of animate objects that have made it into my various cars! I took her back down to Lily Lake and released her onto an unfrozen section with fingers crossed for her. (Note the time on the clock!)

Having noticed ice on the canal on the way in to work this morning, I nipped down to Sunset Beach and found the famous wreck of the concrete ship looking like something from the high Arctic. Strong westerly winds were whipping up the waves of Delaware Bay and covering the ship in foam. The foam was then freezing, giving the whole ship a thick covering of ice. A small flotilla of Common Eiders was near by, but you'll have to take my word for it as I could barely stand up on the beach let alone take photos of birds!!

Not a picture for the tourist office!! Sunset Beach covered in frozen foam.

Well, the tradditional parting shot rounds off 2009 - a Sunset Beach sunset, complete with Double-crested Cormorants on the concrete ship. 2010 looms, with a new year list, a new house and who knows what else....

My Christmas Count list around Rio Grande/Whitesboro area:

Brant 815
American Black Duck 236
Mallard 71
Green-winged Teal 6
Lesser Scaup 2
Long-tailed Duck 1
Bufflehead 360
Hooded Merganser 92
Common Merganser 2
Red-breasted Merganser 14
Ruddy Duck 1
Common Loon 2
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Cormorant 9
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 3
American Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 8
Northern Harrier 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Grey Plover 5
Killdeer 1
American Oystercatcher 8
Dunlin 65
Ring-billed Gull 72
American Herring Gull 417
Great Black-backed Gull 34
Feral Rock Dove 60
American Mourning Dove 32
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Downy Woodpecker 5
Northern Flicker 3
Blue Jay 30
American Crow 16
Fish Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 34
Tufted Titmouse 31
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 2
Carolina Wren 16
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Eastern Bluebird 3
Hermit Thrush 2
American Robin 577
Grey Catbird 3
Northern Mockingbird 7
European Starling 411
Cedar Waxwing 20
Yellow-rumped Warbler 69
Eastern Towhee 1
Chipping Sparrow 8
Field Sparrow 3
Savannah Sparrow 3
Nelson's Sparrow 3
Saltmarsh Sparrow 4
Fox Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 20
White-throated Sparrow 121
Dark-eyed Junco 65
Northern Cardinal 42
Red-winged Blackbird 210
Common Grackle 17
Boat-tailed Grackle 60
Brown-headed Cowbird 30
House Finch 33
American Goldfinch 28
House Sparrow 58

Total 70 species (a good start to the year list!)

Long-tailed Ducks

I've always had a thing about ducks. Maybe it's because the only really birdy places when I was growing up were the local lakes and gravel pits that surround Oxford in great abundance. Here I would spend time getting to know the local duck species and methodically searching through the flocks for anything different. The first national rarity I ever found was a duck - a Ring-necked Duck at Blenheim Palace lake in 1979, while the first Long-tailed Duck I ever saw was a female on the now long-gone gravel pits that used to be situated where Farmoor II reservoir now stands. There was no access to these pits in those days, but as boys we used to nip under the wire any way and have a good look round - we knew all the tricks!!

Since then, I've seen Long-tailed Ducks regularly, but in England they're pretty thin on the ground and a flock of 20 is certainly noteworthy. In addition, they often tend to be well offshore, particularly in the relatively shallow North Sea where I did most of my birding in the last 20 years or more. I remember once seeing a large flock of well over 100 birds in the Firth of Forth on the East coast of Scotland one winter in the 1990s, but it wasn't until this winter that I really fulfilled a desire to see these birds really well.

Long-tailed Ducks winter in good numbers along the New Jersey coast and, armed with my trusty camera, I spent some time over the past couple of days photographing them. Despite the really cold weather at the moment, I had no choice but to wade knee-deep into the Atlantic Ocean to get close enough for pictures at Corson's Inlet; the water was so cold it was painful - but it was worth it!! The following day, I was photographing Red-throated Divers/Loons (choose your preferred name!) at Townsend's Inlet, when a group of five amorous males chased down a single female and much cooing and courting took place right in front of me, before they eventually flew off out to the breakers again. The call of courting Long-tailed Ducks is a truly fabulous sound - I recommend it to anyone who has never yet heard it. So here's some shots of a fabulous duck; an unashamed celebration of a little cutie!

Wading into the sea allowed me to get my first shots of loafing Long-tailed Ducks - here a nice group of four males.

Other birds passing by gave some nice flight views. Long-tailed Ducks are easily identified even at great range by their all dark wings with no wing bars or white markings, which contrast with the pale bodies.

Rising up higher, this male allowed me to get some of the feel of the habitat into the shot.

As these two peeled away, the crashing breakers came into full view - I needed to keep an eye on them as well as the ducks while I was in the water!!

With a strong swell on the water, timing the shots was tricky, but I was pleased to get this pair riding over the top of a wave just before it broke.

The first full view of a female for you - the left hand bird with the white face and brown back. This is most of the group of six birds that dropped down in front of me at Townsend's Inlet as I sheltered from a hideous cold wind!

Much pushing, shoving, cooing and generally showing off followed!

The female makes a getaway during a particularly boisterous moment, but she didn't go far before dropping into the water again - I think she quite liked the attention! Most of our northern ducks court and pair up during the winter; this allows for better use of their time during the relatively short summer that they spend in the high Arctic. If they are already paired up, they can go north in the spring and just get on with the family raising chores. (Or at least the females can; the males don't have much to do with it, but that's another story!

The female's certainly the centre of attention here!

The female dives....

...and the lads are left looking for her!

Well, there you go, that's Long-tailed Ducks for you - though I reckon they will feature again soon!