Trip Highlights

We started out on a cool but sunny morning with 11 people.  Our first interesting bird, and perhaps the best of the day, was a very low flying Pileated Woodpecker.  As he moved from tree to tree, he stayed mostly under 6 ft off the ground and occasionally was even on the ground.  We had a number of near ground woodpeckers that day mainly Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers.  The warblers however stayed mostly high in the trees and confounded our ability to ID the majority of them.  The other highlights included a Brown Creeper and Red-breasted Nuthatch.  We had a late Phoebe and a Red-eyed Vireo.  Our only sparrows were a trio of Songs and the water was bereft of fowl other than a few mallards accompanied by a pair of Double-crested Cormorants and a Great Blue Heron.  It was a nice day for a walk, but not a great number of birds.   Our total species count for the day was 23.

We had a beautiful sunny day to bird today, with 9 participants in total.  We started at the Northampton meadows driving along the runway and later through and around the fields.  The star bird of that area was the Peregrine Falcon.  We had a total of 16 bird species for that area. Then we headed over to Arcadia and had a total of 24 species there so then 40 species in total for the trip.  We saw many Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting around.  We had a nice view of a Coopers Hawk as well.

September 20-23, 2019 - There were 5 participants and we listed 114 species on this trip.   The weather was perfect, sunny and warm to hot, 70's to high 80's.   No rain.  We went to the typical spots.

Brigantine was low on shorebirds because they had already started flooding the impoundments.  Additionally, we hit it as the tide was rising, so we missed Rails.

On Saturday, Higbee started out promising at the tower and below the dike, but the fields were sparse, although we did have some notable species, including a Red-headed Woodpecker flyby and a brief glimpse at Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  The hawk watch was very good despite clear blue skies.

Nummy's and Stone Harbor gave us the usual suspects - both Night-herons, Little Blue, and Oyster-catchers.

Our add-on to the Delaware side was well worth it, and we will probably do it again.  We might plan to take a ferry early enough on Sunday in order to bird at Prime Hook that afternoon/evening.  Then we could get to Bombay Hook early in the day on Monday in order to leave there by noon and try to miss some traffic in NJ going home.

Additional highlights were Tri-colored Heron, Moorhen, Golden Plover, Brown Pelian, White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpiper, Black Skimmer, and Stilt Sandpiper.

There were 12 people on a mostly cloudy, chilly morning.  The day started off very quiet, with little sign of the migrating warblers that we were all hoping for.  We did see a Black-and-white Warbler, a Redstart and a first fall Prairie Warbler.  Another highlight was a good view of a Broad-winged Hawk circling overhead.  In all we saw 37 species.

Visitors:  Members of the Allen Bird Club and the Hoffmann Bird Club held our joint annual hawkwatch and picnic today.  Also observing with us were visitors from Granby, CT, who attended Seth’s "hawk talk" at the Granby Public Library earlier this week.  Two staff members from Massachusetts Audubon brought some guests as well.  Approximately three dozen persons in all.

Weather:  Mostly sunny; cloud-cover never exceeded 15%. Temp 60s-70s F.  Wind NW~WNW 5-10 mph, becoming W 0-5 mph late.

Raptor Observations:  Largest kettles of Broad-wings: 106, 95, 66, 50 (twice).  Birds were often hard to see, flying high and against blue sky.  Non-migrants: Turkey Vultures, Bald Eagles (3), Cooper's Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawks (2), Red-tailed Hawk.

Non-raptor Observations:  Rock Pigeons (flock of 50), Chimney Swift, Hummingbirds (4), Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-headed Vireos (2), Red-eyed Vireos (2), Blue Jay, American Crow, Common Ravens (2), Black-capped Chickadees (3), Tufted Titmice (2), House Wren, Cedar Waxwings (4+), Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, American Redstart (m), Pine Warbler, Common Yellowthroats (2), Field Sparrow. Monarchs: 18. Viceroy.