Unfortunately,
we also have one or more hawks hanging around terrorizing our feeder
birds. We have yet to see a hawk, but that is also the norm. The
feeder birds when a hawk is around either freeze, as the hawk looks for
movement to detect prey, or they bolt for cover and do not reappear,
often for an hour or more. The most likely hawks in our yard are either
Cooper's or Sharp-shinned Hawks, as their primary prey is other birds.
It was another gorgeous day with temps close to 70 deg F by 11 am. As pointed out, this meant some migration aspects would be greatly diminished, such as very few scoter flocks and they were far out, plus very few migrating raptors. We still had many good birds, like lots of Red-throated Loons and Northern Gannets, and a good flock of about 6 Brown-headed Nuthatches seen well by all. Following is our bird list of 29 species for this field trip:
Red-throated Loon
Horned Grebe
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Scoter species
Red-tailed Hawk
Sanderling
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Royal Tern
Mourning Dove
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
Eastern Bluebird (heard)
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
Our cumulative species total for all 5 field trips this fall was 58 species, which is very respectable for our limited area and time of year covered.
If you feel inspired to keep improving your birding skills and knowledge, please keep checking back to this blog site. I plan to keep it updated on a regular basis. And don't forget the great Gannet views you can get from the Cape May-Lewes ferry from about now until March.
On November 18 we will meet at the Cape Henlopen State Park Nature Center at 9 am. From there we will bird the Park until about 11 am. Weather at this point looks good.
On our Nov 11 field trip to Indian River Inlet we collectively observed the following 24 species:
Common Loon
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
American Black Duck
Scoter species
Bald Eagle (3 adults)
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Royal Tern
Rock Pigeon
Fish Crow
Carolina Wren
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Song Sparrow
Boat-tailed Grackle
House Finch
Of local bird note, on Nov 13 we had an adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird show up at our feeders. We had one over-winter last winter, and suspect this may be the same individual returning. Below is a picture of him taken on Nov 14.
OLLI Class Members,
The plan is to meet at 9:00 am at the parking lot on the south side of the Inlet, and closest to the ocean. If you are coming from the north, cross the Inlet bridge and make your first right turn heading back north on Access Rd B (see below map, and click on it to enlarge). Take the first possible right and proceed east under the bridge. This will bring you to the main beach parking lot. Enter the lot and proceed north toward the Inlet. That is where we will park. On the below map, it is about where the "Chill" of Big Chill Beach Club is. Coming from the south, take the exit BEFORE the bridge and proceed north to the parking lot on Access Rd A. As of right now the weather looks good.
Hi Class,
Some of you asked if the Mexican Sunflowers in our yard were good cut flowers, and I said yes, so here are 2 yesterday examples.
Today we began at the Fintel's yard for a discussion of their feeders, water features, plantings and bird houses. The local birds were very cooperative, so everyone got good looks at Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Downey Woodpecker and heard our vocal Carolina Wren, plus our Red-bellied Woodpecker's "sneeze call".
From the Fintel's yard we went to Oyster Rocks Road and out into the Great Marsh. Birds along that route were elusive, like it is a good location for Horned Lark, but they were a no-show. However, we did find some good birds, like Greater Yellowlegs and Yellow-rump Warbler.
On the way back to the Fintel's, just south of Oyster Rocks Road along Route 1, there was a group of 4 or 5 Black Vultures spotted by the Fintel's, but apparently missed by all behind the Fintel's. It was clearly not safe to stop on even the Rt. 1 shoulder, so we will keep looking. Now if you want to look your self, their flight behavior is an obvious giveaway.....4 to 6 fast flaps followed by a short glide, then a repeat of that.
Our bird list for today is:
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture - apparently leaders only?
Canada Goose
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Winter for sure is on the way as we had a cold NE wind and temps of 50°F max.
Details will be posted over this coming weekend on exactly where to meet at Indian River Inlet for the next field trip. A few target birds are Northern Gannets, Common and Red-throated Loons, plus my favorite local winter gull, the Bonaparte's Gull.
