FLIGHT OF THE KINGLETS

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Ruby-crowned Kinglets are such wonderful little creatures, hover-gleaning under leaves or foraging on plants 

AT CAPE MAY'S MORNING FLIGHT, A BIG PUSH OF RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS joined the Sharpies and Yellow-rumpeds . Although both of the latter were still on the move there was a noticeable spike in kinglet numbers today, of both species but particularly Ruby-crowned. They even flew between the birders gathered on Higbee Dyke, landing everywhere. ‘Counter’ Sam has even had them land on him previously here. Brown Creepers were also more in evidence today, although flicker numbers were markedly down on a couple of days before. Cape May resident Glen Davis commented that he had never seen so many kinglets migrating as this autumn…so it is little wonder that kinglets made it to the Azores and Ireland this autumn. This is a totally incredible phenomenon but we tend to forget that even smaller creatures complete this journey routinely – Monarch butterflies for instance. I have often wondered why both continents only have two kinglet species each (there are two island species as well – Flamecrest in Taiwan and Madeira Firecrest). So when 26 forms make up the Goldcrest/Kinglet family there must surely be some future splits on the cards? 

SSHA...SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS!

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Sharp-shinned Hawk is a very prominent autumn migrant at Cape May.

SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS STOLE THE SHOW TODAY in the same way that Yellow-rumped Warblers had done the previous day. I saw several hundred of them bombing through the narrow belt of dunes at the point, all re-orientating back north and some pausing to hunt terrified Yellow-rumped Warblers amongst the dune scrub. Several Cooper’s Hawks were with them and TVs and Golden Eagles were still on the move today, although the number of passerines was much reduced. The hawks following their song bird prey south as the big clear-out of the northern forests continues.

CAPE MAY HAWKWATCH

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Golden Eagle is another Cape May special and this one delighted the crowds with a fly past of the Hawkwatch Platform 

CAPE MAY IS ALSO FAMOUS FOR ITS HAWK WATCH PLATFORM and the conditions that proved ideal for passerine migration also brought a strong raptor passage. Most of the Broad-winged Hawks had moved through already but there were still a few in the kettles of TVs (Turkey Vultures) along with plenty of accipiters – Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks. Falcons included a Peregrine amongst the American Kestrels and Merlins. The icing on the cake of a respectable total of 15 raptor species was five sightings of Golden Eagle and a juvenile light morph Swainson’s Hawk, the latter a New Jersey rarity and an unfamiliar plumage for most. One of the young Goldies attempted a crossing of Delaware Bay but soon turned back after the strong northwest wind started to blow it out to sea. A nearby Vesper Sparrow in a wood pile also provided some excitement for local birders. 

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TV or Turkey Vulture! 

CAPE MAY VIZ-MIG SPECTACULAR

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Yellow-rumped Warbler was the bird of the day with an incredible 15,000-20,000 migrating at Higbee Dyke alone! 

CAPE MAY IS SYNONYMOUS WITH VISIBLE MIGRATION IN NORTH AMERICA and it did not disappoint on my recent visit to attend the 67th Autumn Birding Festival there. I feel very lucky this autumn with the timing of my visits to migration hotspots and just like Spurn Point the previous week, conditions for visible migration were again very good. First of all a fast moving cold front in late autumn tells insect-eating birds it is time to move south and associated strong northwesterly winds at night push migratory birds to the coast and ultimately down New Jersey’s Cape May Peninsula. As they run out of land at the tip of the peninsula they put down. At first light these birds start to re-orientate by flying back north along the landward side of the peninsula, on the shore of Delaware Bay. It was Richard Crossley and Paul Holt who ‘discovered’ in the 1980s that this movement could be seen from the dyke at Higbee Beach, where they break cover from the wood lots and cross the Cape May canal, which effectively makes the point an island. There was a great bunch of friends gathered here for what turned out to be the biggest day of the autumn so far with somewhere between 15,000-20,000 Yellow-rumped Warblers alone making the ‘morning flight’ north across the canal. The sky was literally covered with birds for the first couple of hours of light. ‘The counter’ Sam picked out Blackpoll and Tennessee Warblers by call and a few others included Black-throated Blue and Northern Parula. Both kinglets were also well represented and the bushes were alive with sparrows, mostly Chipping and White-throated, however, the other most obvious species were Northern Flickers and Sharp-shinned Hawks as well as Rusty Blackbird, with around 50 seen amongst the flocks of red-wingeds passing over. I have never seen anything close to the scale of this movement of passerines in such a short period of time and after a while I stopped using binoculars and just stood and stared at the jaw-dropping spectacle. In the distance, continuous lines of Black Scoters were moving south in Delaware Bay, several Northern Harriers passed by and a ‘Common-Loon-in-the-moon’ caused some laughter.

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Yet another Yellow-rumped Warbler! Although there were so many of them not all would pose for a photo!