The Herring takes the cake!

After driving through pouring rains, wind swept soggy roads and blurry fogs, Cape May was finally in sight after midnight. Bright sunshine, brisk blustery winds and biting cold welcomed us the following morning. We combed ebird alerts and hourly updates for any snowy owl sightings over hot tea and oatmeal. There had been sightings in recent days at Nummy Island, Stone Harbor and Forsyth, so off we drove, hoping this would be the day.

Between the toll and the free bridges on Nummy island, we trained our binoculars on the landscape: a person carrying a rifle at 2:00, a white bucket at 5:00, a large flock of Brants in the bay, diving ducks on the right, but no owl.

Despite spending 2 days of scouring the tidal bays and meadows from the car, visiting Nummy Island twice and driving through the Forsyth Wildlife Drive and chatting with other birders, we didn't catch a glimpse of a snowy owl, but we did enjoy many other amazing sights, including:

soaring birds

beautiful ice creations

ice filled landscapes

and numerous birds,

including an immature common loon, long tailed ducks in winter plumage, american black ducks, 100's of brant geese, a northern harrier, a peregrine falcon, northern pintails,

common merganser and even a bufflehead. 

But the bird who took the cake and a show bird at that, was 

a Herring Gull. 

As we drove along Forsyth Wildlife Drive, a gull suddenly landed abruptly right in front of our car. 

We stopped in the nick of time and then he began his show.  

He had a large oyster and 

flew up above us about 6 to 8 feet 

 then dropped it onto the road, over and over.

After just 3 times, success!

After gobbling it down, off he flew, 

leaving us in wonder and delight to take in the late afternoon rays

 for a memorable weekend, after all.