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.

Windy Winter Visit to Forsythe NWR

The weekend of January 30th was a productive and exciting birding weekend. Traveling up to Forsyth, using the new and improved exit 41 from the Garden State Parkway, with windy, cold, but sunny weather, we saw many birds, including:

Black Duck - 100+

Snow Goose - 400+

Northern Pintail - 50+

Black Scoter - 30+

Bufflehead - 2 pairs

Hooded Meganser -  4 pairs

American Wigeon - 10 Pairs

To top off the slow exit from the park, perched on an osprey nest, was a proud juvenile Bald Eagle.

The photos are poor overall, due to the windy conditions, but I wanted to document some firsts for me including the Buffleheads, Hooded Megansers, the Immature Bald Eagle and the American Wigeons.

The following day, with temperatures in the mid 50s and sunny, driving past Lake Lilly in Cape May Point, we saw flying overhead a stunning mature Bald Eagle. Over at the state park, there were numerous Yellow-rumped Warblers,

Gadwals, Black ducks, Mallards, and a Mockingbird.

Off the dune trail, a pair of Northern shovelers were oblivious to our presence as they did a mating dance/ swim.

The pair circled and circled, barely coming up for air, creating large round ripples, as seen above.

The Quest for the Snowy Owl Continues

After checking various blogs and calling several NWRs, we drove 50 minutes from Cape May to Forsythe NWR last weekend, January 18th, as a Snowy Owl had been sited that morning on the 8-mile Wildlife Drive, right at the first curve. There had been even one the day before spotted on the roof of the headquarters there. This is where most of the owls have been spotted and
I hoped we would be lucky.

It was our first visit to Forsythe and it was amazing with an expansive sky view, rich feeding and nesting areas and about 1,500 acres of fresh/brackish water marsh habitat created by a dike system that can be manipulated depending on the seasons, not to mention 5,000 acres of woodlands and 46,000 acres total.

I shot anything that was white, just in case . .

After we drove the first 5 miles or so, my heart started to sink, but then our attention was drawn to the 1000's of snow geese taking off and their undulating flight patterns . . .

for them to then just settle down again a few meters away . . .

This Peregrine Falcon got the most of attention at the time we drove through, with many stopping to take shots. A Snowy Owl had been spotted in the same location just a day before.

And at the end of the drive was a pair of Common Pintail . . 

The closest I'm going to get to a Snowy Owl this year is this lovely print I found at the West End Garage in West Cape May. 

Perhaps, I will have better luck next year. According to Clay and Pat Sutton's Birds and Birding at Cape May, Snowy Owls can be seen in the area annually. (page 150-151)

During the quest, I learned more about how to access more current information through Twitter and sites listed on the right column of my blog under Useful Birding Links, which I will continue to add to. Project SNOWstorm is especially worth a peak, as transmitters were attached to several owls to track their movements and the findings are exciting.