That’s what I was up to this week when I wasn’t home working. Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings I helped lead field trips in Belleplain State Forest for NJ Audubon’s Cape MAYgration festival. The weather was great, and so were the birds, all three trips got good looks at many beautiful species.

Scarlet Tanager is usually a favorite for participants, and Summer Tanagers were seen all three days, too, as well as many of the dozen or so nesting species of warblers, several kinds of Vireos and Flycatchers, and lots more.

Favorite spot on the trips is usually this one, looking into overgrown fields where we often see Indigo Bunting, Orchard Oriole, White-Eyed Vireo, Ruby-throated Hummingbird…

…and lots of Prairie Warblers like this one. We also had good looks at Blue-Winged Warbler today, much harder to see. I feel privileged to be able to have a nature preserve like this close to home.

Speaking of home, I’ve also done a good deal of gardening this week. The bed to the outside of the stone walkway has for years been planted each May with annuals. I’ve grown tired of the labor involved in that, and decided to try something different this year; I’ve put in several kinds of ground cover and just a few annuals in pots.

We’ll see how they do, and which ones survive the voles and squirrels and our poor soil. If some don’t make it, I’ll add more of the ones that do next spring.

Oh, and here’s my entire vegetable garden: one Poblano Pepper plant and some herbs—oregano and thyme. Not quite true, there’s a rosemary bush in another pot. I used to have a real vegetable garden when we first moved here in 1989, but the trees have grown in so much there isn’t enough sun now. Besides, we have great farm stands nearby to supply us.

The larger Rhododendrons are beginning to bloom behind the Azaleas, something which doesn’t always happen at the same time. Looks good.

Rhododendron blooms are quite impressive up close, like a rosette of orchids.

Our big day of birding to raise needed funds for the Cape May Bird Observatory began at 5 AM in Cape May at “The Meadows,” also known as the Nature Conservancy’s Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge. The group was about 20 people including about six leaders. (I’m a little vague on this partly because I didn’t do a head count, partly because a few people left early and one started late.) After our initial pep talk by team leader Mike Crewe (his wife, Megan was our van driver and co-leader), we began our list. All species count when heard or seen, as long as they are clearly identified by at least three members of the group. Most were heard and/or seen by all or nearly all the group. Each participant had pledged a minimum of $1 per species seen. It was still pitch dark as we began, counting the weird buzz of American Woodcock calling, and as first light grew, we were out on the path at The Meadows just making out a few birds on the ponds like Mute Swan and Canada Goose, and hearing the calls of Common Yellowthroat and Carolina Wren. We didn’t spend too much time here, opting to head for the woods and fields of Higbee Beach WMA with about 10 species on our list.

We walked the trails at Higbee for about two hours, adding quite a few more birds like Yellow-breasted Chat, Baltimore Oriole and White-eyed Vireo. There were local residents and some migrants, though many of the migrating songbirds I’d seen Friday were not found, and had moved on. Such is the luck of the draw. If the World Series had been held on Friday, everyone’s totals would have been considerably higher. It had rained overnight, and the skies were still cloudy as we made our way out to the beach. More species like Red-throated Loon and Herring Gull were found by scanning the water and skies and shoreline. As we left Higbee, our total had reached about 60 species. It’s always great to see the number climb quickly early in the day, but we know that won’t last!

Here are our two vans at the Cape May Point State Park where we stopped next for restrooms and another 20 species. The weather continued to be a mixed bag all day, times of sun like this, then a wave of thunderstorms and heavy rain, gradually clearing again. By around 9 AM we were in the vans and driving to the northern part of Cape May County (our targeted search area for the day) to Belleplain State Forest with about 80 species on our list.

Belleplain is the local nature area I know best, as it’s close to our home, and it’s a great place for nesting birds not found further south in Cape May itself. Here’s my wife Ellen on the right, and some of the team getting ready to find more birds.

This was when the skies opened up and we were deluged by rain. We tried to bird in it, but soon had to give it up as it was raining too hard to see or hear anything! This process was repeated several times: the rain would slow, we’d all get out and start walking, and it would pour again.

Finally we took refuge in a picnic pavilion at the Lake Nummy campground inside Belleplain where at least we would walk around and try to see birds. We found a few.

Nothing I could get a picture of, though Mike Crewe did find this cool Rosy Maple Moth on the wall of the restrooms there.

Finally, after losing about an hour due to the rain, the skies began to clear again in earnest, and we were able to get out and find quite a few great local nesting birds like Blue-winged Warbler, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, Hooded Warbler and Wood Thrush. It was after noon when we left Belleplain, and our species list had reached just over 100. We had made our “century mark,” from which the team gets its name, but of course were hoping for a lot more! Once you’re over 100 species, new ones get increasingly difficult to find, but we had quite a few more places to look.

Heading south toward Cape May again, we stopped on the Delaware Bayshore for birds like the endangered Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone and Dunlin, among the birds on this small sandbar. We returned to the Cape May Point State Park for a late lunch break, then spent some time looking for birds around Cape May Point itself.

This Orchard Oriole was one, giving me my first good bird picture of the day. It seems to be finding bugs in a Wisteria flower. At another stop we found a Brown Pelican, a hard one, the first of the year. At The Beanery (The Rea Farm) we added Black-crowned Night-Heron and Prothonotary Warbler, among others. Next we were in the van again to Cox Hall Creek WMA, where we found White-breasted Nuthatch and Downy Woodpecker. At around 4 PM we had 120 species, and picked up another good find, Horned Lark at the Cape May County Airport.

As the afternoon waned, we were looking for more birds at Nummy Island on the eastern shore of Cape May County, feeling weary and dragging a little.

We added more species like these Whimbrels and Black-bellied Plover. But the next round of thunderstorms was approaching, and as we drove north along the coast to Avalon, it drummed on the van tops and made visibility difficult.

This was one place where advance scouting helped. We were able to see nesting Yellow-crowned Night Herons from the windows of our vans, one row of seats at a time, through a small “window” in the trees alongside the road! We all had great looks at this rare species, bringing our list to about 126.

A few more stops as we once more headed toward the west side of the county, picking up Bald Eagle (at last!) at Beaver Swamp, and arriving at Jake’s Landing to this unusual sunset with the dim glow of the sun barely visible through the clouds.

As dusk fell at Jakes we rounded up a few more species like Clapper Rail, Marsh Wren and Northern Harrier. It was after 8 PM, and it would soon be dark. Our plan was to try to hear the calls of a few more night birds like owls and Whip-Poor-Wills, but another round of thunderstorms put an end to that plan! We began the drive back to Cape May, but the rain did let up enough so that we caught the call of a Chuck-Will’s-Widow before we ended our long day of birding back at “The Meadows” at 9 PM, once more in full darkness. My unofficial list put us at 133 species, but I knew I had missed some.

All that remained was to drive in our own cars to the official Finish Line at the Grand Hotel in Cape May, where an army of volunteers was waiting to welcome us and all the 50-plus teams with a round of hearty applause, good conversation, and a tasty hot meal provided by the hotel staff.

Everyone looks tired and perhaps a little dazed, and no wonder. Most of us had been up for at least 16 hours, and birding for 14 of them! In addition to our meal, team leader Mike Crewe had to make our official tally sheet and turn it in. We all went over our own lists and compared notes. When everyone had added their memories and records, we found our official tally came to 137 species. Not as good as some years, well behind our impressive total of 146 last year, but considering the weather, not bad! We all felt good about our effort.

It’s for a good cause, and it’s good fun, too, if you like birds and being out in nature, not to mention the thrill of the chase. Telling stories at the Finish Line, and having a laugh with birding friends is part of that. And as we sat, other teams came in and we joined in the hearty applause for them.

This morning the winning teams are listed on the CMBO site HERE, and a full list of all the teams and their tallies will be up soon, probably by this evening. We’ll be somewhere in the middle of the pack as usual, and that’s fine. I’m very happy to report that, at 137 species, Ellen and I will be contributing $274 to CMBO’s continuing worthy efforts in environmental education, land preservation and research, and thanks to generous pledges from SHAWN GALDEEN, CARL RIGNEY (both repeating yearly pledgers), SUSAN DAIGLE-LEACH, MARTIN B. MILLER, KEVIN ELDRIDGE, and AL B. WESOLOWSKY, we will also contribute another $685! I can’t say how much I appreciate their support.

Today we’ll be resting and getting caught up with things at home, but I know some birders will already be making plans for next year’s WSB. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the event created by Pete Dunne, long may it continue!

I’ve been out birding as much as possible this week, getting ready for the WSB. Tomorrow our team the “Cape May Bird Observatory Century Run,” will assemble at 5 am and bird non-stop until around 9 pm. Every species we see or hear will raise money for CMBO, and their mission of nature education, land preservation, and research. Thanks to some very generous pledgers to Ellen and myself, each species we tally will raise $6, which is wonderful!

The last two weeks, the weather has been lousy for bird migration along the eastern US coast: east winds, lots of clouds, fog and rain. Thursday the skies finally cleared and the wind shifted to the southwest. This morning there were songbirds everywhere! I spent two glorious hours at Higbee Beach WMA enjoying dozens of warblers, tanagers, vireos, woodpeckers, and more. We hope this will hold true tomorrow, though we are expecting more stormy weather, so we’ll see what happens. We can always hope for luck, like the turkeys crossing the road in Belleplain above.

I was too busy looking to take pictures today, but Wednesday I was scanning across a field for distant birds, then looked down at my feet to see these tiny Eastern Tailed Blue butterflies getting some minerals from a muddy spot.

At Beaver Swamp, there were lots of turtles out enjoying the sunshine, just like me. These are probably Painted Turtles.

Wish us luck tomorrow, we’ll be working hard but having a good time birding all around Cape May County, tallying species one by one in all kinds of places and habitats. If you’d like to pledge a donation toward our efforts, there’s still time if you act today. Our usual total is around 140 species. A pledge of 10 cents per species would be a donation of about $14. If you’re willing to donate 50 cents per species, a donation of about $70, I’ll send you any one of my signed prints. Or any two for $1 per species. Email me HERE if you’d like to help raise money for this worthy environmental organization and our team effort, and thanks for considering it!

Needless to say, I won’t be blogging tomorrow, but should have a report on our day up by Sunday afternoon. And, if I have time, I might post brief reports on our progress on Facebook tomorrow.

Images © Todd Klein

The World Series of Birding is next Saturday, and the best time of year for seeing birds here is upon us. I’ve been getting out early as often as I can in search of them. Here’s a foggy morning in Belleplain State Forest.

A Prairie Warbler in Belleplain, a rare warbler close enough for a decent picture.

Usually I resort to photographing things that don’t move like this unusual lichen.

The beaver pond in Belleplain is a good place to find Prothonotary Warbler. I heard them, but didn’t see them.

A walk at The Beanery in Cape May brought this nice picture of a Killdeer.

And an afternoon walk with Ellen at Cox Hall Creek allowed me a pretty good Bluebird shot.

The oak leaves are emerging, and insects will soon follow to eat them while they’re tender.

Back home in our yard, Azaleas like this large-flowered native one are blooming…

…along with the imported ones.

The non-native pink dogwood is also colorful, and there are lots of native white ones in the woods.

It’s finally getting warm enough to keep the sliding door to the screened porch open for a while. So what do the cats do, when they can no longer bug me to open and close the door? Go upstairs for a nap on the bed, of course!

I’m kind of disappointed that I haven’t had any new pledgers for my fundraising efforts on the World Series of Birding this year, just two terrific repeat pledgers who support me every year. Please consider making a small pledge to this worthy cause, the only fundraiser I do all year. You can read more HERE. Thanks.

Swallow-tailed Kite, seen yesterday in Cape May, photo © Mike Crewe. One of those rare beauties of the avian world we’ll be searching for on the World Series of Birding in a few weeks in our quest to raise money for conservation, education and research. More info in the link, please considering backing my effort on May 11th with a small pledge. You can receive one or more of my signed prints, and my sincere gratitude.

http://kleinletters.com/Blog/world-series-of-birding-2013/

The third weekend in April is when we put out our hummingbird feeders every year. That may seem early, but as you can see on THIS map, first sightings have already been reported as far north as Maine! It’s still chilly here, 55 degrees today, but the hummers are arriving, and if we want to have them in our yard all summer, now is the time to put out our two feeders. First step is to mix up a batch of nectar or sugar water: 1 cup of white granulated sugar to four cups of water, stir until dissolved. Only takes a few minutes.

Get out the feeders and hangers from the closet where they’ve been in a plastic bag since I washed and dried them last fall. The hooks attach by suction cup to our windows, the red cups go on the hooks and are filled with water to prevent ants from raiding the feeders, and each feeder hangs below an ant cup. We use HumZinger feeders, they work well and have no small parts to fall off or get damaged, just a base and a lid. Easy to clean, too, and that’s good as you have to wash them before each refilling. I fill each base with nectar, assemble the feeders, and everything is ready to go.

One feeder goes on a front porch window…

…the other goes on a back window. This cuts down on hummingbird fights a little. If you have two or more feeders in sight of each other, one feisty male will try to monopolize all of them. This one will go on a different window, one in my studio, in a few weeks.

At the moment there’s a window sunflower seed feeder in that spot, where I’m still enjoying birds like the American Goldfinch. When it warms up, the songbird traffic will slack off, and hopefully I’ll be about out of seed. That’s when I’ll take this feeder down until next fall and put up the hummer feeder. We’ll see how long it takes for the first hummingbird to arrive in our yard, some years it’s the same day I put up the feeders. They’ll keep us and the cats entertained until September, and I’ll wash and refill the feeders at least once a week until then (more when it’s very hot).

We’re getting to the best part of the year for birdwatching: late April through May (at least here, and in my opinion). Went for a walk in nearby Belleplain State Forest to see what spring migrants/nesters have arrived on a beautiful sunny morning. As always I heard more than I saw, but the paths and roads were fun to walk on anyway.

The best-looking bird I saw was a Yellow-Throated Warbler like this one, but not nearly close enough for a photo, I found this uncredited picture online.

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were everywhere, and curious enough to come close for a photo, though not a great one.

A few other birders were at the bridge on Sunset Road, a well-known spot for birds in Belleplain. Here I heard Ovenbird, Pine Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Eastern Towhee, and more of the birds above.

A walk down this road brought me to the other nearby bridge where a Louisiana Waterthrush was singing loudly, though I couldn’t see it, as often happens. This is a good time to find warblers and other songbirds arriving on nest sites, as they sing often to establish their territory, move around a lot, and the leaves aren’t out yet to hide them. Even so, you hear a lot more than you see.

I’ll be doing this sort of thing to warm up for the World Series of Birding coming up in a few weeks. You can read more about that HERE.

Now I’m home and getting back to work!

This is the post I write every year at this time, the first warm day in March when spring seems just around the corner, and I go out looking for signs of it. In fact, last year’s was also on March 10th, and included a picture of our lone Crocus, the only survivor of a dozen or more we planted soon after we moved here in 1989. Quite large and full of promise! Hope the squirrels don’t eat it this year, but they well might…

As for native flowers, this is one of the earliest, or perhaps THE earliest to emerge in our neighborhood. Looking very exotic, and only found in very wet areas, it’s Skunk Cabbage, a fascinating plant which you can read more about in the link. I just discovered that it creates its own heat, allowing it to emerge even through snow and ice. Yes, it does smell skunky especially if you should break the flowers or leaves, but I find it pretty all the same.

This one is emerging in the middle of a small stream, the leaves are well up, but will spread out quite a bit more. Obviously doesn’t mind being immersed!

The resident birds are singing, blackbirds are flocking and raiding our feeders. Woodpeckers are tapping on a hollow tree, declaring their territory. I heard a few chorus frogs last week, I bet they were singing today, though I didn’t go to their pond. Spring is definitely on the way!