I had the pleasure of joining a group for a Christmas Bird Count in Cape May New Jersey. Christmas Bird Counts are an annual tradition of birders who go out, identify, count and record the species they see. All records are submitted to databases and researchers can then use this data to monitor species. These counts are done all over the country, they are fun for participants and the data they produce is useful for conservation of species. The group I was with was assigned to just a portion of Cape May and for the count we had to stay within a designated area. The group I was with are members of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club and they know their birds. I did my best to point out what I saw, but they did all of the identifying. At some of the stops I did pick up some trash, but like some other posts of mine, this one is for the birds. Above are two Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres). There were close to ten species that I was able to see on this trip that I had never seen before, I believe this was one of them.
Three Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca). I have seen Greater Yellowlegs before, even in Pennsylvania. They were still cool to see in a salt marsh.
Two Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura) on a sand dune. Another bird common back in PA, I had just never seen them near the beach before. I wouldn't have even spotted them, had one not flown away from the boardwalk I was on.
This was another new bird for me. It is a Dickcissel (Spiza americana). This is in someones front lawn in Wildwood. It was within our range and still counted in the count.
A Brant (Branta bernicla) again, a new species for me. This was one bird that we saw hundreds of throughout the day.
The last bird of this post, a Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri). Please don't ask me the difference between a Western Sandpiper and a Semipalmated Sandpiper, I still don't get it. This definitely is a Western though. As a group we viewed a total of 68 species. We had to cut the day short due to an incoming weather front. I hope you enjoyed these few photos of what we found. If the birders from my group are reading this, thank you very much for letting me tag along. It was an awesome experience.
This was the trash for the trip, minus a couple of frisbees I gave away before I took this photo back at home. Being with a group and not having my own vehicle I was limited to what I could pick up. There was trash at every stop and a lot of it. Many Pennsylvanians travel to the beach for their vacations and with New Jersey being so close a lot of us do end up on the sandy shores there sometime in the year. Even though it isn't our state, it is our ocean and part of our world. If you visit the beach on your next vacation, please make sure not to leave anything behind and if you can take the time to take out a bag of trash, do so.
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