Spring Trips - Migration Fever

It happens every spring.  NOT baseball but massive bird migration.  And with the movement of the birds and the warmer days we cannot reisist taking little trips to some of our favorite places.  Last week we headed to Cape May which is where we spent some of our courtship.  For us it is a dual pleasure of a romantic getaway and a terrific birding spot. 

Cape May is sort of a wonderland of miracle birds.  We have seen our first of alot of species in and around Cape May.  Not so this year.  It was the right time of the year but the weather had not brought the usual flocks of warblers and shore birds into view for us.  We did catch a great look at laughing gulls feeding on horseshoe crabs eggs.  At least that is what we assume is at the bottom of this pile.

Spring rituals that happen every year assure that the laughing gull population will continue to thrive.

Birds everywhere are seen in twos.  These two oyster catchers were feeding in the mud on one of the many crowded beaches.

We did not neglect our little songbirds.  At Higbee Beach even a slow day has a few highlights.  This indigo bunting serenaded us from the treetops and the prairie warbler followed us around singing his chromatic scale.  We almost met up with an unwelcome mammal as this skunk crossed our path while our eyes were on the treetops!

This weekend sent us in search of the king eider that was spotted at Sandy Hook.  As we walked  a quarter mile on a soft sandy path each person carrying a scope or binoculars assured us that there was not one but TWO male king eiders.  Just as we were rounding the end of the path and heading out to the beach the story changed.  They were there until a couple of fishermen flushed them.  We were assured that they always return soon.  We stayed for over an hour looking at other shore birds but of course the eiders never returned.  We did catch a glimpse of oyster catchers, black skimmers, numerous gulls and terns and sandpipers.  The ruddy turnstones above were flying overhead.  By far our favorite little shore bird it the endangered piping plover.  We found a this pair flirting with our camera on the beach.