I surveyed GBB WMA from 1:45pm til 4:30pm. The afternoon started out mostly cloudy but gave way to sunshine by the time I hit the bay beach. Like my last survey out @ GBB there wasn't much to see in the way of shorebirds except for the group of Lesser Yellowlegs that was again in the marsh area across the road from Capt'n Mike's. Today's count of LYL was 31 (last survey there were 51 in the same spot). Other shorebirds seen were 1 Amr. Oystercatcher (juv); 4 Least Sandpipers (juv's); 1 Semipalmated Plover (adult); 4 Semipalmated Sandpipers (1 juv, 3 adults).

Also seen today were a small group of Chickadees that seemed to be following along my vehicle for a bit while I drove down the road. One perched for a nice photo op after a little pishing. There were 5 Sharp-tailed Sparrows flying in and out of the marsh grasses down by the bay beach. One other note was a female Yellow Warbler in the bayberry thicket & fragmities by the end of GBB.

The best part of today's outing was the amazing gathering of Monarch butterflies! For those who know the narrow path down to the bay beach @ GBB, well every bayberry tree, every vine length of Virginia creeper that borders the narrow path was covered in Monarchs! The path had 100's of Monarchs and as you walked down the the path the Monarchs would fly from their perches and flutter all around you. It was amazing! I've included some photos of the Monarchs in today's Flash slideshow, however they don't do the Monarch's numbers and activity on the path justice.

http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page33/page34/page34.html

A smartly written article on fall migration called "Songs and Sojourns of the Season" written by Natalie Angier is currently on the NY Times website.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/science/18angi.html?ref=science

Yesterday while sitting on the beach in OC, NJ watching small groups of Sanderlings feeding and a few being territorial I wish I had my digital video camera with me to capture the action. This made me remember that I no longer had my "Movies" page linked with the current temporary redo of my shorebird survey website. So I just took care of that! I have categorized the species movies into Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter (according to when the movies were shot).

http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page31/page31.html

A new addition to the website is the "Shorebird ID Online References" page. This page lists the species from our shorebird survey forms and has various direct links to field guide/ species information websites. I find the websites helpful in addition to the various paperback field guides that I use, I take any help I can get with ID'n birds!

If anyone has any suggestions for additional resource links that aren't on "Shorebird ID Online References" page and or "Info" page please send me your links via the "Feedback Form".

Just a side note, I'm still in the midst of redoing the Shorebird and Other Photo Albums so most of the albums don't have photos right now.

*Please remember to refresh your browsers or clear the cache to view the newly updated website.

Thanks & Happy Birding!
Susan

This is odd for me to have to post that this is my 1st survey of the fall season, not to mention 1st survey of 2007 but I'll just add it was good to be back out again!

It was great weather on Tuesday, 70's, low humidity, sunny with some high clouds, strong ENE winds and the tide was high. I surveyed from approximately 12:30pm til 3:30pm.
Although I didn't see any large totals there was 1 group of 51 Lesser Yellowlegs across the street from Capt'n Mike's and a pair of LYL at another area. Also seen in various marsh areas were a total of 4 Black-bellied Plovers, 1 Least Sandpiper, 1 Semipalmated Plover and 1 American Oystercatcher. Other notables were plenty of Great and Snowy Egrets, 1 Tricolored Heron, 2 Great Blue Herons and 2 Ospreys.

Flash slideshow: http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page22/page29/page29.html

* For "Flash slideshows" mouse over the top of photos for the caption/description and mouse over the bottom of the photos for slideshow controls.
* Please remember to refresh your browsers for newly posted items.

I was in the area of Malibu Beach on 9-17-07 and stopped for a quick look. The tide was high so the sod banks were not exposed. There was a group of 25 American Oystercatchers. The only other shorebird species seen were Sanderlings of which I didn't get a count on.

Flash slideshow: http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page22/page28/page28.html

On BirdCapeMay.org website is an article under the Tigrina Times Magazine, Birding Fieldcraft, by Don Freiday "Using Size in the Field". The artcicle has good pointers on using size in species ID.

http://www.birdcapemay.org/tigrina/tips.shtml

I took advantage of the nice weather and ventured out to Brigantine/Forsythe on Wed & Thur. 1000's of shorebirds to be seen. Thur had a group in the 1000 range of Semipalmated Plovers and Semipalmated Sandpipers. Also Gulls and Terns galore. Great and Snowy Egrets are every where. Thur had good sized groups of crows (Fish crows?). The American Avocets (3) & the American White Pelican (perched on the same log way out off the SW pool tower) were seen both days. Thur I also got to see a group of 10 Stilt Sandpipers.

Click on the photo below for Flash slide show. Below Stilt Sandpipers.

Here's a collection of links for Shorebird ID Online References for the shorebirds listed on our survey data sheets. There are also a few other species included that are seen in our survey areas as well as a few links to other helpful shorebird references.

ID ref's

I just put up a 2nd Flash slide show of photos that I shot while @ Brigantine/Forsythe on 9-01-07.

http://susan.thespikeranch.com/page22/page26/page26.html