Where's Warblers?

We spent an intense two days birding at Cape May. We started at 5:30 each morning and went from hotspot to hotspot until dusk, punctuated by refreshment stops at the nearest WaWa. There were 13 of us in four cars. Ellen and I managed to tag along with Jim and Vin, the trip leaders in Jim's car. This meant that we didn't have to move Speedy (and the trailer!).

Each day started with a breakfast trip to the local WaWa store. WaWa is a convenience store on steroids. It not only has all of the usual convenience store stuff, but also lots of prepared foods and a deli-style counter where fresh sandwiches and other meals could be ordered. They even have decent espresso drinks. I could start the day with large Cafe Latte (and also mid-morning and mid-afternoon). There were several WaWa stores in and around Cape May and they became our source of breakfast, lunch and coffee breaks.

After a quick breakfast, we'd head out to the prime morning hotspot, Higbee Beach. Jim and Vin are much better birders than Ellen or I and would roll along at about 30 mph and call out bird species as they heard them. We'd occasionally lurch to a stop to hop out to look for something interesting. We'd still get to Higbee Beach by around 6 am.

The birding wasn't actually done at the beach but in the woods of the Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area inland from the coast. The WMA is riddled by trails and was filled with birds. Friday morning was good when the group saw 62 species in about three hours, but was even better on Saturday when 84 species were seen, with about 20 species of warblers before we even left the parking lot.

On Saturday, we traveled up the west side of the Cape from Higbee Beach to Bellplain State Forest stopping at seven spots between 6 am and 6 pm (and four WaWa stops and one Cape May Bird Observatory bookstore stop). Well over 100 species were seen.

On Sunday, we traveled from Higbee Beach down to the state park at point of Cape May, then up the east coast of the cape and finished back at the point at the Cape May Meadows. Even more species were seen on Saturday, probably close to 150.

Here is the complete list of stops we made and a link to the lists of birds we saw.

2014-05-11 16:56 Cape Island--CMMBR (Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge (Meadows))
2014-05-11 16:08 Middle Township - 39.0315x-74.7994
2014-05-11 15:30 Nummy Island
2014-05-11 14:41 Stone Harbor Causeway--Wetlands Institute
2014-05-11 13:31 US-NJ-Middle Township-400-498 E Shell Bay Ave
2014-05-11 11:34 Cape Island--CMPSP (Cape May Point SP)
2014-05-11 11:03 Cape Island--CMP--CMBO Northwood Center
2014-05-11 10:25 Cape Island--Stevens St.--Hawkwatching site
2014-05-11 06:03 Cape Island--Higbee Beach WMA
2014-05-10 17:39 Cook's Beach
2014-05-10 16:32 Reed's Beach
2014-05-10 16:17 Reed's Beach--Douglass Pond
2014-05-10 14:56 Jakes Landing
2014-05-10 10:31 Belleplain State Forest
2014-05-10 09:58 Cape May - 39.0307x-74.8948
2014-05-10 06:06 Cape Island--Higbee Beach WMA
2014-05-10 06:00 Cape Island--The Beanery--Bayshore Rd pool (ephemeral)

At the end of the day on Sunday, we parted with the rest of the group and headed off to the Bellplain State Forest campground where we would spend the night. We planned to drive home on Monday. We had hoped to reach the campground before dark, but didn't quite make it. There are two camping areas in the forest, one right near the entrance and one near a lake. The office was closed when we arrived, so we drove to the nearer campground.

It was very dark....and very empty. There were no lights anywhere. It didn't say it was closed, but we decided to try the other campground. It was also very dark, but at least there were a few other campers. We found a nice big site that we could pull into and then out and had our dinner. It was from our last stop of the day at a WaWa on the way to the state forest. They make a pretty good quesadilla from scratch. We picked up a couple and they were still warm when we made camp.

Monday we drove home. Not much to say about the trip. It was all highway. We did the entire length of the Garden State Parkway, went over the Tappan Zee Bridge, Interstate via Danbury, Hartford and Sturbridge, the Mass Pike, Rt.128, Rt. 3 and home at last.