Alone in Cape May

They all left me today; Susan at Lake Life had to catch a ferry at 11 am....Delia at Beginning to Bird had to drive 5 hours back home so she left at 4 pm. Laura at Somewhere in NJ has a two hour drive home, so she left at 5 pm. So here I sit, in a breezeway on the second floor (My name is Luka....I live on the second floor....) freezing my ass off and blogging.

Here we are blogging at a bar with WiFi access.
We were the oldest people in there. What happened to my coolness? I was ready for bed at 11 pm.

Delia wanted a picture of herself in front of the lighthouse, so Laura helped her take a picture of herself. Hellloooo? Couldn't Laura just have taken the pic for you?




At Higbee's Beach, there was a major warbler/accipiter/kinglet/etc fallout. We spent a half an hour standing in front of ONE tree as birds were coming back in from over the water (they got blown out there from the cold front that came through last night) and swooped in to get their bearings.



Golden-crowned kinglets were in every tree.




So were yellow-rumped warblers. This guy is checking out the sky and he had good reason...we would get a sharp-shinned hawk rocketing in about every 30 seconds.



Quite a few palm warblers, too.




When the sun came out, so did the turkey vultures. We saw hundreds. Laura called the flocks "TV Broadcasts".




Want herons and egrets? Come to Cape May. This great egret has the funniest look on his face. "Humans? Are there humans over there?"







We met up with Sharon (Birdchick) at the end of the day, just as she was packing up. She asked to tag along to go see the flock of special birds down the beach. Since she's sort of a birder, and she looked like she needed people to hang out with, we took pity on her and let her come along.

Here's what we were looking for:

Black skimmers. A big, graceful bird. There were two flocks of maybe 30 each. Oh, and that's a laughing gull to the right.

They have insanely long wings for their bodies. A beautiful bird who is in danger.

It was windy.....


"Get your hat, Sharon!"



I think Sharon was hallucinating, because I sure don't see any birds there.
(Just kidding. She was digiscoping the skimmers)





Mixed in with the skimmer group was a royal tern....




And this little guy almost ran right into me as I stood in the surf:

A wee little sanderling. They are the cutest little things. I have videos to share, but that will have to wait until I am home and warm.
As my fingertips are now numb, I think I will sign off for now, read a few blogs and go to bed. Home tomorrow!