November 16 - Cape May redux

Last weekend's rain at Cape May meant we missed some of the seasonal specialties that show up annually here. So, today we made a return trip in much drier conditions.

First up was a Rufous Hummingbird at a home on the north side of Cape Island.
credit: Howard B. Eskin

The homeowners were gracious enough to allow visitors into their yard, and Rob and I got to see the bird after less than 15 minutes of waiting. The bird returned to the feeder after another 10 minutes to give us some more views of this western vagrant that appears on the east coast every couple of years.

Later at the Cape May Hawkwatch we were treated to another increasing vagrant from the southwest in the form of Cave Swallows. These birds come up on the strong southerly flows during each November and are now annual occurrences, whereas a decade or so ago were not being seen on the East coast at all !

credit: Bob Fogg

We did see soem beautiful adult Bald Eagles, but unfortunately for us we did not see any of the larger Golden Eagles make an appearnace today.