Posted by: Derek Lovitch
Dave Sherwood and I left the southern home base in Millville, after enjoying another spectacular sunrise over the Maurice River. If I sent you a picture, and asked you to name this place you likely wouldn't come up with New Jersey! But, New Jersey is much more than just the turnpike, parkway, and Newark airport luckily!
Dave and I checked out a few more Cumberland County back-up sites for things like Blue Grosbeak and the incredibly elusive, for us anyway, Kentucky Warbler. Bellplain was the big stop of the morning, as we needed to hone our route through there. Summer Tanagers were extremely cooperative for a change this morning, as were Yellow-throated Warblers. It was a much more relaxed morning of clean-up for Dave and I, and we were able to spend a little more time looking at birds and building Dave's Life List. Spent some time birding with my friend Jeff Bouton from Leica Sports Optics in Bellplain, and then headed down to Reed's Beach Road.
Finally, we spotted one of the two White-faced Ibis that have been wandering around this area - a great "write-in" for tomorrow. Dave and I drove down to Cape May Point to complete our team when we picked up Evan Obercian (who we stole away from Pete Dunne's team, hehehe!). Evan will be teaching a migration workshop with Michael O'Brien this week, so he had to get his car from North Jersey down to the Point. He was however, able to squeak in a visit to Brigantine on his way down, after finishing up his last final at Rutgers late yesterday. (He politely asked the White Pelican to stick around at least one more day).
After yet another Wawa sandwhich, the three of us headed north to meet up with Jeff. We scouted the Red-headed Woodpecker that has been hanging out in the Avalon Campground. The owners of the place have been great hosts to the bird and birders, and have taken to keeping a stack of maps to the bird on the countertop! (By the way, it would be against the rules to pick up that map on the day of the World Series, so there was a run on them today!).
We've assembled at my Dad's house in Bridgewater (central NJ), ordered a couple of pizzas, and finish up our plan. If we're lucky, we'll catch a few minutes of shut-eye tonight, before the big rush of adrenaline tomorrow!
