Results from the World Series of Birding 1997
Stats: 185 species, 10th place out of 60 teams, 22 hours, 600 miles, New Jersey
Team Captain: John Sterling
Caleb Gordon, Robb Brumfield, Todd Easterla and our driver, Robin Gordon
When the clock struck midnight on Saturday, May 10th, 1997, we looked at our watches and listened in anticipation for the nocturnal flight calls of migrating thrushes. We had just arrived at the Great Swamp minutes before--navigating through the muddy roads in our Ford Explorer. We knew from a week of scouting that we needed this night to be good for landbird migration. The northern portion of our route had been miserably cold, with few birds staying on territory and many species not yet arriving. So....this was our big test to see how our day would go. Five minutes went by, ten, then twenty. Wait! Did you hear that? Again, the flight call of a Veery sounded from high above our heads. Sighs of relief. Within minutes we heard several Veery, Wood Thrushes, Swainson's Thrushes and to top it off, a single Gray-cheeked Thrush. Black-billed Cuckoos started calling and we soon tallied over 40 individuals. The sky was clear. It looked like a good night for migrants. Maybe in the morning all of the migrants will have arrived on territory. We may have a successful day after all.
We drove through the moonlight to the large marsh at the Great Swamp. As soon as we got out of the car, King Rails started calling in the distance. Soon we heard a migrating Solitary and Upland Sandpiper, then a Green Heron, a Sora, and a Virginia Rail. But to top it all off, a Least Bittern emitted its strange nocturnal flight call as it flew in circles around the marsh. We had our best start ever, with three species of birds that we had never tallied in previous World Series of Birding events. At 2:30 am, we drove north to Stokes State Forest to try our luck with owls.
We arrived at 4 am. The night was cold and breezy-not a good night for owling. But our scouting paid off. We walked into a Barred Owl territory that Caleb and Robb had previously found, and soon heard one call. We walked further into the forest, checking a marshy edge where on Friday, Caleb had spotted the elusive American Bittern. Off in the distance a Great-horned Owl called. Whew!!! We had both large owls now. Screech Owl would be tough, and we stopped on our way out, but knew from experience that they wouldn't be calling near their larger cousins who occasionally prey on them.
We reached our predawn spot on Sawmill Road. We focused our ears on a lovely hemlock grove along a stream that entered a boggy meadow. At 5:13 am, the Winter Wren finally sang, then the American Woodcock gave its aerial courtship display call and we ran back to the car. Daylight approached and the race was on. After missing the Ruffed Grouse, we proceeded according to plan to the nearby lowland grasslands, hearing a stake-out Blue-winged Warbler along the way. Grasshopper, Savanna, White-crowned, White-throated Sparrows all sang within minutes of our arrival at 5:35. The American Kestrel appeared outside of its nest box, a Spotted Sandpiper teetered along the edge of a small pond. Brown Thrashers flew across the road. We were missing the Eastern Meadowlark and Bobolink, but we took the risk in birding the grasslands this early in the morning as they often don't vocalize until after 7 am.
Our schedule took us back into the highlands where we fought the cold and breezy conditions to get as many forest species as possible. The winter storm arrived just in time for our critically important early morning birding. We kept missing bird after bird and by the time we had left for Liberty State Park at 8:30 am, we had missed many species that we had never missed before. The goal of reaching 200 species this year now seemed impossible. Our worst expectations came true. Our stop for waterbirds at Culver Lake yielded wind-blown hair, bitter smiles and nothing else. Our spirits were low. 170 species now seemed almost out of reach.
We arrived at Liberty State Park overlooking downtown Manhattan at 10:35, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We took a gamble going there as most of the top teams take the western route through New Jersey to the south. We wanted to be different and always had success in Liberty State Park, so we decided long ago to follow the eastern shore route. We stopped to look for waterbirds. Bufflehead, Bonapartes Gulls, Surf Scoters, and Gadwall made our stop an instant success. To our surprise, a Chestnut-sided Warbler sang above our heads in the sycamore tree in the parking lot. We missed that bird in the north! We thought that maybe we'll get some of the birds that we missed earlier at the migrant trap down the road. Our instincts were correct as Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow and several others were lingering in the brush and trees at the education center. We left for Brigantine Wildlife Refuge energized with newfound hope.
After stopping briefly at the Bald Eagle nest enroute and chancing upon a Caspian Tern and Red-shouldered Hawk along the way, we arrived at Brigantine ahead of our tight schedule. This was a good omen. Along the tour route we spotted tough to get birds such as Sharp-tailed Sparrows, Seaside Sparrows, Gull-billed Terns, White-rumped Sandpipers, Northern Shoveler, Green and Blue-winged Teal, and Blue Grosbeak among the many common species to increase our list dramatically. It was our best Brigantine showing ever.
The wind by now had increased to a gale force. We decided to at least try for the many southern landbird species that we still needed. At our first stop, Bobwhite called, then a Prairie Warbler sang. We bolted out of the car in excitement running towards the abandoned house surrounded by brush and trees in the open field. A Yellow-billed Cuckoo flew ahead of us, then a White-eyed Vireo appeared next to Robb. Four important species in 4 minutes! We proceeded to Belleplain Forest and soon found Summer Tanager and Yellow-throated Warbler. Maybe we could actually get more birds in the wind? At Thompson Beach area a stake-out Prothonotary Warbler sang, and nearby a Ruby-throated Hummingbird flew by. These are tough birds to get on such a windy afternoon. We were feeling the luck now. Maybe 175 or even 180 was in reach! A quick stop at Matt's Landing gave us our only Black Skimmers for the day. We then decided to cancel an out-of-the-way stop at Dividing Creek for the Sedge Wrens that Todd and John had found the previous day because we were now running slightly behind schedule. Within a minute of making that tough decision, Todd and Caleb yelled out, "Sedge Wren". One had just sang as we drove by. Coming to a screeching halt, we leapt out of the car just in time to hear it sing again. Wow. Miracles were starting to happen.
At Thompson Beach, we were rewarded with great looks at thousands of shorebirds, with a bonus Bald Eagle and Red-breasted Merganser. As we swung back to the east towards the coastal birding spots, we stopped briefly for a flock of Cedar Waxwings that flew over the road and heard our only Hairy Woodpecker. When we reached the beach at Avalon, we were beginning to get behind on our schedule. A quick stop at the heron rookery yielded Yellow-crowned Night-Herons and Little-blue Herons on their nests. We checked the jetty at Stone Harbor and saw the Purple Sandpiper along with Northern Gannets, Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, American Oystercatchers, Red Knots, a Common Loon, Least Terns and assorted gulls, Brant and shorebirds.
The wind was really howling now and as the clock struck 6:30 pm we were beginning to panic. Counting the species we were amazed that we had reached 180 species already. We drove to Fishing Creek where American Coots, Pied-billed Grebes and Wood Ducks were seen the day before. No luck. The wind kept everything hidden in the tall reeds. Our next stop was the 2nd Ave. Jetty in Cape May. We had always been able to see Piping Plovers here, but again, the wind kept all of the shorebirds well hidden. We scoped the foredunes in hopes that we could spot a plover huddled in a depression in the sand but to no avail. We were beginning to panic now. As foolish as it seemed, we headed to the woodland at Higbee Beach to look for any remaining landbirds. It seemed hopeless as we were greeted by trees rocking in the wind. Luck would enable us to find Indigo Buntings and Caleb spotted a Wilson's Warbler. Now what? We headed to the airport and heard Horned Larks immediately. We tried our luck again at Fishing Creek and saw Wood Ducks flying by. With sunlight fading, we headed back to the airport and heard the Chuck-wills-widows calling the distance. At 9:00 pm, cold and wind-burned, we decided to call it quits with 185 species-our second best World Series showing in four years.