Watching Raptors at Sea Level

By John McGonigle

Cape May State Park is one of the nation’s best places to watch southbound migrating raptors.

CAPE MAY, N.J. – An osprey soared across the sky, followed on the same path by another masked fish hawk. The second osprey carried a silver-sided fish in its non-slip talons.

Disturbing the peaceful scene, an adult bald eagle stooped, or dove, with ferocious speed at the trailing osprey, dropping 1,000 feet faster than it takes to tell it.

The osprey appeared unaware of the eagle until the last moment; it attempted a barrel roll to protect itself with its talons from the larger bird. Too late! The eagle hit the osprey hard, spinning it wildly and knocking it off its line of flight, causing the osprey to drop its prized fish from a great height.

Momentarily it seemed that the two birds were frozen in time, but it was over quicker than that. The eagle continued its stoop for several hundred feet before breaking off the chase for the falling fish. The fish hit the water while the eagle and osprey flew off in opposite directions, oblivious to the other.

This exciting tableau played itself out in the sky directly in front of the hawk-watch platform at Cape May State Park in New Jersey, where the Delaware Bay joins the Atlantic Ocean.

Cape May is considered one of the finest spots in the nation to view southbound migrating raptors, as well as multiple thousands of migrating passerines, shorebirds and waterfowl. The first week of October in Cape May is considered one of the best times and places to see raptors, especially peregrine falcons, which were extirpated in the eastern United States.

The weather was too hot for hawks and hawk-watchers, although the general, run-of-the-mill beach-goer would have considered it nirvana with blue skies, bright sunshine and temperatures in the low- to mid- 80s; it was humid, too. It was difficult to spend more than a few hours watching hawks because no shade was available.

Worse yet, bird numbers were very low for the time period.

Jay and Shirley George, of Manheim, and their adult daughter, Pat, were visiting Cape May for several days. I had previously met Jay at Second Mountain Hawk Watch in Lebanon County. Seeing Jay, my wife, Carol, commented, “We used to see him a lot at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.” Jay agreed, saying, “That was a long time ago, in the late ’70s or early ’80s,” and he was right.

Jay is a well-respected amateur naturalist with an especially strong knowledge of raptors, wildflowers and native plants; just recently he presented a program on native plants at Governor Dick Environmental Center.

The Georges had planned to meet Randy and Mary Brenner at Cape May. Randy and Mary are retired educators whom we also met previously at Second Mountain, where Randy is one of the regular volunteer hawk counters; they live 10-15 minutes from the mountain.

Brenner quickly tired of looking at the abundant ospreys, especially when he could view peregrines instead. “It’s funny,” he said. “If I was at Second Mountain, I’d look closely at every osprey.”

I’m not sure how many peregrines Brenner saw Sunday, but the official count showed that 62 peregrine falcons passed that day. He saw a large number of those birds, and most likely saw more peregrines on that one day than are counted at Second Mountain each fall; the mountain averages just 23 peregrines in the fall. The more famous Hawk Mountain Sanctuary averages only 28 peregrines each fall.

Brenner saw a Swainson’s hawk two days later during mid- afternoon, but was hesitant to claim it since they are uncommon there. I have observed Brenner’s birding skills and am confident that he saw the bird.

Another favorite at Cape May is the exceedingly fast merlin, a small falcon with an attitude. Merlins will often stoop on much larger birds, seemingly just for fun; a Cooper’s hawk we watched did not consider it fun when a merlin targeted it. The dark falcon dropped from above and behind the accipiter. The Coop, a very aggressive raptor in its own right, was chased across the sky by the merlin and finally took refuge among a small stand of cedar trees.

Monarch butterflies are nearly on the opposite end of the nature scale from raptors, but they also migrate through Cape May in large numbers. There was a nice, stiff breeze on our first day.

Monarchs were blowing like leaves on the wind, seemingly with no control of their flight, or fate. How then do they end up in mountainous Mexico to winter, to renew and to head north when the time is right to leave their legacy to a new generation? That new generation heading north is short-lived and will never see Mexico; their progeny carry their DNA into the future.

Employees of New Jersey Audubon maintain the hawk count at Cape May. Additionally, NJA offers classes on bird identification, butterflies, native plants and other subjects.

Finally, NJA offers environmental and nature classes to visiting local schools. Several school groups, both elementary and secondary, visited to learn about the ecosystem at Cape May and its inhabitants. It was obvious when watching the youngsters how much they enjoyed seeing and learning about nature.

Raptors will flow south through Cape May until the end of November, so there is plenty of time to visit. Take warm clothes; seasonal temperatures have finally arrived.

For more information, see www.njaudubon.org or call (609) 884- 2736. The birding hotline is (609) 898-2473.

John McGonigle is outdoors editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at jmcgonigle@lnpnews.com.

(c) 2007 Intelligencer Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.