An afternoon in Cape May

Yesterday's weather was gorgeous and I had just a few hours to wander around with my binoculars and camera. I arrived too late to see the Sandhill Crane (what is that doing on the East coast?) that went by the hawkwatch (pictured above), but I did get to see plenty of sharpies, a harrier or two, a few merlins, and two young bald eagles. The birds stream by overhead and disappear past the lighthouse and Delaware Bay to the south.
In addition to migrating hawks, yellow-rumps and tree swallows were everywhere, as were the monarchs. The goldenrod in the dunes surrounding Cape May Point State Park was covered with them. Dragonflies were also on the move yesterday, Black Saddlebags being the most visible.
One of my favorite places in Cape May are the fields and wet woods of Hidden Valley. Often I'm alone in my wanderings there and rather than watching the hawks swirling high overhead, can see them here hunting the migrant flocks of flickers and warblers and sparrows. They say that many of the hawks that fly past the lighthouse don't necessarily head out over the bay immediately, instead they *circle back* and cross somewhere else. Hidden Valley and Higbee Beach provide the habitat and birds that fuel their journey. Pictured above is one of a few banding stations around Cape May where they lure in migrants to trap and band them. They were set up in the adjacent field and I spent a good deal of time peering over the hedgerow to see what they tempted into their nets.
I wasn't able to decide if what I was seeing at the top of that pole in this really poor pic was a real bird or not. Its head moved like a real bird, but I couldn't fugire out why a hawk would spend so much time so close to the banding station and the mist nets. I know sometimes a fake owl is used to lure hawks at a hawkwatch site, but not if they're ever used that way at a banding set-up. Maybe Laura O. knows? At one point there was a bald eagle overhead and I was hoping it might come in for a closer look at the bait, but it didn't.
Each step along the shrubby fields kicked up grasshoppers and small flocks of sparrows ahead of me. Monarchs and honey bees fed in the wildflowers and impossible-to-identify warblers teased me with their scolding notes. Buckeyes led the way along the path, flitting from patch to patch in the sunlight. I often hear Barred Owls calling from the woods here, but yesterday they were quiet.
My last stop for the afternoon was The Meadows just north of the lighthouse. The water levels were really high, so any hopes for lingering shorebirds (not that I could ID them anyway) were lost. The ponds had an awful lot of Mute Swans and many mallards. I also imagined a few Gadwall. The highlight there was a snowy egret doing its crazy dance as it hunted - such comical birds. I love to visit Cape May, but hate to leave. The weather in late September and early October is perfect and the crowds are gone from the beaches. I left around 5 pm, expecting an easy 2 hour drive home, but instead didn't get in until nearly 9. Like any good trip to South Jersey, it had to end with an hour and a half traffic jam on the parkway because of an accident. A lousy end to an otherwise beautiful day.