CAPE MAY AND CAPE CHARLES COMPARED, part 2.
Cape Charles, in comparison to CM, has one ranking resident birder, Ned
Brinkley. It does not get the terrific press play that CM does. Getting
to CC involves a $14 roundtrip toll from the Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Little
Creek metropolitan area. No amount of frequent visits by Bob Anderson, Bob
Ake and others, combined with the skills and energy of Ned, good as they
all are, can compete with a colony of skilled birders that lives full-time
on-site, such as the CM colony does.
The SEASONAL FALL STAFF of Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory (who only
work late August to late November) plus the William and Mary, Center for
Conservation Biology, fall saw-whet owl banders form the basis for good
fall scouting prior to the CC CBC. But, except for the owl banders, they
are gone by the end of November. CM has similar fall programs with its
hawk watch, hawk trapping, and owl banding (although I think that the CM
owlers band a shorter season and in only one site vs. the 3 at CC). What
CM has NOT had consistently over the years is a regular songbird
mist-netting operation, something CC has had every year since 1964.
LAND AREA. Cape May has much more land area than CC, big blocks of it
public, and therefore more accessibility. A lot of the CC CBC is locked up
in large private landholdings, where access can be dicey or where, in the
case of 2 of the best landholdings, access is verboten. Development is
coming faster than I like to CC. But with development comes crazy
plantings, more feeders, a more extensive road system, an extra pond or 2,
and a more robust landfill as well as perhaps a new sewage treatment plant
and other features that often mean that more of certain birds are seen,
even though our Wallace Stegner-Sigurd Olson-Olaus Murie sensibilities are
hurt and offended.
CONCENTRATION. Cape May enjoys a physiography that tends to concentrate
birds more (I think). Once you get across the Cape May Canal (Intracoastal
Waterway) and onto "Cape May Island" there is just one land mass
culminating at the point. CC by way of contrast suffers from a sort of
diffuseness. Instead of a discreet focal area at a point there is 2,000
acre Fisherman's Island confusing the issue off of the south tip (Wise
Point). Further diffusion occurs to the east where there is Magothy Bay,
extensive salt marsh, and 7-mile-long Smith Island. The closest CC birding
equivalent to the fall migration at CM is the bayside area extending from
Wise Point to Best Western Sunset Beach Resort to Kiptopeke State Park.
Here there is a reverse migration in the fall comparable to CM's Higbee
Beach area plus a fine hawk flight going the other way. But the
diffuseness makes locating all the birds more difficult than at Cape May.
DOUBLE-COUNTING. (triple-counting?). I don't know much about it but at CC
I feel there is less milling around and lingering of migrating birds than
at CM. I believe quite a few of CM's raptors are counted more than once.
I can't back this up. It is a feeling. However, I remember when Earl
Hodnett was putting colored markers on accipiters' tails at CC one fall and
several times we did see birds that went past the hawk watch platform that
had been tagged there several days previously. No one believes anymore
that counts of birds at these places were absolute. Isn't the important
thing to conduct the counts in a consistent way from year to year and let
the duplicate sightings fall where they may?
SALTMARSH. An advantage for CC is the boat. For every one of its 38 years
the CC CBC has had a boat party. CM has not used boats much. Also on the
brighter side (for CC) I think the saltmarsh at CC is richer than at CM.
Certainly the counts of the 3 species of marsh sparrows at CC are superior
to CM's, sometimes reaching combined totals of over 200 at CC when
conditions are right. Because CC barrier islands must be reached by boat
there is more walking around in the marshes than at CM. Unless you goof
off and stay on the beach all day you have to walk the marshes some at CC.
Even so, there is a reluctance of people in general to walk around in
saltmarshes. This is good for the marshes, bad for the CBC results.
Because of the tricky footing and very real possibility of getting your
boots full of freezing water and mud, and the exertion it requires, most
folks stay on terra firma. But if you want to get the marsh sparrows,
wrens, rails, American Bittern, Tricolored Heron, and many other goodies,
walking the marsh is the way to go and once you're out there it is
exhilarating, a wondrous world apart.
In sum, CC seems to have the advantage of better tidal marsh and more
observers mucking around in it. Nevertheless, in my experience as a
compiler, land birds are what really beef up the list. A choice between
superior landbird areas coverage and waterbird areas needs to favor the
landbirds as a strategy for the highest species count. Having said this, I
would nevertheless love to have one or two observers do an all-day sea
watch at CC CBC each year. A CBC compiler is a little bit (I said: "little
bit.") like a commanding general trying to win the day, reminding me of the
lines in T. E. Lawrence's poem "To S.A.", his splendid, free verse epigraph
to "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom".:
"And so I drew these tides of men into my hands
And wrote my will across the sky in stars"
(substitute birds for stars and there you have it.)
FARTHER SOUTH. Be that as it may, CC CBC has several other advantages over
CM CBC. It is farther south and milder. This means that species such as
Brown-headed Nuthatch, Whimbrel, Marbled Godwit, Brown Pelican, Willet,
dowitchers, House Wren, etc., are taken for granted at CC CBC. Blue-headed
Vireo, Black-and-white Warbler, and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher are found at CC
CBC every few years. On the other hand it means that species such as
Common Merganser, Rough-legged Hawk, Snowy Owl perhaps, tree sparrow to
some degree, and other northern goodies more regularly tallied by CM CBC
are harder to come by at CC CBC, if at all. Both counts get numbers of
oystercatchers and boat-tails, southern birds well-established, but only
within living memory, in New Jersey. It often surprises people when they
learn that CM is about as far south as Washington, D.C. However, CC in
turn is another 150 miles or so SW of Cape May.
Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies to:
harryarmistead@xxxxxxxxxxx
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