CAPE MAY AND CAPE CHARLES COMPARED, part 3.
JETTY AND INLET. CC CBC does not have a real jetty-inlet. The rock piles
at Cape Charles (town) are a sort of jetty-inlet but face Chesapeake Bay
and do not attract the usual suite of jetty-inlet birds places such as
Ocean City, MD, or the extensive Cold Spring Harbor Inlet (at Cape May on
the U. S. Coast Guard grounds, designated as Cape May Harbor, or Cape May
Inlet) do. Cape Charles town, for instance, cannot be depended on to
produce Purple Sandpipers (even just a few) every year on the count. On
the other hand, it can be surprising how a little island of habitat can
pull good birds in from time to time. This is one of Paul Lehman's credos,
the sort of isolated, migrant trap habitat he has fashioned club
talks-presentations around. To give one example, the brick remains of the
first Smith Island, VA, lighthouse - not much bigger than my living room -
100 yards off the beach and surrounded by miles of rockless barrier
beaches, once gave the CC CBC a grand slam/trifecta of the jetty ducks, one
each of Harlequin plus Common and King Eider present at the same time. But
in summary, CM CBC has a splendid jetty-inlet, CC CBC does not.
DRIVE-UP ACCESS TO THE OCEAN. Cape May has it in several places, including
the sea watch area at Avalon, tantamount to a barrier island promontory.
At CC CBC there is no drive-up access. Instead the Fisherman Island party
has to walk out to the island's east end, which really isn't the sea in
view of the great shallows there. Or, the boat party walks the Smith
Island beach, after boating to it (and sometimes the Myrtle Island beach).
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel islands are several miles outside of the
CC CBC circle.
LANDFILL. I don't believe CM CBC has a landfill. CC CBC has a little one
just north of Oyster. It is sometimes good for Lesser Black-backed Gull as
well as various ducks, shorebirds, blackbirds, crows, raptors, and/or
vultures.
CBC DATES. CM is now always on the first Sunday of the count period. This
wasn't always the case until a couple of years ago, when the National
Audubon Society froze the count period dates and CM stopped flip flopping
their date with Bombay Hook. CC is always either on Dec. 27 or Dec. 30.
The earlier date range (Dec. 14 - 20) probably gives CM a slight advantage,
certainly as far as lingering species go. Especially if all hell breaks
loose after the CM CBC in the form of snow, ice, the Siberian Express, or
the Alberta Clipper.
HUNTING. CM always has the count on a Sunday, when there is no hunting.
CC must sequence with several other counts, may only be on a Sunday once
every 6 or 7 years.
"There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore; -
Turn whereso'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more."
Wordsworth. 'Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood'.
But all is NOT gloom and doom. Look at how well bluebirds, Bald Eagles,
and peregrines have rebounded in our lifetimes. However, there are
abundant areas for profound concern.
WHAT'S MISSING NOW? The "biggest" mid-Atlantic coast CBC's such as Ocean
City, Chincoteague, the Virginia Beach area counts, Cape May, and Cape
Charles hardly ever seem to come close to their highest species totals
achieved in the Halcyon years during the 1970's and early 1980's. This
also is true of the 3 May birding marathons I do each year. In a general
sort of way that may defy analysis there is an undefined feeling that there
just are not as many birds as there used to be. And all of these declines
come in the face of increased knowledge of identification, habitats, and
localities on the one hand and better optics and other equipment on the
other, not to mention superior communication with cell phones and various
other gadgets, e-mail, the Internet, and other instant (or almost so)
networking.
In a strictly Christmas count frame of reference we can say that: For some
time there have not been big flights of northern finches. Regionally the
Loggerhead Shrike has dropped off the face of the earth. The numbers of
most herons normally seen on the CC CBC are now a semi-disaster, especially
the seemingly big, tough Black-crowned Night Heron. Horned Grebe numbers
have been depressed for years, although we still get them each year.
Numbers of many duck species are in a free fall. Quail and pheasants are
also. In the early years of the CC CBC Royal Terns, Piping Plovers, and
Black Skimmers were seen once every 2 or 3 years but are now almost
rarities. Barn Owls have declined terribly. So have Brown-headed
Nuthatches. CC CBC used to sometimes get the national high for chats,
which are now a species requiring details and boldfacing there. American
Bittern and Short-eared Owl, formerly a given, are now sometimes missed.
Add all these up and there is a considerable loss.
By way of contrast we now have House Finches and there are more Gadwalls.
Mute Swans are still rare at CC but not at CM. Some birds formerly absent,
or nearly so, are now regular, such as Brown Pelican and White Ibis.
Others formerly scarce or absent (which seems so surprising today), such as
Great Cormorant, Bald Eagle, and Black Vulture, are now regular. Wild
Turkeys are spreading.
MASSIVE UNNATURAL CHANGES. Pervading all of our concerns about birds are
massive general problems: forest fragmentation, loss of Neotropical
habitat, vast Canadian lumbering and hydroelectric projects, West Nile
Virus (affecting over 200 bird species, suspected of wiping out chickadees
in entire areas around Chicago), diseases such as the one killing thousands
of loons in the Great Lakes this past fall, fowl cholera outbreaks, effects
of chemicals (prompting agencies to recommend eating few [or no] game fish
and waterfowl), kudzu, rising sea levels, presumed global warming, massive
die-outs of aquatic vegetation (such as Chesapeake Bay's SAV's), effects of
acid rain on amphibians and various forest types, and the constant influx
and spread of exotic species (that kill oak trees; the Zebra Mussels
popular with waterfowl in the Great Lakes but loaded with chemicals) and so
on, seemingly ad infinitum. Add all THESE up and there is going to be some
loss of diversity - at any time of year.
THE IMPORTANCE OF COUNTING. All this change means that recording bird
numbers is as important as it has ever been. The rivalry between Cape
Charles and Cape May, such as it is, may be mostly inside my head. But it
is interesting to speculate on the significance of the results every year.
However, getting out there and counting anywhere really is the important
thing to do in our rapidly changing world.
Which count will "win" in 2003? You know, I don't really care much. I
hope we both have good weather, a big turnout, and can continue to enjoy
crunching numbers and making informed pronouncements and careful guesses as
to what's goin' on.
Best to all.-Harry Armistead, 523 E. Durham St., Philadelphia, PA
19119-1225. 215-248-4120. Please, any off-list replies to:
harryarmistead@xxxxxxxxxxx
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
