One December 28th, Anna and I made a slight detour on our roadtrip down to Florida, in order to swing through Cape May County and try to see a beautiful adult male King Eider that has been hanging out at the Avalon Seawatch. We started the morning off with a quick stop at Barnegat Light to pick up a few year birds for Anna such as Harlequin Duck, Common Eider, and Great Cormorant; then drove down to Avalon and quickly found the King Eider floating just offshore with a large group of Common Eiders.
King Eider - adult male at Avalon Seawatch (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)
While we were watching the eider, I received a text alert saying there was a Dickcissel hanging out with some House Sparrows at 205 Harvard Ave at Cape May Point plus I knew there was an adult male Eurasian Wigeon near there at Lily Lake. I really wanted the Dickcissel for my Cape May county list and Anna needed Eurasian Wigeon for her year list. We only had an hour till we had to get on the Cape May – Lewes Ferry, so we can to be quick. At1:10pm we arrived at the Dickcissel spot and began searching. There were loads of House Sparrows around but they kept splitting up and flying different directions. I took one group and Anna took the other. Ten minutes later, Anna yelled to me that she had the bird. I ran over, snapped a few pics and we drove over to Lily Lake. As soon as we got out of the car and starting scoping the lake, I spotted the Eurasian Wigeon! We then drove over to the ferry terminal just in time!
Dickcissel - adult female at Cape May Point (Photo by Alex Lamoreaux)