The Shrikes team kicked off its 2003 World Series by scouting and scouring Cape May County for two full days before Game Day. Andy Rabin, Gordon Gover and Don Simonson traveled to Cape May Point NJ on Wednesday for a potluck supper graciously hosted by CMBO World Series organizers Sheila Lego and Marleen Murgitroyde at the home of Louise Zemaitas and Mike O'Brien. It was great fun to see other teams and friends from past years and size up the competition.

On Wednesday night, even before the competition began, the Shrikes team tasted the Thrill of Victory and the Agony of ….Two Birders Sleeping in a Honda Civic, in the rain, with all their scopes, tripods and gear…due to a triple witching hour combination of simultaneous blunders by 3 separate team members involving 2 missing tents, 1 bungled motel reservation, and miles of fruitless driving around in the dark and rain looking for the other parties. Even so, we fared better than a certain northern New Jersey team which was attacked in their campsite that night by a rabid black bear and had to spend the next day getting rabies shots instead of scouting for migrant birds.

On Thursday, despite sleep deprivation, rain and fog (all three of which continued to dog the team all four days in NJ), the Shrikes successfully executed a cunning pincer movement. Rookie team member John Hubbell advanced from the north down the Atlantic side of the Cape May peninsula. The other 3 team members scouted inland warblers and landbirds from Belleplain State Forest to Cape May Point. By the time the two scouting parties joined up Thursday evening at the CMBO nature center in Goshen NJ, we had over 126 species on our lists and plenty of good birds staked out.

Because this particular team lineup had never birded as a group before, we spent Friday honing our team skills and staking out more birds. (World Series rules require that ALL team members identify 95% of the birds together; 5% of the species can be identified by fewer team members). As the day wore on, we honed our schedule for game day, staking out more target birds and 24-hour WaWa convenience stores with restrooms. It was a delight to encounter the Centerville (MD) Middle School youth team scouting, and share their exuberance plus sightings of warblers and vireos. By Friday night we devised a detailed schedule for game day. We would reverse our route of previous years and instead, we gambled on spending the prime time hours (5:30 am to 9 am) in the northern part of the county, then heading south toward Cape May Point.

The strategic gamble paid off big time on the next day, Saturday - GAME DAY! At 2:30 am, while a dense fog socked in the southern end of the county, hampering those teams which were starting in the south, we enjoyed clear skies at Jakes Landing Marsh, identifying the calls of elusive birds such as Great Horned Owl, Eastern Meadowlark, Seaside Sparrow and Virginia Rail. Gordon "New Jersey Native Guide" Gover steered the team through the web of unmarked trails and dirt roads of Belleplain Swamp: the exhilarating dawn chorus of birdsong found us at the wooden bridge in the heart of the Swamp, picking out the songs of "southern breeders" including Hooded Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Prothonatory Warbler, Worm-eating Warbler and Wood Thrush. A previously staked-out Cooper's Hawk obliged by calling near its nest. When the morning activity subsided, we headed south all the way to the beach at Cape May Point Lighthouse, where we immediately ticked the endangered Piping Plover. Our schedule did not allow time to walk the beach, but a far-distant tern of uncertain species was barely visible. Should we lose precious minutes by walking far up the beach to nail down the ID? We decided to risk it, and no sooner had we hit the strand than Andy yelled "JAEGER!!!" A gorgeous Parasitic Jaeger, normally glimpsed only far offshore or from boats, was directly overhead, only 20 yards away! During the mid-day hours we ticked off many rarities we had staked out during scouting, including White Ibis, Red-necked Grebe and Black-billed Cuckoo. By late afternoon, the grueling hours, cold rain and fog were taking a toll on the team, but we scoured the Atlantic marshes, gaining waders and shorebirds including uncommon species Black Skimmer, Whimbrel, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Tri-colored Heron and Cattle Egret.

This year the Shrikes pioneered a new technique in bird identification: Identification by LAUGHTER! We learned that our rookie team member, John Hubbell, laughs aloud at some bird songs but not others. Of course, Laughing Gull is straightforward, but the method works best for the members of the Goatsucker family (Caprimulgidae). The "peent" call of American Woodcock draws a hearty laugh, but the "peent" call of Common Nighthawk (our last bird of the day, after dark in Cape May Meadows) was met with a stony silence. Next year we plan to use the technique to distinguish Whip-poor-will from its close cousin, the Chuckle-Will's-Widow!

At 11 pm at the finish line, we turned in our total: a record-breaking 156 species! Looking forward to competing in World Series of Birding 2004!