In 2004, our team tallied 148 species of birds in a single county, Cape May County, New Jersey, in the 21st annual World Series of Birding competition. The team raised money for the Maryland-DC Breeding Bird Atlas and for Pronatura Veracruz.

First up: a shout-out to The Shrikettes - Laura Anderson, Nancy Gover, Laura Cameron and Marcia Simonson - for egging on the team….

The guys are either planning the route for the big day, or marking the locations of all the Wawas in Cape May County.

Fueled with similar cheap puns and cheaper coffee, the Shrikes started birding at 12:01 a.m. at the extreme tip of Cape May: South Cape May Meadows. Silent skies and steady south winds prevailed, as they had for the preceding four days, with most migrants passing over the Cape on “a conveyor belt 1,000 feet up”. With few migrants to be found, our previous four days and nights of scouting, plus an evening socializing at Mike O’Brien’s and Louise Zemaitis’, paid off. In the blackness, we avoided an enormous chuckhole (aka the “MOS Pit”) on Goshen Landing Road which had mired our van during a scouting night, to hear the elusive goatsucker we had previously staked out: Chuck-will’s-widow. Similarly, a Barred Owl in Belleplain State Forest and Great Horned Owl rewarded our vigil in the darkness, followed by an onslaught of birdsong as the dawn chorus rose around us at the bridge in Belleplain, including “southern” breeders such as Louisianna Waterthrush, Worm-eating Warbler, Hooded Warbler and Acadian Flycatcher. Drier woods of Belleplain rewarded us with good looks at the always astonishing solid-red Summer Tanager– a “nemesis” bird which had eluded the Shrikes in every previous World Series.

Andy, John, WSB founder Pete Dunne, and Gordon. The team was so excited to me Pete, that they apparently forgot to shower that day.

The old adage that it is an ill wind that blows no good was proven as we turned to the Delaware Bay marshes. Those southern winds had brought a Black-necked Stilt to Stipson Beach Road – an extremely unusual bird for New Jersey, so unusual that no teams at all recorded it in the entire state during three of the past four World Series. A Willow Flycatcher was singing from a hummock in the marsh, but we didn’t see the White-faced Ibis which we had first found on a scouting day. As the sun rose higher, we stopped at the Beanery at Cape May Point, and counted not 1-Mississippi, not 2-Mississippi, not 3-Mississippi but 4-Mississippi Kites! The world-famous spectacle of birds feeding on horseshoe crab eggs on the bay shore at Reed’s Beach was building up, with Ruddy Turnstones and Red Knots. The total ban on horseshoe crab harvesting during critical periods appears to be paying off, with increased numbers of crabs this year.

John and Andy on the Cape May Ferry.
John: "Do you see any Northern Gannets?"
Andy: "Gannets? No, but it looks like the bar is open."

The afternoon was spent combing the vast marshes of the Atlantic Coast, including an obliging Purple Gallinule at the Wetlands Institute parking lot. As sunset approached, we returned to Cape May Meadows and ticked the last and most spectacular of the day’s many spectacular birds: a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher! The final tally when we finished at 11:45 pm: 148 species, including 19 species of warblers. The total was a bit lower than last year’s (which was the case for almost all teams all across the state). In our first year, we were 50 species behind the winning team. In 2003, we found 34 fewer species than the first place team. This year we were only 16 species behind the leader in Cape May County (the “Dream Team” of Mike O’Brien, Louise Zemaitis, Mark Garland and Rich Crossley).