Cape May, September, October

This morning I got to enjoy this fall Cape May warbler as it passed through the side yard at Indigo Hill. We get so many more Cape Mays through southeastern Ohio in the fall than we do in the spring. Here it's mid-September and I'm enjoying a nice flock of warblers with the word May in their names.

Which prompted an additional thought—and three thoughts is a LOT for me in the morning with just half a cup of coffee down the gullet. That thought was: "I'm going to BE in Cape May in October!"

That's correct. I am the Saturday evening keynote speaker for the legendary Autumn Weekend hosted by Cape May Bird Observatory and New Jersey Audubon, also known as THE Bird Show. This year's Autumn Weekend is being held October 29–31, 2010. Details are available here.

Also speaking (on Friday night) is author/photographer Kevin Karlson. And there will be a plethora of authors on hand on Saturday for a big books signing, I hear. Of course in Cape May you can't swing your binocs by the strap without conking 8 book authors on the head, so it'll surely be fun to see who is there.

If you've never been to Cape May in fall before, the birding is just nutso, the hawks are pouring through, and you don't have to fight against the summer tourista tide quite as much.

Plan to come on down to the Cape for Halloween Weekend. I hope to see you there! I might even come in costume.

This Morning's Passersby

It was a very birdy morning today at Indigo Hill. Lots of movement of migrants and much ado among the resident birds, too. Too bad it could not have been this birdy when our friend Carol B. visited last weekend.

I had to curtail things to head to the office, but before I did I got a few shots of an obliging fall-plumaged warbler. Can you guess its identity from this first image?

Here's a hint: Check out the lemon-lime badonkadonk....
That's right, it's a Cape May warbler and it conducted its very own Big Stay in our weeping willow tree for several minutes. Special thanx to Science Chimp for the artful pishing...

We get more than our fair share of Cape May warblers through here in the fall. It might be our most numerous fall warbler, which is a good thing because it lets me practice IDing them in their very varied plumages in this season of change.