Cape May Yellow-rumped Madness

I realize I’m running the risk of being typecast here, but I’m featuring Yellow-rumped Warbler video for the second week in a row here. Remember the hyperbolic little joke I made about having to clear these guys out of the way with a snow shovel? Well, last weekend in these parts, that wasn’t far off. Take a look at this clip I shot Friday afternoon, October 29, near the hawk watch platform at Cape May, New Jersey. The soundtrack was so full of wind noise that I just about drowned it out with cheesy banjo music–feel free to turn the sound off.

Look at the way those little dudes and dudettes are going after those red cedar berries as if there life depended on it. Of course, their lives do depend on it, and the ability to eat fruit and survive cold temperatures is something that allows this species to spend the winter far to the north of the rest of its family.

Hyperbole aside, there aren’t usually quite this many Yellow-rumpeds around here, though they are surely abundant. This mob was part of the biggest migratory bird flight I’ve ever witnessed, actually. The numbers of birds around the mouth of Delaware Bay last Friday was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.