This year the MOS Yellowthroats won the Cape May County only class at the 
World Series of Birding in Cape May, NJ.  With a total of 179 birds the 
Yellowthroats accumulated 10 more species than the 2nd place team led by 
Michael O'Brian and his wife Louise.  This years team members included the 
Captain  Hafner, Jim Brighton, Hans Holbrook, and Zach Baer.  Zach was a 
welcome addition to the team.  A fourth member meant that the rest of the 
team didn't have as much scouting which is essential for a decent species 
total.
While scouting and during the contest the team split the county into four 
sections.  Each team member scouted one of the four areas.  Belle Plain was 
my area.  Belle Plain is like the Nassawango area of Worcester/Wicomico 
County here in Maryland.  It is a myriad of unnamed dirt roads some coming 
to abrupt dead ends.  This area is where you get all your breeding warblers, 
tanagers, and flycatchers.
Zach scouted the Bayshore.  Along the Delaware Bay of Cape May County there 
are many small landings, some going into marshes like Eliott's Island here 
in Maryland, others going all the way to the Bay.  This area is full of 
shorebirds feeding on the horseshoe crab feast that happens during the 
Series each year.  This area has held a good number of rarities over the 
past couple years.  This year we had to find the White-faced Ibis (success) 
and the Western Grebe (dipped on this one) that were hanging out.
Hans scouted Oceanside.  This area is a tough because you are basically 
scouting in an oceanside urban setting, checking all the little marinas and 
roadside cuts plus the large expanse of marsh inbetween the ocean and the 
mainland.  This area is where we finish wrapping up the shorebirds, herons, 
and Peregirine Falcon.
And finally Matt scouted Cape May Island south of the canal.  Alot of you 
have birded Cape May Island and are familiar with all the hotspots, The 
Beanery, Higbee's, The Meadows, ect...  We spend alot of time on the island 
searching for migrants, doing sea watches, and checking the sky for raptors. 
  Scouting the island also means going around and schmoozing with all the 
bird heads that are hanging out and finding out what everybody else is 
seeing.  Matt knows everyone and seemed to glean very key bits of advice and 
information from all the right people.
We started the competition at midnight Friday/Saturday and turned our list 
sheet in at 11:40pm Saturday night.  Everyone held up well.  By night fall 
Saturday we were down to getting only three reasonable birds which were 
Gray-cheeked Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, and Black-billed Cuckoo.  We found a 
secluded street in the middle of town with a park bench and sat down and 
listened.  Except it wasn't that easy.  The wind was blowing and was cold.  
Did I mention that it was really cold.  We sat outside waiting for fight 
calls and was finally rewarded with a Swainson's Thrush fly over.  That put 
us at 179 we really wanted 180 so we continued to sit in the cold until 
Captain Hafner (He made us call him Captain) decided to call it quits.  We 
would settle for 179.
Throughout the day we had triumphs and major downers.  We ended up missing 
all the rarities except  White-faced Ibis. We must have hit Mark Garland's 
back yard six different times looking for the damn White-winged Dove that 
had been so easy the day before.  We sat on Stone Harbor Blvd. waiting for 
the Eurasian Collared-Dove to show up at its alloted time of 6:30pm.  At 
6:35 we decided we had wasted enough time and drove off.  Paul Lehman would 
later tell us not even 30 seconds after we pulled off the Dove flew onto the 
power line directly over where our truck had been sitting.  The Western 
Grebe that had been a piece of cake all week was nowhere to be seen off 
Cook's Beach or Reed's Beach.  Other teams got it no problem.  But worst of 
all was missing Peregrine Falcon for the second straight year. While we were 
scoping Nummy's Island looking for Tricolored Heron and Peregrine Falcon, 
other teams were driving by checking out where we were looking.  Oh, 
obviously at the Peregrine Falcon sitting up nicely on the stake out in the 
marsh they thought.  Well, everyone was shocked that we dipped on the Falcon 
eventhough we seemed to be looking right at it.
Highlights on the upside including getting alot of birds that would seem to 
be easy to many but are really difficult in Cape May County.  Out secret 
spot for Kingfisher paid off for the second year in a row.  Green Herons 
turned up three times for us this year -- we missed them last year.  Hairy 
Woodpecker and Wood Ducks were ticked as well as Turkey, Bobwhite, and Black 
Tern.  All very difficult birds.
I just want everyone to know how awesome it was to stand on the podium at 
the awards brunch and be handed the trophy.  When you are in the company of 
such distinguished birders it sure is nice to see them smiling and clapping 
at your achievments.  Thanks to MOS who sponsered us and to all the people 
who supported us with pledges.  George Jett pledged a nice chunk of money 
and told us he would double it if we beat Michael O'Brian's team.  Will you 
make the same bet next year George?

Jim Brighton
Oxford, Md