{"id":288,"date":"2011-10-12T14:19:35","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T14:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/?p=288"},"modified":"2011-10-12T14:20:44","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T14:20:44","slug":"big-sit-in-cape-may-10911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/?p=288","title":{"rendered":"BIG SIT in Cape May 10\/9\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Midnight. I am sleeping, but the hardcore Big Sitters are already at the hawk watch platform at Cape May Point State Park. 7 am. I arrive at the platform and watch the sun rise:<\/p>\n

\"Sunrise\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The day begins with many familiar sights and sounds: Yellow-rumps, egrets, ducks. A Meadowlark flies by and we are psyched. A few moments later, a Merlin flies over the lake in mad pursuit of a bird and catches it mid-air…<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

…and we realize it’s another Meadowlark that the Merlin has gotten. The Merlin flies over to the path near the platform and begins to kill and eat the Meadowlark:<\/p>\n

\"And<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh Merlin, why not a Starling?<\/p>\n

We have many nice hawks, accipiters, and falcons flying over:<\/p>\n

\"Sharpie\"<\/a>\"Northern<\/a>\"Cooper's<\/a>\"American<\/a><\/p>\n

But the star of the day might just be this adult Bald Eagle, who flew directly over us:<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a><\/p>\n

Or, the star of the day might have been Monkey:<\/p>\n

\"Monkey<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are some more images from a wonderful day. Click any photo to bring you to the full album, beginning with sunrise and ending with the moon!<\/p>\n

\"Great<\/a>\"Fishing\"<\/a>\"More<\/a>\"...And<\/a>\"Sun<\/a>\"And<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Midnight. I am sleeping, but the hardcore Big Sitters are already at the hawk watch platform at Cape May Point State Park. 7 am. I arrive at the platform and watch the sun rise: The day begins with many familiar … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291,"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions\/291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purplechickadee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}