JBWR 5/16

Quite a day, quite a day. Proving that the early birder gets the warbler, we arrived at JBWR around 8 AM today and found 11 species of warblers, including BAY-BREASTED WARBLER, which is a lifer for both of us.

I was amazed to find the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Looking into a tree near the North Garden I saw a bird with a huge tail. My first reaction was Brown Thrasher, but instantly I knew that was wrong and it flashed on me that this was a cuckoo. I haven't see one of those since Higbees Beach (see earlier post) years ago. I was able to get a couple of bird watchers on it while we were looking at it, and later a couple of others to whom I told where to find it let me know that they had indeed seen the bird.

The White-faced Ibis wasn't as exciting because we've seen a lot of them down south and there was no challenge in finding it. Go to Bench 12, look at ibis. See white facial pattern connecting behind eye. Make ID. Still a good and satisfying bird.

The Bay-breasted Warbler was over on the East Pond along the trail. Shari found one at first that she said was the bird but I'd only gotten a fleeting glance at it and it seemed too big to me to be a warbler, plus I hadn't seen much in the way of field marks. So as we "discussed" the identification as we walked along the trail we came upon another one and this time I could clearly see the brown sides of the bird and the facial pattern indicating it was a female. The one Shari originally saw she says was a male. I couldn't quite remember if this was indeed a lifer or if we had seen it in Massachusetts a number of years ago, but checking the Access file that I keep it did turn out to be the first one of our lives.

Ironically, we found the same number of species in our "backyard" as we did traveling almost 100 miles down the Parkway to Brigantine. For the weekend I think we logged around 86 total species.

We're  off to DC for the week with a stop at Bombay Hook on the way back.
The list:

Brant	3,000
Canada Goose	50
Mute Swan	76
Gadwall	10
American Black Duck	7
Mallard	25
Greater Scaup	1
Ruddy Duck	20
Double-crested Cormorant	8
Great Egret	15
Snowy Egret	2
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	3
Glossy Ibis	20
White-faced Ibis	1
Osprey	2
American Oystercatcher	3
Solitary Sandpiper	1
Willet	2
Semipalmated Sandpiper	5
Least Sandpiper	4
Laughing Gull	50
Herring Gull	10
Great Black-backed Gull	5
Forster's Tern	6
Mourning Dove	1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo	1
Barn Owl	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Eastern Phoebe	1
White-eyed Vireo	1
American Crow	5
Fish Crow	1
Tree Swallow	100
Barn Swallow	1
Carolina Wren	2
Marsh Wren	1
American Robin	2
Gray Catbird	50
Northern Mockingbird	1
Brown Thrasher	4
European Starling	2
Northern Parula	1
Yellow Warbler	25
Magnolia Warbler	3
Black-throated Blue Warbler	1
Yellow-rumped Warbler	1
BAY-BREASTED WARBLER	1
American Redstart	5
Ovenbird	1
Northern Waterthrush	1
Common Yellowthroat	10
Wilson's Warbler	1
Scarlet Tanager	1
Eastern Towhee	7
Song Sparrow	2
Northern Cardinal	4
Red-winged Blackbird	50
Common Grackle	2
Boat-tailed Grackle	1
Baltimore Oriole	1