Whiting WMA

The main selling point of this house was the 1100 acre wildlife management area behind it and just steps from our kitchen door. It is crisscrossed with wide sandy trails. Unfortunately these trails are not mapped anywhere, nor are there any blazes on the trails or any other kind of trail markings. You better know where you're going.

Shari & I got "lost" the first time we explored the area, before we had even closed on the house. We came out of the woods about 3 blocks from where we started.  Still, it was nerve-wracking not knowing exactly where we were.

Using Google's aerial views and an iPad I've been able to figure out a small portion of the WMA, enough to give me a good 2 or 3 mile walk in the woods. On the aerial view there is a lake and each morning for a week I would walk along the trails a little farther, marking them by digging arrows in the sand with my foot, meanwhile birding all along. Yesterday, I decided to go all the way and find the lake.  When I did I felt as Lewis & Clark must have felt when they found the Pacific--elation, relief, surprise.  Perhaps I exaggerate.
I went back this morning and took a photo of the lake for Sue in the Berkshires because it immediately reminded me of the swamp at the foot of her road--dead trees in the middle of the placid water and even a Wood Duck box attached to tree trunk.

In the fall and winter I suspect this will be a great place for ducks. While I was there yesterday not a blessed bird was on the water. A Turkey Vulture hovered overhead and Downy Woodpecker was pecking away at a scrub oak, but no herons or ducks to be found.

That will change with seasons. I'm looking forward to fall migration (which has certainly started in Prospect Park according to all the tweets I'm getting) to see what turns up in the Pine Barrens.    Summer, of course, is not the ideal time to survey an area but I've been pleased with some of the species I've found, especially in the open "meadows" where there have been an abundance of Eastern Bluebirds.  3 species of warbler so far.  The Common Yellowthroat was a surprise since it was far away from water; the Pine Warblers in pine trees were not.

My Whiting WMA month list as of today:

Turkey Vulture

Mourning Dove

Downy Woodpecker

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Eastern Kingbird

Blue Jay

American Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Black-and-white Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Pine Warbler

Chipping Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

House Finch

American Goldfinch