Monmouth County 2/4--Black-capped Chickadee, Wild Turkey

We drove up to Allaire State Park this morning, hoping to see the Western Tanager that's been reported there, though I didn't really expect to find it and we didn't. I was more disappointed that the Great Horned Owl that we'd seen nesting there for a few years was no longer around. It has been a couple of years since we've been to Allaire, but owls do use nests repeatedly.

The trails, though were full of birds and we enjoyed especially the bluebirds and the waxwing we found. Chickadees were also about. Allaire falls along the demarcation line of the range separating Black-capped Chickadee from Carolina Chickadee. It is in central Jersey that they overlap and they can be devilishly difficult to tell apart. ("Devilishly?" I've been reading a lot of Edith Wharton lately.)

The two best ways of distinguishing them is by voice and the amount of white they have in their wings. At this time of year they're not singing (Black-capped: 2 notes; Carolina: 3 notes) and it is pretty difficult to decide how many "dee-dee-dees" they're calling per second. So most of the ones I saw or heard I had to let go as "Black-capped/Carolina." But a couple at the feeders stayed still long enough for me to see the extra amount of white in their wings and on their shoulders to let me call them Black-capped. In reality, they're probably all hybrids anyway.

But the highlight of the day was another roadside sighting of a game bird (last week it was pheasants) when Shari pointed out 4 hen Wild Turkeys foraging alongside the Garden State Parkway, just north of the Monmouth County/Ocean County line. Not only a new year bird for me, but a new Jersey bird as well. This time Shari couldn't, of course, screech to a halt and turn the car around for us to get a better look, but turkeys at 60 mph are pretty obvious and still count.

22 species for the day:

Canada Goose

Mallard

Wild Turkey

Turkey Vulture

Mourning Dove

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Blue Jay

American Crow

Black-capped Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

Northern Mockingbird

Cedar Waxwing

Yellow-rumped Warbler

White-throated Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal

House Finch