Whiting WMA 5/12--Ovenbird

Field of Golden Heather

It was Ovenbirds! I mentioned a few blogs ago that I've been hearing a bird sing that I knew I should know but couldn't place it. I've been hearing them a lot and it's been bothering me--an insistent (to me) chef-chef-chef-chef that seemed to be coming from high up in the trees.

Today I saw my first Ovenbird. The Ovenbird's song is transliterated as either "teacher teacher teacher" or "teach teach teach." I wondered if I'd been them for the last week or so. I saw around four of them today. And when I got home and played the song of the Ovenbird, realized I'd probably heard 10 more.  What's more, they're good ventriloquists, because my Thayer Birding Software says that they sing from low branches. No wonder I couldn't find them! On the one hand, I'm embarrassed to miss such an easy bird. On the other hand, I'm happy to add one more song to my repertoire and I know I'll never forget it now. Just shows the problem with trying to put bird song into syllables.

I walked for more than 3 1/2 hours today, farther into the Crossley Preserve than I have before. In fact, I may have passed through the preserve and on to some other property--the boundaries are vague out there. Five warbler species is the most I've had in a day this year.

36 species for the day.
Canada Goose  2
Mallard  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Mourning Dove  7
Downy Woodpecker  2
Eastern Wood-Pewee  4    Heard
Great Crested Flycatcher  2    Heard
Eastern Kingbird  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  2
Tree Swallow  4
Carolina Chickadee  15
Tufted Titmouse  10
White-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard on Crossley Preserve
House Wren  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3    Crossley Preserve
Eastern Bluebird  3
Wood Thrush  1    Heard on Crossley Preserve
American Robin  10
Gray Catbird  3
Ovenbird  10    Conservative number--heard many more than the 4 I saw
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  5    Heard
Pine Warbler  7    One was a very gray female
Prairie Warbler  3    Heard
Eastern Towhee  25
Chipping Sparrow  15
Song Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  4
Red-winged Blackbird  3
Common Grackle  11
Brown-headed Cowbird  5
House Finch  2
American Goldfinch  5

Another common Pine Barrens plant blooming now, Golden Heather is not actually heather as in Scotland. It is actually a plant called Hudsona. My little camera phone doesn't do it justice, but all along the sandy trails it grows, amazing considering how few nutrients are in sand.