Sunday, June 24, 2012

Wells Mills Park 6/24--Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Ocean County has the best parks system that I can imagine. Each one we go to has a beautiful nature center, good trails, and is impeccably maintained. All the habitats in the county are represented within the system. It is just amazing to me how much acreage has been set aside for parks (and non-development) for a county that doesn't have a huge population. Today, we finally went to Wells Mills Park, where we'd planned to go June 2 until the lure of Brigantine that day pulled us south.

There is an extensive trail system within this park and we walked a couple that ran along the main feature of the park, Wells Mills Reservoir. The exciting bird for the day was Yellow-billed Cuckoo Shari found, first sitting on a log until we followed it up into a tree. There was a possible Black-billed Cuckoo too, but Shari's look wasn't good enough to call and my i.d. was simply "bird."

Still, that was a surprise and seeing Black-and-White Warblers feeding a juvenile was also a good discovery. In all we had 26 species and said what we always seem to say: this place will be great during migration.

Day list:
Canada Goose  6
Turkey Vulture  1
Laughing Gull  1
Mourning Dove  1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  2
Eastern Phoebe  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  1
Eastern Kingbird  3
Tree Swallow  1
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tufted Titmouse  5
Wood Thrush  1    Heard
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  6
Ovenbird  5    Heard
Black-and-white Warbler  4
Common Yellowthroat  2    Heard
Pine Warbler  1
Prairie Warbler  1    Heard
Chipping Sparrow  10
Northern Cardinal  1
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
House Finch  1    Could be female or juvenile
American Goldfinch  2    Heard

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