Thursday, August 9, 2012

Double Trouble 8/9--Blue-winged Warbler

A patchy fog hung over the Double Trouble bogs this morning. I thought I'd  have to do most of my birding by ear, but I was lucky and found a few active pockets of birds. The highlight find this morning was at the very beginning of my walk along the trail called Gowdy Road. There, in an oak with a couple of Chipping Sparrows, a catbird, and juvenile Pine Warbler, I saw my first Blue-winged Warbler of the year. This is a pretty good sighting for me; I don't see them that often and it was the first time I'd seen one in NJ.

Either I was lucky or the warblers are starting to move, because, besides the resident Pine Warblers and Common Yellowthroats, I also found 3 Prairie Warblers along a path I'd never walked on before, which led, to my surprise, to a private graveyard where members of the Crabbe family, who operated Double Trouble when it was a working cranberry and blueberry operation, are buried. Walk around enough in Pine Barrens and something new, which is old, will always turn up.

Only 19 species today, but the warblers made it a satisfactory walk.
Great Egret  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  2
Eastern Kingbird  4
Blue Jay  1    Heard
Barn Swallow  13
Carolina Chickadee  8
Tufted Titmouse  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard
Gray Catbird  2
Blue-winged Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  4
Pine Warbler  5
Prairie Warbler  3
Eastern Towhee  5
Chipping Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  1    Heard
American Goldfinch  5    Heard

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