Brigantine 9/1--Going Solo

A Whip-poor-will awoke me at 5:44 this morning, which was fine, because I wanted to get up early for an experiment. We've been birding a lot on NJ Audubon trips and with Pete, Scott, and Linda, you're always going to get a lot of species. Shari is in New York this weekend, so I thought I'd go down to Brigantine to see how many species I could find solo.

I arrived at Brig at 7:45, much earlier than we usually get there. My plan to was to not only bird the wildlife drive, but to walk some of the trails in the early morning to see what passerines I could turn up. Not nearly as many as I had hoped, but Hairy Woodpecker and Blue-gray Gnatcatcher were good finds, as was a Red-eyed Vireo at the entrance gate that I saw in the afternoon.

In all I found 57 species today which is exactly how many Shari & I saw last week with Pete Bacinski. (The group in aggregate had over 80 species, but it is impossible to get on every bird.) That seems pretty good except I cast a wider net by walking the Akers Trail a couple of times, Jen's Trail, and the Leeds Eco Trail as well as the wildlife drive and the Gull Pond area. And looking at other birder's lists, I see I missed some interesting birds like Brown Pelican, Lark Sparrow, and a couple of warblers, so I would say the experiment was just mildly successful.

At the Leeds Eco Trail I made a couple of discoveries besides birds. Part of the trail goes through woods, and part of the trail is a long boardwalk elevated above the marsh.

The boardwalk planks are made out of some sort of environmentally friendly, recycled, non-rotting plastic and if you're a "Friend of Forsythe" (Forsythe being the overall NWR of which the Brigantine unit is the largest and best known section) you can have a personalized plank. We made our contribution quite a while ago and today, walking on the boardwalk, just before the curve, I found this:

Whew! They spelled the names right. So we're forever immortalized in environmentally friendly, recycled, non-rotting plastic. Gulls can bounce clam shells off our plank until the oceans rise and cover the boardwalk.

The other thing I discovered was on the wooded part of the trail which eventually leads around out to the marsh where you can see the far end of the boardwalk. Scanning the marsh I was surprised to see that the southern portion of the refuge is bordered by a golf course. Never noticed that before.

I guess if you hit it into the rough on that course, you really hit it into the rough. The contrast of the manicured greens and golf carts against the preserved marsh at first seemed funny then quickly looked ridiculous to me.

When I got home this afternoon I stepped outside around 5:30, looking at the birds in the bare tree. High up I saw dozens of dragonflies against the blue sky and higher up I saw 3 Common Nighthawks whizzing around making a meal, presumably, of the bugs.

Dragonfly watching has now become a hobby. Guys who have seen all the birds and then have exhausted all the butterflies and moths, go on to dragonflies. I'm sticking with birds, so if anyone knows what kind of dragonfly this is that landed on the antenna of the car, I'm only mildly interested.

The nighthawks, the whip, a hummingbird and a couple of other backyard birds brought my day total up to 62.
Brig's birds:
Canada Goose  85
Mute Swan  4
Gadwall  10
American Black Duck  25
Mallard  3
Blue-winged Teal  5
Northern Shoveler  3
Green-winged Teal  1    Exit Pond
Double-crested Cormorant  175
Great Blue Heron  10
Great Egret  125
Snowy Egret  30
Black-crowned Night-Heron  5
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1
Glossy Ibis  10
Osprey  4
Northern Harrier  2
Clapper Rail  1    Heard, Leeds Eco Trail
Black-bellied Plover  6
Semipalmated Plover  25
American Oystercatcher  1
Greater Yellowlegs  2
Willet  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  5
Semipalmated Sandpiper  500
Least Sandpiper  2
Short-billed Dowitcher  5
Laughing Gull  300
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  200
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Caspian Tern  10
Forster's Tern  200
Royal Tern  7
Black Skimmer  25
Mourning Dove  8
Hairy Woodpecker  3
Northern Flicker  1    Heard, Akers Trail
Peregrine Falcon  3
Eastern Kingbird  3
Red-eyed Vireo  1    Entrance Gate
Blue Jay  3    Heard
American Crow  10
Fish Crow  10
Tree Swallow  50
Barn Swallow  25
Carolina Chickadee  5
House Wren  2    Jen's Trail
Carolina Wren  3    Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1    Leeds Eco Trail
American Robin  1    Akers Trail
Gray Catbird  7    Heard
European Starling  40
Chipping Sparrow  10    Picnic tables
Northern Cardinal  1    Picnic tables
Red-winged Blackbird  50
American Goldfinch  6