Great Bay Blvd 6/5--Willow Flycatcher, Saltmarsh Sparrow

Great Bay Boulevard, Little Egg Harbor, NJ

Another flycatcher call I know is "fitz-bew!' I heard it in a stand of trees up the road from where I took this photo and though the number of trees certainly didn't approach forest numbers, I still couldn't find the Willow Flycatcher that I knew was in there. The FOY bird I was able to see today is a nice one--Saltmarsh Sparrow, easily identifiable by the orange triangle that takes the cheeks and eyebrow. I don't see these very often so that's the Bird A Day entry, #156. The sparrow of the marshes that I do see with some regularity, Seaside Sparrow, was also there today.

Many Willets were in the marshes and not much else--one Semipalmated Plover was all I could scrounge up on the beach. I avoid Tuckerton on the weekends when the boating crowd (and worse, the jet-ski crowd) is out in force, but for a Thursday, the boulevard was pretty busy and the beach had enough people walking aimlessly around to probably keep the birds away.

One hazard on the road today was terrapins. It's egg laying season and I saw a half dozen waddling across the road. Happily, no crunched ones. They're such primitive looking beasts and so obviously out of their element that you can't help but feel sorry for them as they make their laborious way across the asphalt. Life didn't use to be so this hard for them until we came along.

For the day I had 28 species along the boulevard.

Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  20
Snowy Egret  5
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Glossy Ibis  3
Osprey  10
Clapper Rail  1    Heard
Semipalmated Plover  1
Willet  15
Laughing Gull  100
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  10
Forster's Tern  5
Mourning Dove  4
Willow Flycatcher  1    Heard, 5th bridge
Tree Swallow  4
Barn Swallow  25
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  1    Heard 5th bridge
European Starling  1
Common Yellowthroat  5
Yellow Warbler  3
Saltmarsh Sparrow  3
Seaside Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  5
Northern Cardinal  1
Red-winged Blackbird  75
Boat-tailed Grackle  50