Brigantine 7/27--American Bittern, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Western Sandpiper, Royal Tern.

American Bittern
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Well, so much for the summer doldrums; Fall migration has started in earnest. About 30 birders were led around Brigantine by Pete Bacinski, Scott Barnes, Linda Mack, Mike Mandracchia and Lloyd Shaw, and with that much birding knowledge, great sightings were sure to be had. The highlights, for me, are in the heading, along with a the Marbled Godwit that my ever-diligent wife was able to spot out among the skimmers & gulls.

The place was teeming with sandpipers--a couple of thousand Semipalmated Sandpipers is probably a conservative estimate. In among them we were able to tease out a couple of Western Sandpipers, a Least Sandpiper, a Dunlin and about 6 Stilt Sandpipers. The buildup in birds will only increase as the summer (for us)/fall(for the birds) progresses.

The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron we found was a very fresh, almost downy juvenile along the north dike. My first one of the year--amazing it took this long to find one. Royal Terns are rarities at Brig (they're more of an seashore bird) so it was fine to get very good looks at multiple examples--they're easy to pick out with their "tonsures." I guess because of their name they always remind me of vain balding kings. The other great, great, find today was on the road to the Gull Pond: American Bittern, as pictured above. This is also a true rarity, but if you're going to see one, that stretch of road at Brig is pretty reliable. Last year that's where we also saw one. There were a couple of new birders on the trip today (how I envy them: life birds almost every time they lifted their binoculars) and I told them they could go 10 years before seeing another bittern. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but I bird a lot and there are long stretches when I haven't seen one.

The trip ended on a dramatic note, when at the end of our 2nd loop, on the upland section near the exit, Scott found a Cooper's Hawk entangled in the greenbriar. We guessed that it had attacked a bird, missed, and got caught in nature's barbed wire. The bird's breast was actually pierced by a stem of the greenbriar, but Scott, Linda, and a couple of others worked hard and very carefully and the team was able to free the hawk, which astoundingly flew away. I was sure it was going to need to go to a raptor rehabilitation facility.

In June I was on a trip at Assunpink with Scott and others. Jimmy Lee was wearing a t-shirt I really admired. A couple of weeks later, out of nowhere, my friend Eileen came to the house with the shirt, knowing nothing about Jimmy or the shirt. Her sister, who doesn't even know me, but knows of me, had bought it as a goof. A great present. And I was mortified, mortified, I tell you, when I saw that Jimmy and I were both wearing the shirt today. Wish I had tucked it in before Shari took the photo--I look like a slob next to him.

And, as if to bring home that Fall is rapidly approaching, when we got home this afternoon, Shari called me to the window to see, in the backyard, our first White-throated Sparrow of the season--but which season?

Chipping and White-throated Sparrow
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Two trips around the Wildlife drive yielded 64 species for us--the group as a whole had about 86 species.
Canada Goose  500
Mute Swan  6
Wood Duck  1
American Black Duck  25
Mallard  30
Blue-winged Teal  2
Double-crested Cormorant  3
American Bittern  1    
Great Egret  25
Snowy Egret  20
Little Blue Heron  1    gull tower
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1    From North Dike
Glossy Ibis  10
Osprey  10
Cooper's Hawk  1    
Clapper Rail  2
Black-bellied Plover  1
Semipalmated Plover  15
American Oystercatcher  6
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  2
Willet (Eastern)  3
Lesser Yellowlegs  15
Whimbrel  3
Marbled Godwit  1    From South Dike before observation tower. 
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  2000
Western Sandpiper  2
Least Sandpiper  1
Dunlin  1
Stilt Sandpiper  6
Short-billed Dowitcher  50
Laughing Gull  50
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  10
Least Tern  15
Gull-billed Tern  5
Caspian Tern  1
Forster's Tern  50
Royal Tern  3
Black Skimmer  50
Peregrine Falcon  2
American Crow  15
Fish Crow  3
Purple Martin  10
Tree Swallow  5
Bank Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  10
Marsh Wren  3
Gray Catbird  1    Heard
Northern Mockingbird  1
Cedar Waxwing  2
Common Yellowthroat  4
Field Sparrow  1    Heard
Seaside Sparrow  4
Song Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  1    End of upland trail, by COHA
Blue Grosbeak  1    Dogleg
Indigo Bunting  1    South dike, on phragmites
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  2
American Goldfinch  1    Heard