Whitesbog 10/19--Gray-cheeked Thrush

Having walked in the WMA behind the house almost all week, I needed a change of venue for my vigorous walk, so after a visit to the town dump, I drove over to Whitesbog. From the village parking lot all around the bogs and reservoirs, which takes you back into Ocean County (Whitesbog Village is in Burlington) is a good 4 mile walk. There's a variety of habitat along the way. The picture to the left is the road that leads out to the bogs. It was at the spot that I added my latest FOY bird--Gray-cheeked Thrush. I heard a strange call I couldn't place--actually two birds calling, one near and the other a little more distant--and after a minute or so I was able to find, in the bare branches of a tree, a spotted thrush making the call. Since I was only able to view the bird looking straight up, I didn't have a lot of field marks. I eliminated Hermit Thrush because the bird wasn't lifting its tail and and the spotting was all wrong. The spots were wrong for Wood Thrush too. This left me with Swainson's and Gray-cheeked and judging from the coloring on the breast, the pattern of the dots, and the size of the beak, I finally landed on Gray-cheeked.

Most of the time I bring my scope along to Whitesbog, but I didn't feel like lugging it around and didn't think there would be any need for it as the impoundments start to refill. I was wrong. Where there are usually shorebirds there were none, so I felt justified in my decision. But when I got to the back of the loop I found those reservoirs were in the process of draining. The first shorebird I saw was a Wilson's Snipe that I flushed. Then I heard the familiar "doo-doo-doo" of Greater Yellowlegs in a reservoir across from the where I flushed the snipe. Had I brought my scope I wouldn't have had to walk along an overgrown trail to get a good look at the birds. Of course, I wouldn't have seen the Swamp Sparrows I also found along there. But where I really regretted not having the scope was when I came out at the end of that trail where there is a very large pond that was about 80% drained. There were yellowlegs there too, along with at least a dozen Killdeer, one Semipalmated Plover that I could pick out (rare this time of year) and some peeps that I couldn't i.d. with just binoculars--probably Semipalmated Sandpipers, but they might have been least or something even more interesting--but without a scope they had to go down as "peep sp."

No raptors and only two ducks (Mallards). Lots of colors along the roads. If you look closely at the photo below, you'll find a Great Blue Heron standing on the water control structure.

My list for the 3 hour walk:
24 species (+1 other taxa)
Mallard  2
Great Blue Heron  4
Semipalmated Plover  1    
Killdeer  12
Greater Yellowlegs  15
peep sp.  3    
Wilson's Snipe  1
Mourning Dove  1
Belted Kingfisher  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1    Heard
Eastern Phoebe  3
Blue Jay  1    Heard
American Crow  3    Heard
Fish Crow  1    Heard
Carolina Chickadee  1    Heard
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  3
Gray-cheeked Thrush  2  
Gray Catbird  1
European Starling  10
Yellow-rumped Warbler  10
Eastern Towhee  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  3
Swamp Sparrow  5