Assunpink WMA 1/12--Snow Goose, Common Merganser, Brown Creeper, Eastern Bluebird, Sparrows, Icterids

The weather finally permitted us to go on field trip this morning. We birded Assunpink in Monmouth County with Scott & Linda and while the conditions were not quite as pleasant as predicted, we still managed to find some interesting birds, starting at the lake where there were about a dozen Common Mergansers. There was some open water on the lake, not as much as you'd like, so only a smattering of ducks and a mixed flock of gulls.

We drove back down Imlaystown Road to a farm's driveway just outside the confines of the WMA and there, reliably, was a small flock of White-crowned Sparrows. It is a mystery to me why this driveway consistently hosts these sparrows. It is just one of those hot spots you check off: White-crowned Sparrows? Driveway on Imlaystown Road. Also in the farm fields (sheep & horses) were a couple of species we can't count--a Ring-necked Pheasant (stocked) and Helmeted Guineafowl (pets), as well as birds that some people don't want to count like starlings and a Brown-headed Cowbird. I, putting aside their detrimental natures, happen to like these birds for how they look; starlings in winter are gorgeously speckled and cowbirds have good looking hoods. I also like the way cowbirds "sing" in spring; they sound like a water faucet dripping into a full basin.

A walk up through and around the navigation beacon field turned up a couple of new sparrows, but unfortunately, they were only heard by most of the party. Fox Sparrows were very shy and afforded only glimpses of their backs to me, and the towhee was clearly heard but only partially seen as it flew across the path. I did see perfectly one of my favorites, a Brown Creeper crawling up a cedar. Twice today I missed Savannah Sparrow. Not a rarity, as the towhee is this time of year, but still one I'd like to get.

The birds I did get today totaled 42 with 9 FOY, bringing my count up to 95.
Snow Goose  50    flyovers
Canada Goose  150
Mallard  4    Lake
Ring-necked Duck  9
Lesser Scaup  6
Common Merganser  12
Ruddy Duck  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Black Vulture  5
Turkey Vulture  6
Northern Harrier  3
Cooper's Hawk  1    Beacon field
Red-tailed Hawk  4
Ring-billed Gull  75
Herring Gull  5
Great Black-backed Gull  2    Lake
Rock Pigeon  5
Mourning Dove  3
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  2    Heard
American Crow  3
Carolina Chickadee  2    Heard
Tufted Titmouse  3
White-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard
Brown Creeper  2
Carolina Wren  2    Heard
Golden-crowned Kinglet  2
Eastern Bluebird  2
European Starling  100
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Eastern Towhee  1    Heard in Norway Spruce grove, clearly, "chwink."
Fox Sparrow  1    Heard. There were many more, but I didn't see them clearly.
Song Sparrow  2
White-throated Sparrow  5
White-crowned Sparrow  10    
Dark-eyed Junco  2
Northern Cardinal  4
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Common Grackle  20
Brown-headed Cowbird  1    
American Goldfinch  1    Heard