September Wrap-up

Marbled Godwit, digiscoped, Winter Anchorage, Island Beach SP

As the year progresses, it obviously gets harder to add year birds (unless you travel outside your territory) so by adding 9 this month, including the lifer WHISKERED TERN, I feel pretty good about the month's forays. At the same time, there was a lot of frustration this month looking warblers and other migrants. I felt like I was slogging all month, picking up one or two birds at a time instead of a slew of them in a "fall out." My timing always seemed off. I spent a lot of time walking up and down Reed's Road (including today, when I added my last bird of the month, a Brown Creeper), hoping to replicate that one great day I had in the spring when the road and the bowl just to the north were full of birds.

We also ranged a little farther afield than usual making 2 trips to North Jersey (hic sunt leontes), doing a day at Chimney Rock Hawk Watch in Somerset County and finally getting to the Celery Farm in Bergen County. The former was frustrating; someone with my eyesight has a hard time distinguishing the hawks from the floaters. The Celery Farm was great and much more extensive than I imagined it.

Another frustration this month was missing the two American Avocets that were briefly at Forsythe-Barnegat; it was the day we went to the hawk watch. I tried for them the next day (twice) but they were gone. Avocets are always fun to see and I need them for my county list.

Greg & I canoed out to Great Sedge Island 3 times and consistently found Marbled Godwits, which pleased us immensely, along with lots of pelicans, birds that somehow just seem incongruous no matter where you find them. If the weather stays warm, we may continue the trips in October. Greg's already found an Eared Grebe in Barnegat Bay today, so who knows what kind of interesting waterfowl could be hiding in plain sight out there?

For the month I managed 152 species.
Counties birded: Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Cape May, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset.

Cooper's Hawk, Whitesbog Species               Location

Canada Goose     Brig

Mute Swan     Brig

Wood Duck     Brig

Gadwall     Cape May Point SP

American Black Duck     Brig

Mallard     Brig

Blue-winged Teal     Brig

Northern Shoveler     Forsythe-Barnegat

Northern Pintail     Sandy Hook

Green-winged Teal     Brig

Common Eider     Great Sedge Island

Hooded Merganser     Eno’s Pond

Wild Turkey     Whitesbog

Pied-billed Grebe     Brig

Double-crested Cormorant     Brig

Great Cormorant     Great Sedge Island

Brown Pelican     Holgate

Great Blue Heron     Brig

Great Egret     Brig

Snowy Egret     Brig

Little Blue Heron     Great Sedge Island

Tricolored Heron     Great Sedge Island

Green Heron     Great Sedge Island

Black-crowned Night-Heron     Brig

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron     Brig

Glossy Ibis     Brig

Black Vulture     Union Transportation Trail

Turkey Vulture     Brig

Osprey     Brig

Northern Harrier     Brig

Sharp-shinned Hawk     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Cooper's Hawk     Whitesbog

Bald Eagle     GSP MM 48

Red-shouldered Hawk     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Broad-winged Hawk     Sandy Hook

Red-tailed Hawk     Sandy Hook

Clapper Rail     Brig

Common Gallinule     Cape May Point SP

American Oystercatcher     Brig

Black-bellied Plover     Brig

American Golden-Plover     Holgate

Semipalmated Plover     Brig

Killdeer     Whitesbog

Spotted Sandpiper     Great Sedge Island

Greater Yellowlegs     Brig

Willet     Brig

Lesser Yellowlegs     Brig

Marbled Godwit     Great Sedge Island

Ruddy Turnstone     Holgate

Red Knot     Great Sedge Island

Sanderling     Holgate

Dunlin     Brig

Least Sandpiper     Brig

Buff-breasted Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Pectoral Sandpiper     Whitesbog

Semipalmated Sandpiper     Brig

Short-billed Dowitcher     Brig

Wilson's Phalarope     Brig

Laughing Gull     Brig

Ring-billed Gull     Brig

Herring Gull     Brig

Great Black-backed Gull     Brig

Gull-billed Tern     Brig

Caspian Tern     Brig

Black Tern     Great Sedge Island

WHISKERED TERN     Cape May Point SP

Common Tern     Holgate

Forster's Tern     Brig

Royal Tern     Holgate

Black Skimmer     Brig

Rock Pigeon     Sandy Hook

Mourning Dove     Holgate

Yellow-billed Cuckoo     Brig

Black-billed Cuckoo     Bunker Hill Bogs

Eastern Screech-Owl     35 Sunset Rd

Eastern Whip-poor-will     35 Sunset Rd

Ruby-throated Hummingbird     35 Sunset Rd

Belted Kingfisher     Great Sedge Island

Red-bellied Woodpecker     Bunker Hill Bogs

Downy Woodpecker     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Northern Flicker     Whitesbog

American Kestrel     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Merlin     35 Sunset Rd

Peregrine Falcon     Brig

Olive-sided Flycatcher     The Celery Farm

Eastern Wood-Pewee     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher     Sandy Hook

Least Flycatcher     Colliers Mills WMA

Eastern Phoebe     Whitesbog

Great Crested Flycatcher     Bunker Hill Bogs

Eastern Kingbird     Brig

White-eyed Vireo     Bunker Hill Bogs

Warbling Vireo     The Celery Farm

Red-eyed Vireo     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Blue Jay     Brig

American Crow     Brig

Fish Crow     Forsythe-Barnegat

Common Raven     Chimney Rock Hawk Watch

Purple Martin     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Tree Swallow     Brig

Barn Swallow     Great Sedge Island

Carolina Chickadee     Brig

Black-capped Chickadee     The Celery Farm

Tufted Titmouse     Brig

Red-breasted Nuthatch     Wells Mills Park

White-breasted Nuthatch     Bunker Hill Bogs

Brown Creeper     Reed’s Road

House Wren     35 Sunset Rd

Carolina Wren     Brig

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher     Reed’s Road

Ruby-crowned Kinglet     Reed’s Road

Eastern Bluebird     Whitesbog

American Robin     Brig

Gray Catbird     Brig

Brown Thrasher     Whitesbog

Northern Mockingbird     Holgate

European Starling     Brig

Cedar Waxwing     Brig

Northern Waterthrush     Reed’s Road

Black-and-white Warbler     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Nashville Warbler     Reed’s Road

Common Yellowthroat     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

American Redstart     Bunker Hill Bogs

Northern Parula     Sandy Hook

Magnolia Warbler     Reed’s Road

Blackburnian Warbler     Eno’s Pond

Yellow Warbler     Great Bay Blvd

Black-throated Blue Warbler     Wells Mills Park

Palm Warbler     Cape May Point SP

Pine Warbler     Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)

Yellow-rumped Warbler     Brig

Prairie Warbler     Spizzle Creek

Black-throated Green Warbler     Reed’s Road

Eastern Towhee     Brig

Chipping Sparrow     Colliers Mills WMA

Savannah Sparrow     Great Bay Blvd

Saltmarsh Sparrow     Brig

Seaside Sparrow     Great Sedge Island

Song Sparrow     Great Bay Blvd

Swamp Sparrow     Spizzle Creek

White-throated Sparrow     Eno’s Pond

Northern Cardinal     Bunker Hill Bogs

Rose-breasted Grosbeak     Sandy Hook

Indigo Bunting     Union Transportation Trail

Bobolink     Reed’s Road

Red-winged Blackbird     Brig

Common Grackle     35 Sunset Rd

Boat-tailed Grackle     Brig

Brown-headed Cowbird     Brig

House Finch     35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch     Brig

House Sparrow     Holgate

Great Sedge Island 9/26--Final Trip of the Year?

Greg & I took advantage of the summery weather and made what is probably our final trip of the year out to the Sedge Islands. We still haven't got the tides to match the predictions but today there were lots of sand bars and lots of birds on those sand bars.

The Marbled Godwits remain in place. We saw 5 today.

Marbled Godwit with oystercatcher & gull
Photos © Greg Prelich

We managed to conjure up a couple of new birds (for the islands). I told Greg we should be on the lookout for Great Cormorant and within 5 minutes of my saying it, he'd found one, then later another. 

I was also searching for "winter" sandpipers and the last bird on our list turned out to be a couple of Dunlins we found mixed in with plovers and a Sanderling. 

For the trip we had 34 species:

Canada Goose  16
Double-crested Cormorant  75
Great Cormorant  2
Brown Pelican  25
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  50
Snowy Egret  30
Little Blue Heron  1
Tricolored Heron  1
Osprey  1
Clapper Rail  1
American Oystercatcher  25
Black-bellied Plover  30
Semipalmated Plover  20
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Willet (Western)  10     Exact count
Lesser Yellowlegs  3
Marbled Godwit  5    
Sanderling  1
Dunlin  2
Least Sandpiper  6
Semipalmated Sandpiper  3
Short-billed Dowitcher  2
Laughing Gull  25
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  20
Caspian Tern  5
Common Tern  2
Forster's Tern  3
Royal Tern  15
crow sp.  1
Tree Swallow  250
Northern Mockingbird  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1

IBSP Reed's Road 9/24--Black-throated Green Warbler

It seems like every other day there's a good warbler flight at Island Beach SP and I'm there the next day, when there isn't. Sometimes I doubt my birding abilities; but then I run into someone else on Reed's Road who isn't finding much and I just chalk it up to bad timing.

I can't truly complain today though, because just to the north of Reed's Road in a grove of pine and oak which often acts as a migrant trap, I came across, finally, two Black-throated Green Warblers, a relatively easy bird but one that I've missed, to my embarrassment, up until today.

I even managed to get a picture of one of them. Can you find it? It in the lower left quadrant of the photo. I like this picture because, really, this is how we see most of our warblers--through foliage and twigs, skipping around, not standing up right on a bare branch, posing.
I also came across my FOS Ruby-crowned Kinglet; it was following the warbler. And along the way I managed 3 Red-eyed Vireos, a couple of Magnolia Warblers, and one Palm Warbler, wagging its tail. I didn't have the 10 or 12 species of warblers that were being found yesterday, but I'll take it.
17 species
Osprey  1
Herring Gull  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard
Downy Woodpecker  1     
Northern Flicker  6
Red-eyed Vireo  3
Blue Jay  2     Heard
Tree Swallow  20
Carolina Chickadee  1
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Gray Catbird  5
Magnolia Warbler  2
Palm Warbler  1
Black-throated Green Warbler  2
Eastern Towhee  2     Heard

I also checked the Winter Anchorage, where Greg & I launch the canoe for our explorations of Great Sedge Island. If the tide is low enough you can scope the sand bar out about 1/4 mile from the boat launch. There were hundreds of, perhaps a thousand sandpipers on the narrow sand bar and while I could have guessed that they were Sanderlings and Semipalmated Sandpipers, I just let them go as peeps. What I really was checking to see was if the small flock of Marbled Godwits that have been hanging out there since late August were still around--they were. They are a supposedly rare bird for Ocean County and since this is the only spot where you'll find them this year, I guess they are.
12 species (+1 other taxa)
Double-crested Cormorant  12
Brown Pelican  1
Great Egret  2
American Oystercatcher  2
Marbled Godwit  6     
peep sp.  500     Conservative estimate. 
Laughing Gull  1
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Caspian Tern  2
Royal Tern  15
Tree Swallow  25
Gray Catbird  1

Finally, I took a walk on the Spizzle Creek Blind Trail, hoping for something out of the ordinary, which I didn't find. However, there were tremendous swarms of Tree Swallows. "Flocks" to me indicates some form of organization, whereas these birds were just swarming haphazardly through the skies (going mostly north, oddly) presumably feasting on the many mosquitoes I was swatting. A mere hint of what I saw in this photo:

I didn't notice the Caspian Tern (extreme upper right) until I was working on the photo.
17 species
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Egret  5
Snowy Egret  11
Tricolored Heron  2
Laughing Gull  1
Herring Gull  5
Caspian Tern  1
Mourning Dove  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Tree Swallow  300
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard
Gray Catbird  1     Heard
Common Yellowthroat  1
Palm Warbler  1
Swamp Sparrow  1
House Finch  3
American Goldfinch  1

The Celery Farm 9/20--Olive-sided Flycatcher

Defunct Tractor
Photos: Shari Zirlin

Shari & I have always wanted to explore The Celery Farm, a refuge in the Bergen County exurbia that once actually produced an impressive amount of celery, but never got there when we lived relatively close in Brooklyn. Now that it is exactly 100 miles from where we live, we decided to go, prodded by the prospect of being guided there by Rob Fanning, who knows the place like it is his own backyard. Rob was leading a trip for the Monmouth County Audubon Society but they were fine with us Ocean County interlopers.

It is probably the easiest place I've ever been to see Wood Ducks. Usually these ducks skulk in hard to find places in among the reeds and other vegetation and you're lucky to see a couple. Today there were at least 10, out in the open. Though this is the time of year Wood Ducks are mostly in "eclipse" there were a couple of full breeding plumage males. The most beautiful duck in the North America.

It is also a good place to see raptors. Not in great abundance, as at a hawk watch (where they look like fly specks and pepper) but one or two birds, fairly low, affording great looks. The pond also is good habitat for shorebirds, including an  9 Pectoral Sandpipers, an unusually large number for the area & date. There was a flock of peeps there too, but even with Rob's scope I had to let them go as "spuhs" ("sp" = "spuh"="species").

But the "bird of the day" came toward the end of the trip when Stephanie Seymour found a bird high in a tree's bare branches. Unfortunately we were looking both into the sun and into what ballplayers call a "high sky," but we narrowed the bird down to a flycatcher and then Rob put it into his scope and figured out that it was an Olive-sided Flycatcher, a hard to find bird. When I first saw the bird I noted the white patch, but I couldn't run through my mental database of field marks fast enough to get an idea for an i.d. This is only the 3rd time I've encountered this bird--first in California, then last year in Ohio and finally, I have it on my NJ list. The photo, taken under adverse conditions and greatly cropped and enlarge should in no way be taken as an example of Shari's photography skills.

For the day I had 35 species. I should mention that I got inordinately excited about the Black-capped Chickadee I saw near the outset of the trip. It's a very common bird--if you're north of I-195, which I rarely am.

Canada Goose  27
Wood Duck  10
American Black Duck  1
Mallard  30
Green-winged Teal  5
Great Blue Heron  3
Great Egret  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  2
Northern Harrier  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-shouldered Hawk  2
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  8
Pectoral Sandpiper  9     Exact count. 
peep sp.  20
Mourning Dove  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  1
American Kestrel  1
Olive-sided Flycatcher  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Warbling Vireo  1     Heard, briefly
Blue Jay  5
American Crow  3
Black-capped Chickadee  3
House Wren  1     Heard
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
American Robin  1
Gray Catbird  10
Common Yellowthroat  1     Pirie obs deck
Palm Warbler  2
Northern Cardinal  4
American Goldfinch  10

Rt. 539: Unsafe for Any Species

As an addendum to my previous post, regarding the danger of being on Rt 539, here is an eBird report from today:

1	Black-billed Cuckoo Bird was glanced by a car and sitting stunned in the middle of the road. I moved it off the road and sat with it until it flew to a low branch.

It's bad enough I have to keep an eye out for impatient drivers who think they can make the turn into oncoming traffic (me); or pass that north-bound dump truck while I'm going south; or that I have to watch for deer loping across the road. Now I have to worry about low-flying cuckoos.

Eno's Pond 9/18--Blackburnian Warbler

A detour led me to a year bird today. I started out for Great Bay Blvd on Rt 539, probably the most ill-fated road around here. The road seems to be closed at least once a week due to a traffic accident--bad drivers and dump trucks don't mix.

Today's "detour" route took me east, then north, then west and back to where I started. In order to go south toward Tuckerton, I had to take Lacey Road which, if I drive it almost to its end, dumps me off at Eno's Pond, so I decided to go there first, figuring the woods might have some migrants.

The pond and inlet weren't as busy as I'd hoped, though the continuing hen Hooded Merganser was a nice find. There were warblers and woodpeckers scattered through the woods along with a Red-breasted Nuthatch, but the warblers weren't anything "exciting" until I returned to the first viewing platform. There was one oak tree in the sun that was particularly busy with birds flying in and out; again, mostly common species, but there was one warbler that was different--a deep orange-yellow throat and yellow surrounding a dark cheek patch--Blackburnian Warbler, probably a female, or else a male molting. Not only is Blackburnian a year bird, it is also an Ocean County lifer.
25 species
Canada Goose  18
Mallard  12
Hooded Merganser  1    
Great Blue Heron  1
Snowy Egret  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  1     Heard
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  5
American Crow  1     Heard
Tree Swallow  1
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Carolina Wren  3     Heard
Gray Catbird  5
Northern Waterthrush  1
Black-and-white Warbler  4
Common Yellowthroat  1
American Redstart  2
Blackburnian Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  5
Northern Cardinal  2     First platform

As long as I was "in the neighborhood," I decided to give the impoundments down in Barnegat a try. On Sunday, two American Avocets were in among the yellowlegs, but we were going to a hawk watch up in Somerset County, so I hoped that they would stick around. But on Monday morning, they were absent. Then on Monday afternoon I saw that they'd been observed again. I rushed down there only to come up empty again. And again today. I would really like to have avocets on my county list. 

I did hear a Fish Crow while I was there--the first one this month which seems odd. And I did see a drake Northern Shoveler, which tells me "winter icumen in."
13 species
Canada Goose  8
Mute Swan  4     Seen from cut on Bayshore
American Black Duck  4
Mallard  1
Northern Shoveler  1     Seen from cut on Bayshore
Double-crested Cormorant  5
Great Egret  2
Snowy Egret  28
Tricolored Heron  1
Greater Yellowlegs  10
Lesser Yellowlegs  2
Laughing Gull  2
Fish Crow  1     Heard, Bayshore 

Finally, I made it down Route 9 to Great Bay Blvd, about 2 1/2 hours later than I'd planned. Tide was low, yet aside from 16 Black-bellied Plovers, I saw no shorebirds. Good numbers for waders (wish I knew which night-herons I was inadvertently flushing) and 5 Yellow Warblers were a tiny bit surprising--they must be moving. 
29 species
Double-crested Cormorant  115
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  50
Snowy Egret  40
Tricolored Heron  2
Turkey Vulture  5
Osprey  10
Black-bellied Plover  16
Laughing Gull  75
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  40
Caspian Tern  3
Forster's Tern  10
Royal Tern  1
Mourning Dove  2
Belted Kingfisher  3
Northern Flicker  1
Gray Catbird  2
European Starling  150
Common Yellowthroat  1
Yellow Warbler  5
Savannah Sparrow  1
Saltmarsh Sparrow  1
Seaside Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  6
Northern Cardinal  1     before 5th bridge
Red-winged Blackbird  1     Before 4th bridge
Common Grackle  2
Boat-tailed Grackle  10