Jackson 5/21--Gray-cheeked Thrush

This morning was Mike's last session of the Birds of Jackson, where we travel, over the course of the late winter and early spring, to more or less the same spots in Jackson Township (100 square miles) and survey the changing bird life. It's been a cold spring and today was no exception; the weather was cool and cloudy and just as we were ending the trip, coming out of Colliers Mills onto Rt 571, it started to rain.

Between 8 and 12:45 we accumulated around 60 species in the 9 spots (including the County Line Road Wawa) that we surveyed. Our one rarity (though they aren't so rare anymore in the county) was a Common Raven we saw as we were standing the in the Wawa Parking lot. The one new bird for the year, for me, was the Gray-cheeked Thrush we found in the woods along the Toms River at FREC. I've been looking for a Swainson's Warbler all month; Gray-cheeked is harder to find, so naturally that's the bird we come up with. The killer bird we saw today was the Hooded Warbler in those same woods. That was my second Hooded Warbler in 2 days and that's never happened to me before.

Our route today in Jackson: Jackson Memorial HS, FREC, Butterfly Bogs, Lake Enno (closed, so we just stood outside the gate for a few minutes) Wawa on County Line Road, Jackson Mills Pond (pretty much empty) Progress Road, Prospertown Lake, and Colliers Mills.

I listed:

Canada Goose

Mallard

Great Blue Heron

Mourning Dove

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Black-billed Cuckoo

Chimney Swift

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Eastern Phoebe

Great Crested Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird

White-eyed Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo

Blue Jay

American Crow

Common Raven

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Purple Martin

Tree Swallow

Bank Swallow

Barn Swallow

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

House Wren

Carolina Wren

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Eastern Bluebird

Gray-cheeked Thrush

Wood Thrush

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Brown Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

European Starling

Cedar Waxwing

Ovenbird

Black-and-white Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Hooded Warbler

Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler

Chipping Sparrow

Eastern Towhee

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Orchard Oriole

Baltimore Oriole

House Finch

American Goldfinch