June and Its Supposed Doldrums

Black Skimmer, Brig
The objective correlative of June birding

June is notorious for its birding doldrums. Migration is over and the birds that are here are breeding and quiescent. Your choices are basically two: take long walks in the cool of the morning for the pure enjoyment of finding what you can, or chase rarities. I did both.

The rarities have been written about below--in that regard it was great month, with LITTLE GULL, Little Egret, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Purple Gallinule, and Black-bellied Whistling Duck among the rare birds chased and found. Little Gull, along with the GREAT SHEARWATER I saw at Cape May, were lifers, so a number of "interesting" days were interspersed with the walking around days. Actually, I think the best day I had was the 2nd day of the month when I took a long trek through Colliers Mills and found all the colorful and/or localized birds to be found there: Red-headed Woodpecker, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, Warbling Vireo, and Grasshopper Sparrow. I ended the month there today and only found the last two.

June is also the one  month that I bird NJ top to bottom--a couple of trips up to the Delaware Water Gap and a couple of trips down to Cape May. All that traveling, plus a couple of day trips to the state of Delaware, brought my month list to 160, which is impressive, since, according to eBird, for the previous 4 Junes I have averaged only 134 species per month. Doldrums indeed!

Counties Birded
Delaware: Kent
New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Cape May, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, Sussex, Warren

Species                                      First Sighting

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck   Shunpike Rd. pond

Canada Goose   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park

Mute Swan   Forsythe-Barnegat

Wood Duck   Colliers Mills WMA

American Black Duck   Old Mine Road IBA

Mallard   Old Mine Road IBA

Northern Shoveler   Ocean City Preserve

Black Scoter   Cape May Point SP

Common Merganser   Old Mine Road IBA

Northern Bobwhite   Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd

Red-throated Loon   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

GREAT SHEARWATER   Cape May Point SP

Double-crested Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Brown Pelican   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Least Bittern   Mercer Corporate Park

Great Blue Heron   Great Bay Blvd

Great Egret   Holly Lake

Little Egret   Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Snowy Egret   Holly Lake

Little Blue Heron   Forsythe-Barnegat

Tricolored Heron   Great Bay Blvd

Green Heron   Lakehurst NAES

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Glossy Ibis   Great Bay Blvd

Black Vulture   Old Mine Road IBA

Turkey Vulture   Great Bay Blvd

Osprey   Great Bay Blvd

Northern Harrier   Smyrna Leipsic Rd

Cooper's Hawk   Forest Resource Education Center

Bald Eagle   Old Mine Road IBA

Red-shouldered Hawk   Old Mine Road IBA

Broad-winged Hawk   Old Mine Road IBA

Red-tailed Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA

King Rail   Mercer Corporate Park

Clapper Rail   Great Bay Blvd

Purple Gallinule   Ocean City Preserve

Black-necked Stilt   Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Avocet   Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Blvd

Black-bellied Plover   Brig

Semipalmated Plover   Great Bay Blvd

Piping Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Killdeer   Colliers Mills WMA

Upland Sandpiper   Lakehurst NAES

Ruddy Turnstone   Great Bay Blvd

Dunlin   Great Bay Blvd

Least Sandpiper   Great Bay Blvd

White-rumped Sandpiper   Brig

Semipalmated Sandpiper   Holly Lake

Short-billed Dowitcher   Brig

Greater Yellowlegs   Great Bay Blvd

Willet   Great Bay Blvd

Lesser Yellowlegs   Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Black-headed Gull   Brig

LITTLE GULL   Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge

Laughing Gull   Holly Lake

Ring-billed Gull   Brig

Herring Gull   Great Bay Blvd

Great Black-backed Gull   Great Bay Blvd

Least Tern   Great Bay Blvd

Gull-billed Tern   Brig

Caspian Tern   Brig

Common Tern   Brig

Forster's Tern   Holly Lake

Black Skimmer   Great Bay Blvd

Rock Pigeon   Union Transportation Trail

Mourning Dove   Holly Lake

Yellow-billed Cuckoo   Colliers Mills WMA

Black-billed Cuckoo   Colliers Mills WMA

Barred Owl   Lakehurst NAES

Common Nighthawk   Lakehurst NAES

Eastern Whip-poor-will   35 Sunset Rd

Chimney Swift   Mercer Corporate Park

Ruby-throated Hummingbird   Old Mine Road IBA

Belted Kingfisher   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Hairy Woodpecker   Cattus Island County Park

Northern Flicker   Colliers Mills WMA

Pileated Woodpecker   Old Mine Road IBA

American Kestrel   Lakehurst NAES

Peregrine Falcon   Brig

Eastern Wood-Pewee   Great Bay Blvd

Acadian Flycatcher   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Alder Flycatcher   Great Bay Blvd

Willow Flycatcher   Great Bay Blvd

Least Flycatcher   Old Mine Road IBA

Eastern Phoebe   Old Mine Road IBA

Great Crested Flycatcher   35 Sunset Rd

Eastern Kingbird   Great Bay Blvd

Fork-tailed Flycatcher   Cape May Point SP

White-eyed Vireo   Brig

Yellow-throated Vireo   Old Mine Road IBA

Warbling Vireo   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-eyed Vireo   Colliers Mills WMA

Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd

American Crow   Old Mine Road IBA

Fish Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Horned Lark   Lakehurst NAES

Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Old Mine Road IBA

Purple Martin   Brig

Tree Swallow   Great Bay Blvd

Bank Swallow   Delaware Water Gap NRA

Barn Swallow   Great Bay Blvd

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Black-capped Chickadee   Worthington State Forest

Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

House Wren   Old Mine Road IBA

Marsh Wren   Forsythe-Barnegat

Carolina Wren   Colliers Mills WMA

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Colliers Mills WMA

Eastern Bluebird   Colliers Mills WMA

Veery   Old Mine Road IBA

Wood Thrush   Colliers Mills WMA

American Robin   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park

Gray Catbird   Great Bay Blvd

Brown Thrasher   Colliers Mills WMA

Northern Mockingbird   Cattus Island County Park

European Starling   35 Sunset Rd

Cedar Waxwing   Colliers Mills WMA

Ovenbird   Colliers Mills WMA

Worm-eating Warbler   Worthington State Forest

Louisiana Waterthrush   Worthington State Forest

Blue-winged Warbler   Old Mine Road IBA

Black-and-white Warbler   Colliers Mills WMA

Common Yellowthroat   Great Bay Blvd

Hooded Warbler   Old Mine Road IBA

American Redstart   Old Mine Road IBA

Cerulean Warbler   Old Mine Road IBA

Northern Parula   Old Mine Road IBA

Blackburnian Warbler   Stokes Forest

Yellow Warbler   Great Bay Blvd

Chestnut-sided Warbler   Old Mine Road IBA

Pine Warbler   Old Mine Road IBA

Prairie Warbler   Colliers Mills WMA

Grasshopper Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA

Saltmarsh Sparrow   Great Bay Blvd

Seaside Sparrow   Great Bay Blvd

Chipping Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Field Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA

Song Sparrow   Holly Lake

Eastern Towhee   35 Sunset Rd

Scarlet Tanager   Colliers Mills WMA

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Rose-breasted Grosbeak   Old Mine Road IBA

Blue Grosbeak   Colliers Mills WMA

Indigo Bunting   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-winged Blackbird   Holly Lake

Eastern Meadowlark   Lakehurst NAES

Common Grackle   Colliers Mills WMA

Boat-tailed Grackle   Great Bay Blvd

Brown-headed Cowbird   35 Sunset Rd

Orchard Oriole   Colliers Mills WMA

Baltimore Oriole   Colliers Mills WMA

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch   Colliers Mills WMA

House Sparrow   Stanley H. 'Tip' Seaman County Park Ruddy Turnstone, Brig

Cape May 6/20--Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
Photo: Shari Zirlin

About 1:30 this afternoon, with the report of the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks on Shunpike Road, Shari could stand it no more and decided right then that we were going to Cape May. Which was fine with me, because last year, when the ducks showed up at this very same pond, I dithered so long about making the drive that when I finally decided to go, they were gone.

What there is about this little private pond that attracts these ducks, other than habit, is obscure to me. But there they were, among the geese, Mallards, and Laughing Gulls, looking goofy as always. This species turns up on almost annual basis in NJ, and they're always worth the trip to me. I love the way they look.

It didn't take any time to find them either--Shari leaned out the car window and found them naked eye. So we drove an hour and 45 minutes for a 1 minute bird (we actually spent 5 minutes admiring them). Then we drove over to the state park.

Things did not go as well over there. We spent two hours overlooking the beach, waiting for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher to reappear. It finally did--an hour and half after we left. Nor were there any shearwaters for Shari to add to her life list. We did, however, hear the piercing call of the Northern Bobwhite in the maintenance yard. It sounded like it was in the same tree as on Sunday, but this time there was no kind person to let us into the yard to view the back side of the tree.

Everything else we saw would be expected species; two American Oystercatchers, on the beach, one sitting in the sand as if on nest, filled out Shari's day. 2 out of 4 targets--not bad for a spur of the moment trip.

Cape May 6/18--GREAT SHEARWATER, Fork-tailed Flycatcher

Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Cape May SP

Mike and I made a rarity run today and we did pretty well. Despite some trepidation about the traffic, we drove down to Cape May State Park to see if we could get the Fork-tailed Flycatcher that showed up yesterday. Unlike the two rarities Shari & I saw at Bombay Hook on Friday, this, with its tail about one and a half times longer than its body, is a "Wow" bird, visiting from South America.

The location of the bird wasn't hard to figure out once we saw the line of birders on the ramp to the beach. Naturally, the bird hadn't been seen for about 15 minutes--we really didn't want a long wait because the light traffic we had coming down wasn't going to last all day, especially going back. Meanwhile, birders with scopes were calling out shearwaters in the rips. We hadn't taken our scopes out of the car, so we went back for them, Mike making a detour. I was scanning the ocean, hopelessly, looking for any birds on, in, or over the water, when Mike came back saying that he had seen the Northern Bobwhite that has been resident in the park for a couple of months. I knew the bird was there but he'd forgotten about it. It was a year bird for him, but I'd heard one just on Friday and seen one at Colliers Mills earlier in the year. Still, always a good bird, so I went back down the ramp to find it, behind the line of buildings. Just as I was peering into the maintenance yard, I heard a roar go up and knew I was missing the flycatcher. I ran back. Bird was gone. Mike was chuckling. Now I was 0 for 2. My bad mood lasted only a moment because the flycatcher returned and I got great looks and decent pictures.

Then we turned our attention to the sea. Mike was describing where the shearwaters were, in the flocks of gulls, but no matter how hard I looked, my eyesight was glaucous without the gull. Finally I saw some white specks flying low over the water and realized people were identifying them as species~! Then Mike and another guy were describing the flight of a GREAT SHEARWATER and I had no clue as to where in the vast ocean they were looking when the first miracle of the day occurred--the bird flew right into my scope view and I was able to track it for 20 or 30 seconds. Compared to the specks I was seeing this was at least identifiable as a bird, with dark wings and white band on its rump. Good enough to take as a life bird. Great Shearwaters are not considered rare this time of year but they don't often come in close enough to shore to view. You need to go on a pelagic and Larry don't do pelagics.

Someone mentioned that a Purple Gallinule had been reported in Ocean City, about 30 miles north. At first I thought they were talking about the bird that was in Ocean Grove last month, but no, this was a different place (definitely) with a different bird (possibly). Mike missed last month's bird, so we decided to drive up to Ocean City traffic be damned. But first, let's find that bobwhite.

Northern Bobwhite

It was calling really loudly in the maintenance yard but we couldn't find it. A worker there said it was in a tree and kindly let us into the yard providing we didn't linger. We found the bird, I took a few quick shots and one of them turned out well. The provenance of this bird can be disputed. The coolness of it cannot. The score so far: 2 rarities, 2 year birds, 1 life bird. Not yet 10 o'clock.

Northern Shoveler

I had a vague notion of where the Ocean City Preserve was, having been there once about 8 years ago, but the Google directions, unfortunately took us to the back of the refuge. After some lefts and rights, we eventually found the little boardwalk to the observation tower that I remembered. There were a few birds in the wetlands, but the place wasn't jumping. The most interesting bird we noticed was a very out of season drake Northern Shoveler. Nice to see, but not a bird you'd drive into Ocean City for.

Purple Gallinule (digiscoped)

We'd met one of our birder friends down at the state park, where the flycatcher and bobwhite had been lifers for her and now she came up to the deck, hoping to add a third. There were a lot of reeds, bushes, and high grasses that the gallinule could be hiding in. It wasn't going to be like the Ocean Grove bird, wandering around the street. We three were talking and looking for about 10 minutes when the second miracle of the day occurred--I found the bird. When I'm by myself, obviously, I find birds. But when I'm in a group, I almost never find the target. In fact, if I can get on the bird without tedious directions about angled tree limbs or open patches of darker water, that's an accomplishment. But today, I was scanning and bang--the bird was across the water on a little island. Mike and Lisa both got on the bird immediately with only some rudimentary range-finding from me--"over there" and the score for rarities rose to 3 1/2 (the shoveler doesn't count as a full-blown rarity). This is another great looking bird--unfortunately, my photographs (digiscope and digital) don't do it justice.


Back on to the Parkway, heading north, where the traffic around Atlantic City was in mid-summer form. We did a loop of Brig (our original destination) where we weren't able to locate the Wilson's Phalarope of last week but where we did get the long-staying Black-headed Gull, which has molted into full breeding plumage, making it much more difficult to differentiate from the hundreds of Laughing Gulls--the trick is find the gull with a brownish hood (Black-headed Gull with a brown hood, yeah, that makes sense) that does not come all the way down the nape of its neck. For the day we had around 80 species, but it was quality not quantity that made it fun--especially considering that June is notoriously a "slow" birding month. As I said, we did very well. And beat most of the traffic.

Bombay Hook 6/16--Little Egret, American Avocet, LITTLE GULL

Little Egret looks pretty much like a Snowy Egret

until you see those TWO plumes sticking up

When Shari & I lived in Brooklyn, the trip to Brig was long, at least a couple of hours each way, but we always did it in one day. When we moved down here, much closer to Brig (45 minutes), we realized that Bombay Hook in Delaware, about 2 1/4 hours away, could be done as a day trip, but up until today, when because of some musical festival in Dover we couldn't find a motel room to reserve, we never had. And we really wanted to go there because there were two cool birds that had been hanging around for over a week and we didn't want to miss them.

I chased Little Egret in New Jersey a couple of months ago and missed it in Heislerville, so another one showing up in Delaware was a second chance I didn't want to pass up. And it is "another" because the Jersey bird, I'm told, is possibly a hybrid, since it had a couple of blue spots on its plume and head that this bird clearly does not have. We arrived around 10:30 and went straight to the Raymond Pool, the first pool on the meandering drive and saw 3 small white egrets, one of which, we were convinced was the Little Egret, (absence of yellow lores) but it wasn't wholly convincing. Another birder there had seen many of them, he said, in Taiwan (hey, that's why it's a big deal rarity here) and when he took a close look he nixed the bird. Meanwhile, we did see, very distantly in our scopes, a LITTLE GULL, the other rarity we came for and a life bird. Little Gull shows up in NJ on fairly regular basis, but almost always in places I don't go and usually in big flocks of gulls where my chances of finding it are small. Here, it was the only gull we saw all day. It was far back at the edge of the pool and in our scope we could see enough of detail to call it a Little Gull, but it wasn't the most satisfying of looks for a life bird.

Meanwhile, after having our Little Egret sighting smashed to smithereens we continued on to the next pool, the Shearness. We saw a large flock of Snowy & Great Egrets very close to the road but now Little Egret mixed in. However, just ahead of us, the birder who knew whereof he spoke, signaled to us to drive up about 50 yards. There, nestled in the phragmites with about 6 snowies, was our bird. We'd seen one in France 10 years ago but this was our ABA bid.

In the middle--look for the plumes

Meanwhile, what normally would have been the two birds we especially look for at Bombay Hook, American Avocet and Black-necked Stilt, were instead, duly noted.

We drove around the other pools (Bear Swamp and Finis) and had lunch, then went back out to see what else we could pick up. At the Raymond Pool the Little Egret was back and close enough to get decent photos of it, especially photos showing the the two (as opposed to the Snowy Egret's one) breeding plumes. The Little Gull was still sitting at the back edge of the pool, too far for photography. Shari wondered if we could see it better from the observation tower that was back there. That seemed like a good idea and another birder there though it was two, so we drove all around the pool (it's one way on that section) to get back to the observation tower. Shari & I started down the road and were immediately met by a cloud of Greenhead Flies. We walked a few yards and Shari, being the more sensible one in this marriage turned back, figuring, "this is a bird, not God." I, of course, really wanting to see the bird better, ran the gauntlet of greenheads, followed soon by the other birder and it was a good thing she was there, spitting out flies with me, because I was disoriented and couldn't find the bird from our new position. I was look way too far out when it was actually comparatively close to us. Comparatively. It was still too far to get a decent photo, but I did see it's blotchy head, small bill, and dark, carpal bar on the wing. This is the best photo I could get:

LITTLE GULL

It really isn't much to look at and neither, truth be told, is the Little Egret. They're not "wow" birds. They're white, slightly different birds than usual, and the real thrill goes to the birder who picks them out. All the rest of us are just chasing and checking but that's the game we play.

The one other notable bird was practically the first bird of the trip--we heard a Northern Bobwhite as soon as we got out of the car at the visitor's center. In NJ, bobwhite listings are looked at askance; in Delaware it is just another bird on the expected list.

It was a good trip despite the greenheads, which seemed particularly vicious, maybe because on the first day you encounter them you're just not prepared for the onslaught. After our 2nd trip around, where we managed to get the list up to 52 species, we drove the few miles into Dover and had dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, Flavors of India, which is part of a Motel 8 on Du Pont Highway. Highly recommended.

Canada Goose 25
Mute Swan 2
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 15
Northern Bobwhite 1 Heard parking lot
Great Blue Heron 6
Great Egret 65
Little Egret 1
Snowy Egret 30
Glossy Ibis 15
Turkey Vulture 1
Bald Eagle 3
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Clapper Rail 1 Heard
Black-necked Stilt 5
American Avocet 1
Killdeer 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 50
Greater Yellowlegs 8
Willet (Eastern) 1
LITTLE GULL 1
Forster's Tern 1
Black Skimmer 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Heard
Downy Woodpecker 1 Heard Finis
Great Crested Flycatcher 1 Heard
Eastern Kingbird 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1 Heard Finis
Fish Crow 1
Purple Martin 20
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1 Heard Finis
Marsh Wren 10
Wood Thrush 1 Heard
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 10
Brown Thrasher 1
Ovenbird 1 Heard. Finis
Common Yellowthroat 15
Yellow Warbler 1 Heard
Field Sparrow 5 Heard
Eastern Towhee 1 Heard
Scarlet Tanager 1 Heard
Blue Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 30
Common Grackle 4
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
American Goldfinch 6
House Sparrow 4