Whitesbog 3/23--Eastern Phoebe

Eastern Phoebe

Had someone told me when we lived in Brooklyn that one day in my dotage I'd be cutting off huge, damaged branches from a pine tree and dragging them across the yard to pile them up at the curb I'd have thought they were a proponent of the "Many Universes" theory and they were talking about me in an alternate universe. But that's exactly how I spent this morning, cleaning up the damage done by the heavy, wet snow dumped on us Wednesday by the nor'easter #4.

By the time I had finished that task the dishwasher repairman arrived (I never thought I'd have a dishwasher in Brooklyn either) and when he left me with the old guts of the machine to dispose of I drove over to the dump (never thought I'd be going to a dump, either) and since I was in the neighborhood I decided to walk around Whitesbog. Walk being the operative word since driving on the muddy, slushy, puddles-like-ponds roads would have been challenging.

Considering I started just after noon, there were more birds there than I expected. Tundra Swan numbers were down to 10 from about 80, but there was still a large flock of Ring-necked Ducks there. The 2 "interesting" species I found there were Pine Warbler and Fox Sparrow.  There were a few Tree Swallows over the lower bog. I was hoping there would be some over the county line in Ocean but that didn't work out.

Pine Warbler in Ocean County

However, as soon as I crossed over the double-laned road into Ocean County I encountered my first Eastern Phoebe of the year, flitting around the trees that border the first reservoir. I took a lot of pictures the least blurry of which is above. There were also a few Pine Warblers feeding on the muddy edge of that reservoir. The other cool bird I saw was way back at the Upper Reservoir where I saw a Red-shouldered Hawk with all the field marks including excellent glimpses of the "windows" beneath the wings. The only other Red-shouldered Hawk I've seen this year was also at Whitesbog, though on the Burlco side, so that made it a county bird.

While talking to my friend on one of the back roads (he'd just finished walking his dog) we heard a Wood Duck squeal and fly over. Looking behind us I saw a big wetlands area that I'd never noticed before even though I've passed that spot dozens of times. That's what I love about Whitesbog: the more I walk it, the more that is revealed.

For my 4 miles from village to Upper Reservoir and back I had 20 species, which, as I said, is not a bad count for mid-day birding.

Canada Goose   55

Tundra Swan   10

Wood Duck   1

Mallard   12

Ring-necked Duck   70

Hooded Merganser   2

Turkey Vulture   4

Red-shouldered Hawk   1

Eastern Phoebe   1

American Crow   2

Tree Swallow   3

Carolina Chickadee   1

Carolina Wren   1

Golden-crowned Kinglet   1

European Starling   1

Pine Warbler   5

Yellow-rumped Warbler   2

Fox Sparrow   3

Dark-eyed Junco   8

Song Sparrow   6

Pine branches after the storm