Manahawkin WMA | Barnegat | Cloverdale Farm | Brig 4/14--Least Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow

Dunlin (left), Least Sandpiper, Manahawkin WMA

Lesser Yellowlegs

Last week, with all the excitement about the White Ibis, I never got to complete my usual route at Manahawkin WMA, so today I decided to give it another try. Once again I carried my scope along the path off Stafford Avenue to the back impoundments, where the "good" birds are and once again, there were "good" birds there. Lots of Glossy Ibis, Green-winged Teal,  last week's quartet of Blue-winged Teal, dozens of Greater Yellowlegs and with them, a few Lesser Yellowlegs, which I've been looking for, and, early arrival (according to eBird) Least Sandpipers.

My first reaction was that the bird was a Semipalmated Sandpiper, since I couldn't see the legs and Least Sandpipers don't like to get their feet wet. Later I saw four peeps across the impoundment that were on mud with yellow legs (not "yellowlegs") and was confident in their identification though they were too far away for my camera. When I got home and looked at my photos on the computer, I could see that the first bird was also a Least. It's brown back (as opposed to gray) bothered me a little when I first saw it, but there is so much variation in these peeps with molts and ages that I have to sit down every year with Sibley or Peterson and refresh my knowledge. Seeing the sandpiper next to the Dunlin was a good diagnostic tool too, just as seeing the Lesser Yellowlegs compared to the Greater is really the best confirmation. When you see the two yellowlegs together you say to yourself, "How does anyone get these confused?" but alone, they're difficult.

I had just reached the "T" where I turn around, walk back to the car, put the scope in the trunk and then retrace my steps and go all the way to the parking lot on Hilliard Avenue when my phone rang. Shari was calling to tell me that I had to go pick up new medicine at the vet's for our ill pussycat and I had to do it by noon, so once again it was birdwalk interruptus for me.

Purple Martins at home

After I got the antibiotic at the vet, who is in Forked River, I continued birding. This time I was shopping for swallows. I made my way down to Barnegat Township where, on a gravel street that is often flooded, there are a number of homes backing on to the marsh with Purple Martin houses behind them. It didn't take long to find them (this is a spot where we used to go on the World Series of Birding, just to get these birds on the list) and then I was off to Cloverdale Farm, where I figured the bogs, on this warm day, would have swallows flying over them, which they did, and among the many Tree Swallows, I managed to pick out one FOY Barn Swallow.

Shari had called me just as I arrived there to tell me that her plans for the day had changed and she wasn't working the afternoon, so we decided to make a post-prandial trip to Brig. While the weather today was delightful--the first really warm day of the year--the wind was impressive. Most of the ducks have cleared out of Brig, save for the Green-winged Teal and the Northern Shovelers, and there wasn't a great diversity of shorebirds or waders. In fact, we only added one new bird for the year list, yet another swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow swooping around the Gull Pond. I was happy to see, though, that the water levels at Brig looked perfect for the shorebirds when they do arrive.

The cumulative list for the above locations, plus a few others I hit in Waretown and Barnegat.

Snow Goose   1

Brant   380

Canada Goose   84

Mute Swan   6

Blue-winged Teal   4

Northern Shoveler   76

Mallard   15

American Black Duck   25

Green-winged Teal   85

Bufflehead   10

Red-breasted Merganser   6

Double-crested Cormorant   40

Great Blue Heron   2

Great Egret   41

Snowy Egret   36

Little Blue Heron   1

Glossy Ibis   53

Turkey Vulture   3

Osprey   11

American Coot   3

Dunlin   1

Least Sandpiper   5

Greater Yellowlegs   65

Lesser Yellowlegs   3

Laughing Gull   2

Herring Gull   54

Great Black-backed Gull   5

Forster's Tern   15

Mourning Dove   2

Belted Kingfisher   1

Eastern Phoebe   2

Blue Jay   3

Fish Crow   11

Northern Rough-winged Swallow   1

Purple Martin   13

Tree Swallow   18

Barn Swallow   1

Carolina Chickadee   2

Tufted Titmouse   2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   2

Golden-crowned Kinglet   1

Eastern Bluebird   10

American Robin   5

European Starling   8

Pine Warbler   1

Yellow-rumped Warbler   2

Chipping Sparrow   4

Song Sparrow   9

Northern Cardinal   4

Red-winged Blackbird   42

Brown-headed Cowbird   1

House Finch   5

American Goldfinch   3