July Was a Slow Month

Cedar Waxwing and Eastern Bluebird
Cranberry Bogs, Dover Rd

July started off well with the Roseate Spoonbill at Brig on the first and then the Red-headed Woodpecker on Sooy Road in Burlington County the next day, but it was slog the remainder of the month. I add only two more year birds for the month: the Stilt Sandpiper at Brig and a few Royal Terns near the inlet at Island Beach.

The underlined birds on my list indicate rarities but most of them come with an asterisk--the 3 duck species are rare only for the season. In the winter, eiders, ruddies, and teals would be unremarkable.

I made another trip up to north Jersey to not much avail and I still haven't gotten down to Cape May. I concentrated on Ocean & Burlington Counties for the most part with a few trips down to Brig where over a third of my list was first sighted.

Usually I bird and get my exercise in, but this month, when there was really nothing new to find and no real rarities to chase, I had to, on a number of mornings, force myself to get my walk in somewhere and let the birds come as they may.

At least shorebird migration has started in earnest. But the big disappointment this year is that I'll have to travel around to see them since my usual close August shorebird location--Whitesbog--will not have its bogs drained this year due to the catastrophic breach at the Upper Reservoir this winter which made the water available for irrigation and eventual flooding of the cranberry plants more problematic for the farmer than it usually is. Too bad, because the last few years I've spent the great majority of my time in August at Whitesbog. So this month could be interesting. Or it could be a repeat of July.

Counties birded:
Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean, Sussex, Warren

138 species:

Species            First Sighting

Canada Goose   Brig

Mute Swan   Brig

Wood Duck   Cranberry Bogs, Dover Rd

Mallard   Brig

American Black Duck   Brig

Green-winged Teal   Brig

Common Eider   Island Beach SP

Ruddy Duck   Brig

Wild Turkey   Crestwood Village

Double-crested Cormorant   Brig

Brown Pelican   Island Beach SP

Great Blue Heron   Brig

Great Egret   Brig

Snowy Egret   Brig

Little Blue Heron   Island Beach SP

Tricolored Heron   Great Bay Blvd

Green Heron   Reeves Bogs

Black-crowned Night-Heron   Brig

Glossy Ibis   Brig

Roseate Spoonbill   Brig

Black Vulture   GSP MM 114

Turkey Vulture   Amasa Landing Rd

Osprey   Brig

Cooper's Hawk   Brig

Bald Eagle   Old Mine Road IBA

Red-shouldered Hawk   Stokes SF

Broad-winged Hawk   Old Mine Road IBA

Red-tailed Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA

Clapper Rail   Brig

American Oystercatcher   Brig

Semipalmated Plover   Brig

Piping Plover   Island Beach SP

Killdeer   Brig

Whimbrel   Brig

Stilt Sandpiper   Brig

Sanderling   Island Beach SP

Least Sandpiper   Brig

Semipalmated Sandpiper   Great Bay Blvd

Western Sandpiper   Brig

Short-billed Dowitcher   Brig

Spotted Sandpiper   Whitesbog

Greater Yellowlegs   Brig

Willet   Brig

Lesser Yellowlegs   Brig

Laughing Gull   Wawa Galloway

Herring Gull   Brig

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Great Black-backed Gull   Brig

Least Tern   Brig

Gull-billed Tern   Brig

Caspian Tern   Brig

Common Tern   Brig

Forster's Tern   Brig

Royal Tern   Island Beach SP

Black Skimmer   Brig

Rock Pigeon   Highway 206

Mourning Dove   Brig

Yellow-billed Cuckoo   Sooy Pl Rd

Common Nighthawk   35 Sunset Rd

Eastern Whip-poor-will   35 Sunset Rd

Chimney Swift   Brig

Ruby-throated Hummingbird   35 Sunset Rd

Belted Kingfisher   Delaware Water Gap NRA

Red-headed Woodpecker   Sooy Pl Rd

Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Downy Woodpecker   Old Mine Road IBA

Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog

Northern Flicker   Colliers Mills WMA

Peregrine Falcon   Island Beach SP

Eastern Wood-Pewee   Sooy Pl Rd

Acadian Flycatcher   Flatbrookville Rd

Willow Flycatcher   Brig

Eastern Phoebe   Cranberry Bogs, Dover Rd

Great Crested Flycatcher   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

Eastern Kingbird   Colliers Mills WMA

White-eyed Vireo   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

Yellow-throated Vireo   Old Mine Road IBA

Blue-headed Vireo   Delaware Water Gap NRA

Warbling Vireo   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-eyed Vireo   Sooy Pl Rd

Blue Jay   Brig

American Crow   Cranberry Bogs, Dover Rd

Fish Crow   Crestwood Village

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  Cranberry Bogs, Dover Rd

Purple Martin   Brig

Tree Swallow   Brig

Bank Swallow   Cranberry Bogs, Dover Rd

Barn Swallow   Brig

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Black-capped Chickadee   Lake Ashroe

Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

House Wren   Brig

Marsh Wren   Brig

Carolina Wren   35 Sunset Rd

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Whitesbog

Eastern Bluebird   Colliers Mills WMA

Veery   Sandyston

Wood Thrush   Sooy Pl Rd

American Robin   Brig

Gray Catbird   Brig

Brown Thrasher   Brig

Northern Mockingbird   Historic Smithville

European Starling   Brig

Cedar Waxwing   Delaware Water Gap NRA

Ovenbird   Sooy Pl Rd

Black-and-white Warbler   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

Prothonotary Warbler   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

Common Yellowthroat   Brig

Hooded Warbler   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

American Redstart   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

Northern Parula   Old Mine Road IBA

Yellow Warbler   Island Beach SP

Pine Warbler   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

Prairie Warbler   Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve

Black-throated Green Warbler   Old Mine Road IBA

Wilson's Warbler   Old Mine Road IBA

Saltmarsh Sparrow   Cattus Island County Park

Seaside Sparrow   Brig

Chipping Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Field Sparrow   Brig

Song Sparrow   Crestwood Village

Swamp Sparrow   Reeves Bogs

Eastern Towhee   35 Sunset Rd

Yellow-breasted Chat   Brig

Scarlet Tanager   Old Mine Road IBA

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd

Blue Grosbeak   Brig

Indigo Bunting   Colliers Mills WMA

Orchard Oriole   Brig

Baltimore Oriole   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-winged Blackbird   Brig

Brown-headed Cowbird   Colliers Mills WMA

Common Grackle   Colliers Mills WMA

Boat-tailed Grackle   Island Beach SP

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch   Brig

House Sparrow   Wawa Rt 70 & CR 530 Brown Pelicans, Island Beach SP

Island Beach SP 7/27--Royal Tern

Three Royal Terns (two adult, one juvenile) with Great Black-backed Gulls and Laughing Gulls

I finally found the birds with the bad haircuts. I've been walking beaches all month (as well as scanning sand bars wherever I found them) looking for Royal Terns and today, just where I would expect them to be (but then, all month I've "expected" them to be there--near the inlet at the southern tip of Island Beach SP), I saw three mixed in with a flock of Great Black-backed Gulls and Laughing Gulls. Up 'til then it had been along walk through a haze coming off the ocean without much to see except a lot of Sanderlings:

Sanderlings

Sanderlings are always entertaining to watch, little wind-up toys running along the edge of the surf, but after the first few hundred they do get a little old. I found 1 Piping Plover (which I pointed out to a fellow walker of the beach who was very unimpressed) and 3 American Oystercatchers.

And really, that was about it for my 1 1/2 miles of of walking except for the 5 Brown Pelicans that flew over the beach and out to the ocean just as I was approaching the dune crossing back to the parking lot.

I took a walk on the Spizzle Creek trail which, despite my trepidation, was virtually mosquito and fly free. Or else the repellent I was using was actually effective. Again, nothing there that was new although I did find one Little Blue Heron and one Tricolored Heron and scoped a Peregrine Falcon on the hacking tower on one of the sedge islands.

My two lists
South Beach to Inlet
14 species
Brown Pelican 5
Osprey 2
American Oystercatcher 3
Piping Plover 1
Sanderling 400
Laughing Gull 25
Herring Gull 50
Great Black-backed Gull 25 most loafing near jetty
Common Tern 150
Royal Tern 3
Mourning Dove 1
Barn Swallow 1
Song Sparrow 2
House Finch 1 back of inlet
Spizzle Creek
23 species
Great Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Tricolored Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 10
Osprey 14
Laughing Gull 5
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Forster's Tern 1
Northern Flicker 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
Tree Swallow 25
Barn Swallow 10
Marsh Wren 1 Heard
Gray Catbird 5
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 15
Common Yellowthroat 5
Yellow Warbler 1
Song Sparrow 2
Eastern Towhee 1
Boat-tailed Grackle 10

Brig 7/21--Stilt Sandpiper

Astonishingly bad digiscope photos of Stilt Sandpiper, on top at left, top bird on right, on right

I finally got another year bird today. It gets harder and harder as the summer drags on. Shari & I joined Scott's trip to Brig today on a very unsummer-like day--cool, overcast, "breezy" (read gale-force winds) with intermittent rain, at first, which turned into a downpour on our second trip around. 

While I have spent the last couple of weeks looking for a Royal Tern, I didn't think the chances of finding one at Brig were too good and I was right. This left, unless something really weird showed up, as the only possibility for a year bird, Stilt Sandpiper as the bird to find. I even had Western Sandpiper from earlier in the year, so while everyone was trying to pick one of those out of the hundreds of Semipalmated Sandpipers, I looked at one and then mentally moved on. As my friend Dave said, it isn't much fun sorting through a flock of sandpipers looking for the few oddballs, especially at a distance in gray light and stiff wind. 

On the north dike we ran across another big flock of Short-billed Dowitchers and Linda, who has patience, was able to pick out the "one that does not belong" a very obvious (once you got on it) Stilt Sandpiper. It was starting to spritz by then and it the bird was in the middle distance so I tried a few digiscope photos even though the tripod was swaying in the wind. The very poor results are above. 

In a way, it's a good example, because a lot of times, this is actually what the birds really look like "in the field"--you can tell what they are only by comparing them to what is around them. They sure don't look like the portraits in the field guides. At least today, the Western Sandpiper I saw was close enough to get all the field marks, or at least the ones I use, since looking for "chevrons" on the flanks is a mug's game as far as I'm concerned. 

Because of the conditions, I wasn't particularly interested in taking photos, but this Blue Grosbeak was so cooperative that after watching it perched atop a bush for a minutes, I took the camera out of the car and made this photo.

The teeth-gnasher of the day was when Scott called out Least Bittern flying over the impoundment and I missed it. Even worse was that Shari didn't! The Roseate Spoonbill was reported today but went unseen by our group. The only "rarity" we found was the continuing Green-winged Teal.

I managed 54 species for the day, which isn't bad considering the skies and the winds and the precipitation. 

Canada Goose 150
Mute Swan 40
Wood Duck 1
Mallard 20
American Black Duck 2
Green-winged Teal 1
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Great Blue Heron 4
Great Egret 50
Snowy Egret 10
Black-crowned Night-Heron 4
Glossy Ibis 15
Turkey Vulture 1
Osprey 10 undercount
Cooper's Hawk 1
Clapper Rail 5
American Oystercatcher 1
Semipalmated Plover 5
Killdeer 1
Whimbrel 2
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 5
Semipalmated Sandpiper 300
Western Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 200
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Willet 3
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Laughing Gull 150
Herring Gull 55
Great Black-backed Gull 60
Least Tern 6
Gull-billed Tern 4
Caspian Tern 1
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 45
Black Skimmer 50
American Crow 1
Fish Crow 2
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 25
Marsh Wren 3 Heard
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 2
Common Yellowthroat 5 Heard
Seaside Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 1 Heard
Blue Grosbeak 1 Start of Wildlife Drive
Red-winged Blackbird 20
House Finch 1 Heard
American Goldfinch 2

Rechnitz Pine Barrens Preserve 7/13

Eastern Towhee

In John McPhee's wonderful classic, The Pine Barrens, he says that one of the great misconceptions about the area is that no birds live here because there's nothing for them to eat. He then goes on to list a half page of birds that breed in the Pine Barrens (some, alas, like Henslow's Sparrow and Alder Flycatcher, no longer) and ends the section with the sentence, "The most common bird in the Pine Barrens is the towhee."

I first read this book in college and have reread it a number of times; the last time I read the book we had moved here and I had birded extensively and I knew that the towhee was no longer the most common bird, if it ever really was. The Carolina Chickadee is, in my opinion and experience, the bird you'll run into most frequently in the Pine Barrens. For one thing, in winter towhees are scarce, while chickadees are abundant, especially at feeders. We don't really start seeing towhees until the spring when there is always at least one nesting pair in the woods just behind the house.

I was thinking of all this today while walking through the newly-opened Rechnitz Pine Barrens Preserve off North Branch Road in Pemberton. 811 acres of preserved land, bought from a family which acquired the property in 1956 in anticipation of a Pine Barrens development boom that never came. Today, at least, in the Rechnitz Preserve, the most common bird was the Eastern Towhee. I listed 20 and that was just a fair guess. They were "chwinking" almost every step of the 1.3 mile trail that I walked. I saw one chickadee.

It's mid-summer, so I really wasn't expecting many species (I wound up with 12); I was more interested in exploring the habitat to see where, when conditions are right, I might look for birds. While Mount Misery Brook runs along the southern end of the property, there's no way to access it that I could see, but, perhaps in the autumn or early spring, when everything isn't leafed out and overgrown, there may be a way.

Supposedly this is good habitat for Red-headed Woodpecker but I have to say that I didn't notice a lot of dead trees that they like to hammer away at. I was hoping for Summer Tanager too. They're probably around but a lot harder to find when not singing.

And a Pine Barrens factoid: The place name Mount Misery derives from it original name which was Mount Misericordia--Latin for "mercy." "Misericordia" is way too long a name to say comfortably, so in a folk transformation, "mercy" become "misery."

Map of Rechnitz Preserve

Mourning Dove 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 Heard
Great Crested Flycatcher 2
Carolina Chickadee 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Heard
Eastern Bluebird 4
Common Yellowthroat 2
Pine Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 20
House Finch 6
American Goldfinch 2 Heard

Sooy Place Road 7/2--Red-headed Woodpecker

Zirlin's Second Law of Birding, which states that "You will never see the bird you want until you have truly given up on seeing it," was demonstrated again today.

I spent a number of hours last month at Colliers Mills looking for Red-headed Woodpecker. I know they're there, I just have had no luck. On Saturday, I took a run down into Burlington County to a site that historically has the woodpeckers  known as 4 Mile Tornado Damage which is around the New Lisbon Developmental Center, a state facility which means I'm not supposed to be there anyway but someone else had one there that day but I struck out and didn't feel comfortable, not knowing exactly where trespassing began. There's a path into the wood around there where I once had one but I didn't have time to explore.

Yesterday, discussing all this with my friend on the Wildlife Drive with Brig, he told me that he'd been looking in the same area and that the path I'd taken was too overgrown to walk on anymore. He had no luck in the trails around that area either and was also ware of encroaching on state land.

BUT. He did have one on Sooy Place Road which is the road where the entrance to the Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve is located. He said maybe a quarter mile up the road from the entrance. I went there this morning, figuring I'd at least get a walk in the reserve. I walked Sooy Place Road for 7/10 of a mile ("Sooy" is an ancient Pine Barrens family name) and while I had a few interesting birds like cuckoo and thrasher, I did not see the woodpecker. At one dead tree in front of a tree farm I heard drumming but even though I circled the tree I couldn't find the source. I had the feeling it was the woodpecker but I wasn't going to list one on the basis on drumming. Voice yes: they make a distinctive "queer" cry. But drumming? Come on.

So I gave up, turned around and walked 1.7 miles in Huber where, along with 20 species of birds, I picked off from my shoes, socks, and permethrin-treated pants 42 ticks of the Lone Star and Deer variety, which must be some sort of record. (Note to hikers: Deer Ticks really like shoelaces.) I got back to the car, made a thorough tick-check and drove back toward Route 70, slowly. When I  was just about up to the tree farm property I looked at the top of the dead tree and boom--a Red-headed Woodpecker with all the field marks--red head, black body, white rump--flew off the top, across the road and into the woods. No photo opportunity of course, but I got the bird, #250 for NJ and #300 for the year.

The walk through Huber was not without its satisfactions--there is still plenty of warbler activity in there and I saw them all aside from the Prothonotary Warbler which was a heard only at the red bridge.
Turkey Vulture 1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1 Heard Yellow Trail
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 3 Heard
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
White-eyed Vireo 2 Heard
Carolina Chickadee 2 Heard
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Heard
Carolina Wren 1 Heard entrance
Wood Thrush 2 Heard
Ovenbird 9
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Prothonotary Warbler 1 Heard Bridge
Common Yellowthroat 5
Hooded Warbler 2
American Redstart 1 Yellowstart
Pine Warbler 3
Prairie Warbler 6
Eastern Towhee 5

Brig 7/1--Roseate Spoonbill

That spoon, that spoon, that spoonbill
Click photos to enlarge

TI only wanted to see one bird today at Brig and I was prepared as Adlai Stevenson said in another context "to wait until Hell freezes over." Or one hour, whichever came first.

 I was on the Wildlife Drive a little after 7 this morning and stopped at Goose Marker 4 without finding the target. I moved on and ran into a friend of mine at #5. We stood scanning the pool, talking, enjoying the light breeze which kept the flies away from us. We saw a group of photographers up ahead but photographers will take a thousand pictures of a House Sparrow if the light is good, so we paid them little heed. After a while, having seen most of the usual, expected birds for July 1, my phone dinged: ROSP just beyond tower on left among egrets.

I ran back to my car, jumped in, don't tell anyone but went over the 20 MPH speed limit for a quarter of a mile and arrived where the photographers were grouped. Put up my bins and there it was, the Roseate Spoonbill that has been playing hide-and-seek at Brig for the last week. The reason I sped down the drive was because this bird has a history of flying off to other parts of the refuge and sometimes disappearing altogether and I didn't want to hear, "Ooo, you just missed it!"

Another entry in the goofy bird category with the added bonus of also being one of the "big-nosed" birds I enjoy so much. I think this may be the 3rd time a spoonbill has taken up residence at Brig. About 9 years ago, Shari & I found the 2nd one. I remember we were driving around, not finding much of anything that day, when on the north dike I spotted a big pink bird and said out loud, "WTF is that?" and Shari calmly identified it. We didn't have a camera that day so I stopped a photographer who had been taking pictures of Ospreys (I had been making fun of him to Shari when we passed him) and told him, "Take a picture of that!" It turned out to be a life bird for him and he shared the credit with us when we made our formal report to the Records Committee. So I have a sentimental attachment to spoonbills.

Having got that bird out of the way in the first mile or so of the drive I was free to make my way around the remaining 7 miles without any pressure. I found what I found--I wasn't interested in building up a huge list for the day. The air conditioning in the car kept the flies at bay and the few times I stopped to scope they were little more than a nuisance, but then, it wasn't really that hot yet either.

The only other "notable" bird I found was a Ruddy Duck way out in the pool off the north dike. This is a long-staying duck that didn't get the memo to migrate. It is rare only for date.

I stopped briefly at the parking area for Jen's Trail, just where the upland portion of the drive begins but moved on quickly, having no desire to exchange greenhead flies for biting deer flies. A stop at the Refuge Overlook (the Experimental Pool to old timers) yielded two singing Yellow-breasted Chats (heard only), 3 swooping Gull-billed Terns, a Willow Flycatcher and an Orchard Oriole.

I had 48 species for the morning. I didn't even stop at the Gull Pond. Home before 1 o'clock.
Canada Goose 60
Mute Swan 20
Mallard 40
American Black Duck 2
Ruddy Duck 1
Double-crested Cormorant 7
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 25
Snowy Egret 30
Black-crowned Night-Heron 4
Glossy Ibis 50
Roseate Spoonbill 1
Osprey 15 occupied nests
Clapper Rail 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 10
Greater Yellowlegs 3
Willet 30
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Laughing Gull 100
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 2
Least Tern 2
Gull-billed Tern 3
Caspian Tern 1
Common Tern 1 NE corner, as usual
Forster's Tern 50
Black Skimmer 10
Mourning Dove 2
Willow Flycatcher 1
Blue Jay 2 Heard
Fish Crow 4
Purple Martin 10
Tree Swallow 10
Barn Swallow 2
House Wren 1 Heard parking lot
Marsh Wren 1 Heard dogleg
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1 Road to Gull Pond
European Starling 1
Common Yellowthroat 4
Seaside Sparrow 5 Heard
Field Sparrow 1 Heard Refuge Overlook
Song Sparrow 2 Heard
Yellow-breasted Chat 2 Heard at Refuge Overlook
Orchard Oriole 1
Red-winged Blackbird 100
American Goldfinch 2