Brig 8/4--Cattle Egret, Pectoral Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher

Cattle Egret (rear) with Snowy Egret

Pectoral Sandpiper (digiscope)

A really good day on the dikes with Scott, Linda, Mike, Bob, et. al., despite the unsettled weather which brought a couple of squalls over our caravan between hot, humid periods. The big attraction at Brig this time of year is, of course, shorebirds and we had 14 species of them with Semipalmated Sandpiper & Short-billed Dowitcher numbers in the thousands. But it is quality, not quantity, you're looking for and I was glad to be with more patient birders than I who are willing to sort through the thousands of little birds running around on the mud flats to pick out the odd Western Sandpiper, the scattered Stilt Sandpipers, the FOY Pectoral Sandpipers and the always controversial Long-billed Dowitcher.

The Pec and the Long-billed Dowitcher are the kind of birds I hope to find at Brig this time of year. The delightful surprise was the Cattle Egret. And we almost missed it.

The group was already on the east dike when a photographer stopped his car and showed a few of us pictures he'd taken of what he was pretty sure was a Cattle Egret, all the way back by the long-passed by goose marker 4. While it didn't have any of the orange on its head you'd expect in breeding plumage from this species, its face and bill were definitely those of a Cattle Egret. He said it had been coming onto the road to eat frogs that were flushed by cars parking near the grassy fringes. As it would be year bird for a lot of us, it became the target bird for our 2nd trip around.

Cattle Egret in the marsh

When we got to the area there were plenty of egrets in the impoundment, but only of the snowy or great variety. Then, sharp-eyed Bob Auster, thinking out of the box, looked across the channel into the outer marsh--and there it was. Conveniently the bird flew ever closer to our group, coming across the channel onto the side of the road to eat a Fowler's toad, as advertised, then flying into the impoundment directly in front of us, giving a nice comparison with a Snowy Egret (above).

Cattle Egrets used to be a lot easier to find a few years than they are today. You can go to Salem County and find them pretty easily, but going to Salem County from here is like going to Delaware. No one seems to know why they've suddenly become scarce, just as no one really knows why they suddenly turned up in North America about 60 years ago.

Three year birds in August is doing pretty well for me. About all I can expect to add for the summer and early fall are grasspipers and they won't be showing up for another few weeks. I'll have to start "sod farming" soon. The only disappointment today was looking at the dogleg at Brig--or, as I refer to it, "Lake Dogleg" because that spot, which, when it is drained, always attracts the grasspipers, does not look like it is going to be productive this year at all.

For the day my list was 71 species:
Canada Goose 15
Mute Swan 20
Wood Duck 1 Gull Pond
Mallard 8
Double-crested Cormorant 110
Great Blue Heron 15
Great Egret 60
Snowy Egret 40
Cattle Egret 1
Green Heron 1 Gull Pond
Black-crowned Night-Heron 10
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1 Gull Pond
Glossy Ibis 2
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 5
Osprey 20 Many juveniles still on nest
Red-tailed Hawk 1 Flying over parking lot
Clapper Rail 4
Black-bellied Plover 4
Semipalmated Plover 50
Whimbrel 2
Ruddy Turnstone 5
Stilt Sandpiper 4
Least Sandpiper 2
Pectoral Sandpiper 5 Near Goose Marker 4
Semipalmated Sandpiper 2000
Western Sandpiper 1
Short-billed Dowitcher 1000
Long-billed Dowitcher 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 4
Lesser Yellowlegs 2
Laughing Gull 300
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Least Tern 3
Gull-billed Tern 12
Caspian Tern 3
Common Tern 1
Forster's Tern 30
Black Skimmer 25
Mourning Dove 15
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 Feeder at Visitor's Ctr
Peregrine Falcon 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 Heard picnic tables
Great Crested Flycatcher 2 Heard
Eastern Kingbird 4
Blue Jay 3 Heard
American Crow 5
Fish Crow 3
Purple Martin 2
Tree Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 5
Marsh Wren 1 Heard
Eastern Bluebird 1 On box
American Robin 1 Heard
Gray Catbird 3
European Starling 115
Common Yellowthroat 1 Heard
Yellow Warbler 1
Seaside Sparrow 6
Chipping Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 3 Heard
Northern Cardinal 1 Upland
Blue Grosbeak 2 Saw female, heard one singing just before Jen's Trail
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Boat-tailed Grackle 1
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 7
House Sparrow 1