Even though the bogs at Whitesbog have not been lowered this year, it's still a good place to go look for birds--there's still lots of habitat, but a lot of it you have to walk to. And it's only about 10 miles from the house, so there isn't a lot of investment in travel time.
Mostly what I've been doing this month is walking out to the Upper Reservoir which is only about half-filled due to this winter's breach (and the reason the bogs that usually attract shorebirds remain filled) walking on the sand flats to find the occasional shorebird--Killdeer, Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper--nothing rare so far.
Today, I decided to change it up a little and walk my more normal route, which starts off by taking me around Union Pond. From my parking spot next to the middle bog I see across to the far shore of Union Pond that there were a couple of Great Egrets and a Great Blue Heron, so I figured it was worth the walk and it was. I flushed a Green Heron making side trip to Ditch Meadow and then as I was coming around the eastern side of the pond I saw a dark bird fluttering over the grasses growing out of the water. My first impression was that of an Eastern Kingbird, of which I'd already seen a few, but then a real kingbird came by and harassed the bird at which I was looking so intently. What fairly large birds flutter and hover over water? Terns, of course, but this was obviously not a Gull-billed Tern, which at this time of year would be expected at Whitesbog, and with it's dark wings and earpatch it certainly wasn't one of the medium-sized terns which would be unusual. It took me longer than it should have to identify the bird as a Black Tern, a rarity for the county and year bird for me. I just don't see enough Black Terns to immediately put a name to one, especially what was probably an immature bird. I took out my camera and even though it is a slow focus, managed to get a few shots of the bird as it made its way around the pond. I walked to the north shore of the pond and took a few more shots but the bird, of course, wended its way east again. I went back there and for a couple of seconds it landed on a branch growing out of the bank, not 20 feet away from me, but I couldn't get a picture of it then.
The bonus bird, while I was observing the tern, was a Belted Kingfisher flying over the pond, rattling away as they do. Kingfishers have been elusive this year; I wonder why?
Afterwards, I did walk up to and on the Upper Reservoir, but there were no shorebirds there, nor on the shores of Big Tank. However, the bogs around the dogleg are getting low and there I found a few pretty juvenile Least Sandpipers as well as a flyby Spotted Sandpiper.
Lists for the two sides of Whitesbog:
Burlington County side:
22 species
Mallard 4
Mourning Dove 3
Black Tern 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Green Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Northern Flicker 1 Heard
Eastern Wood-Pewee 3
Eastern Phoebe 1
Eastern Kingbird 6
Purple Martin 4
Tree Swallow 50
Barn Swallow 1
Carolina Chickadee 1 Heard
Gray Catbird 10
American Goldfinch 1 Heard
Eastern Towhee 1 Heard
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Pine Warbler 1
Ocean County side:
18 species
Mourning Dove 1 Heard
Least Sandpiper 4 Dogleg bog
Spotted Sandpiper 1 Flying by dogleg bog
Green Heron 1 Dogleg bog
Northern Flicker 1 Heard
Eastern Wood-Pewee 3 Heard
Eastern Phoebe 1 Dogleg
Eastern Kingbird 4
American Crow 1 Heard
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1 Dogleg.
Purple Martin 5
Tree Swallow 70
Carolina Chickadee 1 Heard
Gray Catbird 6
Song Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 1 Heard
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Common Yellowthroat 4
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