Belleplain SF 4/27--Red-eyed Vireo, Wood Thrush, Worm-eating Warbler, Louisiana Waterthrush, Prothonotary Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler

Prairie Warbler

The last weekend in April is the time we go down to Belleplain State Forest in Cape May County to search--and listen--for warblers and other new arrivals. Bob Auster came down on Friday night to spend the weekend with us and very early Saturday, Mike picked us up as the first participants in his NJ Audubon field trip down there.

To write a little doggerel:

The conditions were not propitious
Because the winds were vicious.

Aside from the tendency of birds, unlike their idiotic pursuers, to hunker down when it is windy, the sound of wind makes it very difficult to even hear the hunkered down birds singing deep in the protected thickets.

However, 7 of us gave it a whack and happily we were able to compile a pretty decent list by stopping and walking around the paths most shielded from the wind. Before the trip even started, Mike, Bob, & I had already heard a Wood Thrush, a Prothonotary Warbler, and tracked down a Red-eyed Vireo near the shore of Lake Nummy.

Once the group gathered we started finding birds at a pretty good clip. In the parking lot, as Bob had insisted there would be, we came upon a fairly cooperative Yellow-throated Warbler (not cooperative enough to stay still for a picture). We eschewed the fields because the winds were too much, but at the Louisiana Waterthrush spot we heard the bird, on the road where expected Hooded Warblers, we heard Hooded Warblers, and at the little pond where Prothonotary Warblers are "guaranteed" we saw a beauty right over our heads, a life bird for couple of people in the group. We even managed to separate the clicking song of the Worm-eating Warbler from the surrounding Chipping Sparrows and Pine Warblers, quite a feat since descriptions of the different songs tend to sound very vague to me--one is more "mechanical," one is "drier," one is more "musical." I really don't know what those words "mean" in relation to one another, anymore than I understand what a "robin with a sore throat" sounds like which is supposedly how a Scarlet Tanager sounds (or is that a Rose-breasted Grosbeak?). Anyway, after a while--a long while in my case--you just know the difference and you hope that others can hear it too.

For the day I managed 45 species (Bob & Mike had a couple more that I didn't hear). After lunch it is traditional that we drive over to the Heislerville impoundments for shorebirds. We did drive over there but the impoundments were like lakes and with the wind blowing a gale: whitecaps. So we didn't see much of real interest there and, since Sunday was another trip, and the drive was a long one, we ended about an hour early and headed back north.

My list:

Mourning Dove  1

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1    feeder

Spotted Sandpiper  1

Laughing Gull  10

Herring Gull  20

Double-crested Cormorant  1

Black Vulture  1

Turkey Vulture  3

Bald Eagle  2

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2

Downy Woodpecker  1

Eastern Phoebe  5

Great Crested Flycatcher  3

Eastern Kingbird  1

White-eyed Vireo  5

Red-eyed Vireo  1

Fish Crow  2

Tree Swallow  3

Carolina Chickadee  1    Heard

Tufted Titmouse  3    Heard

Carolina Wren  2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  15

Eastern Bluebird  5

Wood Thrush  1    Heard

American Robin  2

Gray Catbird  2

American Goldfinch  4

Chipping Sparrow  20

White-throated Sparrow  2

Eastern Towhee  2

Brown-headed Cowbird  4

Ovenbird  21    Heard

Worm-eating Warbler  1    Heard

Louisiana Waterthrush  1    Heard

Black-and-white Warbler  10

Prothonotary Warbler  3

Hooded Warbler  1    Heard

Yellow Warbler  1    Heard

Pine Warbler  2    Heard

Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Yellow-throated Warbler  2

Prairie Warbler  5

Northern Cardinal  2

Blue Grosbeak  1

Indigo Bunting  1

Eastern Bluebird, parking lot