Sunday, June 30, 2019

June Birding--9 year birds

Black-billed Cuckoo, Whitesbog
For an historically slow month, post-migration June provided some spectacular results. True, the drop-off in year birds was steep, from 34 to a mere 9, but of those 9 almost all were rarities and what rarities they were: Dickcissel in Burlco, which is regular but rare & sought after, then the amazing surprise of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on the playing fields of Toms River HS East (not exactly Eton, but what rare birds has Eton produced lately?), then the two forays in seldom visited Somerset County to get what was probably the rarest bird in the state this month, the Henslow's Sparrow, topped off with Friday's first occurrence in Ocean County of a duo of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. Without those rarities, I don't know what I'd have done.

Actually, I do know what I'd have done, because I did it anyway--I wandered around obscure parts of Burlington and Monmouth Counties, places I was pretty certain not to run into a horde of other birders, and enjoyed myself and whatever birds I happened upon. It's called "birding" as opposed to "chasing." Probably the happiest of my finds which wasn't a year bird, was coming upon the Black-billed Cuckoo picture above at the back of Union Pond at Whitesbog. While I had heard a number of cuckoos this year, this was the first Black-billed I'd come upon and I was lucky enough to get close enough to have photos showing the red orbital ring. And frankly, ever since I got scolded about an out of season Black-billed Cuckoo that I listed as "heard" when it was most likely a chipmunk (!), I have been reluctant to list all the cuckoos I think I hear--especially when that scolding is reinforced by the knowledge that the Yellow-billed Cuckoo learns its cousin's song and vice versa. Which is a long way of saying, "Boy, was I happy to see this one!"

For the month I had 143 species in 6 counties
Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, Somerset
Species                    First Sighting
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck   Cedar Run Dock Rd.
Snow Goose   Brig
Canada Goose   Cloverdale Farm
Mute Swan   Brig
Wood Duck   Brig
Blue-winged Teal   Brig
Mallard   Forsythe-Barnegat
American Black Duck   Brig
Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
White-winged Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Black Scoter   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Red-breasted Merganser  Brig
Wild Turkey   Brig
Mourning Dove   Cloverdale Farm
Yellow-billed Cuckoo   Double Trouble State Park
Black-billed Cuckoo   Whitesbog
Common Nighthawk   35 Sunset Rd
Eastern Whip-poor-will   35 Sunset Rd
Chimney Swift   Brig
Ruby-throated Hummingbird   Lochiel Creek County Park
Clapper Rail   Brig
American Oystercatcher   Brig
Black-bellied Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Semipalmated Plover   Brig
Piping Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Killdeer   Cedar Bonnet Island
Ruddy Turnstone   Brig
Dunlin   Brig
Least Sandpiper   Brig
Semipalmated Sandpiper   Forsythe-Barnegat
Western Sandpiper   Brig
Short-billed Dowitcher   Brig
Spotted Sandpiper   Brig
Greater Yellowlegs   Brig
Willet   Brig
Lesser Yellowlegs   Brig
Laughing Gull   Meadowedge Park
Herring Gull   Meadowedge Park
Great Black-backed Gull   Forsythe-Barnegat
Least Tern   Great Bay Blvd WMA
Gull-billed Tern   Brig
Caspian Tern   Brig
Common Tern   Brig
Forster's Tern   Forsythe-Barnegat
Black Skimmer   Brig
Double-crested Cormorant   Brig
Brown Pelican   Island Beach SP
Great Blue Heron   Cloverdale Farm
Great Egret   Cloverdale Farm
Snowy Egret   Forsythe-Barnegat
Little Blue Heron   Island Beach SP
Tricolored Heron   Brig
Green Heron   Whitesbog
Black-crowned Night-Heron   Double Trouble State Park
Glossy Ibis   Meadowedge Park
Black Vulture   Lake Enno
Turkey Vulture   Crestwood Village
Osprey   Brig
Sharp-shinned Hawk   Brig
Cooper's Hawk   Butterfly Bogs
Bald Eagle   GSP MM42
Red-tailed Hawk   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-headed Woodpecker   Cloverdale Farm
Red-bellied Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker   Cloverdale Farm
Hairy Woodpecker   Cloverdale Farm
Northern Flicker   Cloverdale Farm
Peregrine Falcon   Cedar Bonnet Island
Eastern Wood-Pewee   Cloverdale Farm
Acadian Flycatcher   Double Trouble State Park
Alder Flycatcher   Negri-Nepote Grasslands
Willow Flycatcher   Brig
Eastern Phoebe   Double Trouble State Park
Great Crested Flycatcher   Cloverdale Farm
Eastern Kingbird   Cloverdale Farm
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher   Toms River High School East
White-eyed Vireo   Double Trouble State Park
Yellow-throated Vireo   Baldpate Mt
Warbling Vireo   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-eyed Vireo   Lochiel Creek County Park
Blue Jay   Cloverdale Farm
American Crow   Cloverdale Farm
Fish Crow   Meadowedge Park
Common Raven   Negri-Nepote Grasslands
Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Lake Enno
Purple Martin   Brig
Tree Swallow   Cloverdale Farm
Bank Swallow   Laurel Run Park
Barn Swallow   Cloverdale Farm
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse   Cloverdale Farm
White-breasted Nuthatch   Cloverdale Farm
House Wren   Cloverdale Farm
Marsh Wren   Forsythe-Barnegat
Carolina Wren   Meadowedge Park
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Cloverdale Farm
Eastern Bluebird   Cloverdale Farm
Veery   Double Trouble State Park
Wood Thrush   Cloverdale Farm
American Robin   Cloverdale Farm
Gray Catbird   Cloverdale Farm
Brown Thrasher   Cloverdale Farm
Northern Mockingbird   Colliers Mills WMA
European Starling   Meadowedge Park
Cedar Waxwing   Cloverdale Farm
House Finch   Cloverdale Farm
Pine Siskin   35 Sunset Rd
American Goldfinch   Cloverdale Farm
Grasshopper Sparrow   Laurel Run Park
Chipping Sparrow   Cloverdale Farm
Field Sparrow   Double Trouble State Park
White-throated Sparrow   Island Beach SP
Seaside Sparrow   Brig
Saltmarsh Sparrow   Great Bay Blvd WMA
Henslow's Sparrow   Negri-Nepote Grasslands
Song Sparrow   Cloverdale Farm
Swamp Sparrow   Whitesbog
Eastern Towhee   Cloverdale Farm
Yellow-breasted Chat   Brig
Orchard Oriole   Brig
Baltimore Oriole   Double Trouble State Park
Red-winged Blackbird   Cloverdale Farm
Brown-headed Cowbird   35 Sunset Rd
Common Grackle   Meadowedge Park
Boat-tailed Grackle   Brig
Ovenbird   Cloverdale Farm
Worm-eating Warbler   Lochiel Creek County Park
Black-and-white Warbler   Double Trouble State Park
Prothonotary Warbler   Huber Preserve
Common Yellowthroat   Cloverdale Farm
Hooded Warbler   Double Trouble State Park
American Redstart   Double Trouble State Park
Yellow Warbler   Forsythe-Barnegat
Pine Warbler   Lochiel Creek County Park
Prairie Warbler   Double Trouble State Park
Summer Tanager   Huber Preserve
Scarlet Tanager   Garden State Parkway N
Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd
Blue Grosbeak   Colliers Mills WMA
Indigo Bunting   Cloverdale Farm
Dickcissel   Laurel Run Park
House Sparrow   Brig
Wood Duck, Ditch Meadow, Whitesbog

Friday, June 28, 2019

Cedar Run Dock Road 6/28--Black-bellied Whistling Duck


High on my wish list for both year and county bird is Black-bellied Whistling Duck. Just look at them! And the name alone makes them worth chasing. Today, (actually yesterday, but the report didn't show up on eBird until the wee hours) a pair showed up on Cedar Run Dock Road, more known as a winter birding spot than a summer one. These are the first birds recorded in Ocean County. BBWD is a regular visitor to NJ, sometimes at Brig, but more recently in Cape May, where there have been a number reported in a couple of spots this last month or so. Whether these are a couple of wanderers wandering away from those wanderers is impossible to know.


When I saw the report very early this morning I was tempted to run down there, but as Cedar Run Dock Road is long and there was no specific site cited, I instead kept to my original plan of running down to Brig to search for the Black-necked Stilt (another favorite) that has been seen at the dogleg for the last couple of days. Then I planned to drive down CRDR, searching for the ducks.

I should have gone to Brig yesterday, but I wasn't in the mood to deal with the greenhead flies. Instead, I was content to explore one of the more obscure corner of Burlington County for the 2nd time this week. But I thought, last night, that if I got to Brig early enough, before the heat set in, the greenies wouldn't be too bad. A good thought, but there were just enough of them at 7 AM to still be damn annoying. More annoying was the half hour spent looking for and not find the stilt.

Then the alert came in that the BBWD were still there--with an address. Abandoning the idea of the stilt I drove the half of the wildlife drive before me without looking at anymore birds, scooted up the Parkway, miraculously avoided the LBI traffic on 72, and was on Cedar Run Dock Road before you could say "Black-bellied Whistling Duck." I got the address and didn't see any ducks, but looking behind me, to a house up on pilings, I immediately saw the pair mixed in with a few molting Mallards.

I admired them for a few minutes, took a lot of photos, and just as I was about to leave, another birder I know pulled up. They were lifers for her and we spent more time looking at the goofy birds as they rested and preened.

Mike texted me and said he was on the way. By then I was pretty much satiated with BBWD, but again, just as I was about to take off, I saw his car coming down the road, so I hung around for a few minutes. Finally, after almost an hour there, I left, handing the bird off to yet another Ocean County birder--again, a lifer listing for him too.

June has been an outstanding month in Ocean County. Two great rarities (the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was the first) and two county lifers for me. Very hard for me to get county lifers now, since I don't do pelagics, so, after a long walk up and down Stafford Avenue (the Bridge to Nowhere at its terminus), it was happy drive home.

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Negri-Nepote Grasslands 6/23--Henslow's Sparrow

Henslow's Sparrow
Photo: Mike Mandracchia
Although I've only been there 4 or 5 times, I have a fondness for the Negri-Nepote Grasslands up in Franklin Township.I don't bird Somerset County all that much. But 8 years ago, after first looking at the house from which I write this, Shari & I went up there and got our life Dickcissel.

And yesterday, Dickcissel was the bird of the day, as Mike and I went over to Laurel Run Park in Burlco so he could get it for the year, which we did, pretty easily. As we were leaving, I checked the rare bird reports and saw a report of Henslow's Sparrow up at Negri-Nepote. The only Henslow's I've ever seen was in Ohio and, remarkably, considering his list, it would be a lifer for Mike, so despite having to take a rather roundabout route to get there, we went, arriving mid-afternoon. Because of diminishing habitat (read: grasslands) Henslow's has become a rarity in NJ. The closest place to reliably find them is in central Pennsylvania. Unfortunately for us, by the time we got there the bird had gone to ground and while we were happy to find our buddy Bob Auster there along with a couple of other birders we knew, the bird never showed for us. Of course, after we left it showed up again around 6 PM.

Bob texted me that he was going back early today and Mike and I decided to do the same. By the time I arrived at Mike's house, at around a quarter after six this morning, Bob texted that he already had seen the bird. It took us about 45 minutes to get there and 6 minutes to walk to the back field where the bird was being seen. We joined a long stream of birders headed in the same direction. We were lucky to get a parking spot--as we were leaving I saw many northern and central Jersey birders I know already leaving and still the parking lot was congested.

Just because Henslow's is rare doesn't mean it is a particularly interesting bird to look at--there are not astonishing field marks as there are on say a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. And its "song" if you will is just a stifled sneeze. Still, hard for me to get a Jersey lifer and even harder for Mike to get a lifer in Jersey, so there was great relief when the bird, which everyone assured us would "pop up" on a certain little bush in the field, actually did pop up, sing, and give great views, especially if someone kindly lent you his scope. My pictures came out smallish, but Mike's photo shows the bird to good advantage.

Coming in and going out we built up a pretty good list without really birding hard--most of the typical grassland birds can be found there, like Grasshopper Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, Blue Grosbeak, etc. We found 'em all and then some, including one flycatcher which we could swear was calling "Free Beer" like an Alder Flycatcher, but, considering the rarity of that bird and the fact that everyone else was reporting Willow Flycatcher (common) we relented and defaulted to the "Fitz-bew" bird. Since both birds look exactly alike (and were once conspecific) you can only really separate them by voice. Too bad, still need Alder for the year.
The list, covering a 1/2 mile to the sparrow spot:
35 species
Mourning Dove  3
Chimney Swift  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Willow Flycatcher  1    
Great Crested Flycatcher  1    Heard
Eastern Kingbird  5
Blue Jay  1    Heard
American Crow  2
Fish Crow  1    Heard
Tree Swallow  20    Feeding young
Barn Swallow  6    Nesting in blind
House Wren  4
Carolina Wren  2    Heard
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  5
Brown Thrasher  1
Northern Mockingbird  1
European Starling  4
Cedar Waxwing  4
American Goldfinch  7
Grasshopper Sparrow  1
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  1    Heard
Henslow's Sparrow  1    
Song Sparrow  5
Eastern Towhee  1    Heard
Orchard Oriole  2
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Common Grackle  4
Common Yellowthroat  4
Yellow Warbler  1    Heard
Blue Grosbeak  1    Heard
Indigo Bunting  2

Monday, June 17, 2019

Island Beach SP | Toms River HS East 6/17--Brown Pelican, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
I was eating lunch at home when the first somewhat vague report came in of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at a high school in Toms River. I slapped the table in frustration--45 minutes previous I was in Toms River, on my way back from Island Beach SP where I finally was able to see a dozen Brown Pelicans, one flock of seven looking like, to jam a couple of similes together, a squadron of prehistoric flying boats.
Brown Pelicans
I was hesitant to just burst out the door for a couple of reasons--first of all the report was second-hand from a Facebook group (I don't have a Facebook account) and secondly because schools and binoculars don't mix. I had to run an errand anyway and figured that in the time the errand took, more information would come through. After some back and forth in the group it was determined that school was out, so it was safe to go even if the location was still in doubt as to which high school in Toms River it was. As I was pulling out of the parking lot of CVS, left would take me to Toms River, right would take me home. I made a left, what the heck, and just as I did, my phone pinged again--bird was there.

It took me about a half hour to get there and by the time I did more messages had come in that gave more precise location directions--from the Google map the high school looked like it was on a big campus. I parked in the first lot and hoped for the best, walking toward the athletic fields, since I knew that would be a likely area for the flycatcher. As soon as I turned the corner to get to the back of the school I saw the cream of Ocean County birders standing at the fence line and rushed to join them. There was no need for me to run. The bird was in plain sight, sitting on a fence, occasionally making sorties to hawk a bug. And it was spectacular. It would almost be worth living in Oklahoma, just to have this be a common bird. Maybe not. But the bird, aside from its incredible form, is beautifully and subtly colored in shades of gray and salmon.
More birders kept showing up--the power of social media. I took a few photos (like 50) and was going to leave but before I did, I texted Mike to see if he was available. The bird was putting on quite a show, I told him. He was able to get away, so I hung out until he got there--there's this bizarre concept of handing off a rarity--and it took him around a half hour to get there. Still more birders arrived; I count right now 26 reports on eBird and not everyone uses eBird and not everyone gets their reports in immediately.

This flycatcher was found by a teacher at the school who is not a birder but just happened to notice the strange bird on the fence and posted it to Facebook. I was talking to another birder about how randomly some rarities are reported--the Mississippi Kite in Waretown is a perfect example of a bird that would have gone overlooked if a birder didn't happen to live across the street from where it roosted. Birders go to the "hot" spots, but who knows what rarities are in the marshes on the Parkway that we can't access, or the playing fields of schools where we'd be considered creeps, or the waste treatment plants that are off limits due to "security" (and, well, the smell)? I remember there was a Prothonotary Warbler at the NY Public Library for a week before a birder noticed it--the guards thought it was canary and were feeding it corn chips!

And yet, 99% of the time, stopping at random field will yield you exactly nothing, never mind something rare. Sometimes you can look at acres and acres of open land and not see even a starling. You'll look at a lake and say, "How can there not be one duck on this water?" But 1% of the time, someone (a few times that someone has been me) will see something and say "What the hell is that?" and we all come running.

The last report, at 8:25 tonight, was that the bird had flown off, whether to find a place to sleep for the night or to continue its out of range wanderings we'll only know tomorrow.