Manahawkin, this last pre-lockdown morning, was raw and windy, especially out on the impoundment trails and along Stafford Avenue and I was not enjoying myself, more like forcing myself to get some exercise. I was hoping for some new birds for the year and county list before things get even more difficult than they are. I did see an Osprey on a distant nest, so that was a county bird, but everything else was common, common, common.
I was impressed however, with the number of Song Sparrows I was seeing, especially along Stafford Avenue as I headed to the Bridge to Nowhere. Even allowing for the fact that I was pushing them along, they were all over both sides of the road, scratching in the gravel and gravel. I estimated 35 for the day and that was probably low. On my way out, along the back impoundment trail, I had seen a white egret fly over my head, but I lost it immediately in the marsh. I had seen a report of one Snowy Egret there yesterday, so I was hoping that was it, but with such a quick and lousy look, I couldn't rule out Great Egret, so I just let it go.
Walking back along Stafford, scanning the ducks, I saw, way in the back, two white dots in a tree. They looked like this:
"That figures," I grumbled. The tree looked like it was along the impoundment trail, but I couldn't tell exactly where. At least, I figured, I now have an excuse not to walk the wooded end of Stafford, but double back now and try to find out what kind of egrets those are. Walking along the trail I stopped at every stand of trees but there was nothing. Then I got an inspiration, thinking that the tree might be around the trail that runs through the phragmites and is perpendicular to the main trail. Fortunately, the trail was somewhat accessible--looks like someone before me went stomping through it. I went in about 100 feet and suddenly flushed two Snow Egrets out of the channel. "Damn, I'm not going to get a picture," but, very cooperatively, the both landed in a nearby, dead tree. And, as I started snapping away, another heron flew in. The light was terrible, but I knew it wasn't a Great Blue. I walked on the trail, took a few pictures, got closer, put the bins up, and saw that it was, indeed, a Little Blue Heron, a bird that I went to great lengths to find in county last year and here it was, unexpected and rare for the time of year.
Immediately, my grim mood lifted. Lately, my birding has turned into a game of "what does not belong," and both the egrets and the heron fell into that category. Walking back, after putting the two birds on the alert app, I saw the continuing Blue-winged Teal, which also made me happy, since last time I got such a crappy look at the three of them. In the wooded area on the way back to the car the wind let up and I took a path I don't usually traverse and found a nice little flock of tweety birds. I was going to go farther along to see where it let out when I saw a mammal in the brush up ahead, which looked very much like a raccoon. I don't like diurnal raccoons, so I turned around and finished the walk with only a few more species added to the list.
Before I went home, I decided to look into the Oxcocus Bog, a part of Forsythe that very few know about. In the past, I've found some interesting birds there. Today, there was nothing in the bog itself and the bridge to the back of the bog was out, but I took a trail that I never noticed before and found three phoebes, three Pine Warblers and a Brown Creeper. Finding a creeper always makes me happy and this is getting to be late in the year for them. I figured I'd end on an upbeat note and went home to read about more bad news.
My Manahawkin List:
32 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose 2
Mute Swan 5
Blue-winged Teal 1
Gadwall 1 with black ducks and wigeon
American Wigeon 2 Baldpate clearly seen
Mallard 5
American Black Duck 50
Green-winged Teal 4 Back impoundment
Hooded Merganser 1 Front impoundment
Mourning Dove 1
Greater Yellowlegs 1 flyover
Herring Gull 25
Great Blue Heron 1
Snowy Egret 2
Little Blue Heron 1
Osprey 1
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 Heard
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 2 Heard
crow sp. 1
Tufted Titmouse 4
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 1 Heard
American Robin 5
White-throated Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 35
Eastern Towhee 1 Heard drink your tea
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Pine Warbler 1 Singing
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
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