A Road in Pemberton Twp 4/17--Pileated Woodpecker, White-eyed Vireo, Purple Martin

No problem social distancing here

I've used up the local area over the last three weeks or so...the WMA behind the house, the streets of the village, the little pond, the drained pond, the power line cut..I've walked them left to right, right to left, north to south, south to north, east to west, west to--you get the picture. The problem is where to walk and social distance at the same time and yet not spend a lot of time driving. The solution seemed to me to be a road that I recently started to bird in Burlington County that I was told about by my friend at Whitesbog, who sadly I don't see anymore since Whitesbog is off-limits for the duration. I started going there in late March and each time I'd find something of interest along with getting in 4 miles of walking if took a little spur that goes to the Pemberton Bypass. (Forgive me if I'm a little cagey about the location; while I don't expect all 10 of you who read this blog to show up there when I'm there, word has a way of leaking out.)

Today I finally found the bird that brought me there in the first place. My informant told me that Pileated Woodpecker was found in the tall trees just off the road. "If you get to the pumping station, you've gone too far." The first few times I never saw one, but today, at that muddy area smack in the middle of the photo I heard what I assumed was a flicker until this gigantic woodpecker flew out with a red crown and white patches on its wings. An excellent year bird. And I heard the bird when I was looking at my first year bird of the day, a White-eyed Vireo in the bare branches of a tree on the opposite side of the power lines. The first thing I had heard before the "kuk-kuk-kuk" was some powerful drumming on a trunk.

The road continues through wetlands, past the pumping station, hooks around by the spur and continues into the Pemberton WMA (so I guess it really won't be hard for you to figure out where this is if you really want to). I saw a couple of big swallows as I neared water and thought they might be Purple Martins, which was confirmed once I got to the lake and saw them flying, big and dark, with about 20 Tree Swallows. So 3 year birds and then a Bald Eagle flew over--a month bird.

On my way back, at the same mud hole in the road, I heard again what I assumed was the Pileated; I played its call and almost immediately one flew out like a shot and crossed the road, landing, of course on the back side of a tree. Then another flew out and did the same maneuver. I never could find them to get a picture. Amazing how such a big bird with a red head can disappear in a stand of leafless trees.

Seeing the Pileated accomplished something I've never done before--I've seen all 7 of New Jersey's woodpeckers in one month (really, 17 days) and pretty much locally too. I know people have done it in one day, but these are difficult times.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

31 species

Canada Goose  21

Mourning Dove  4

Great Blue Heron  1

Black Vulture  1

Turkey Vulture  3

Bald Eagle  1    Flyover Pemberton Lake

Red-tailed Hawk  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  3    Heard

Downy Woodpecker  1

Pileated Woodpecker  2

Eastern Phoebe  1

White-eyed Vireo  1

Blue Jay  1

American Crow  2    Heard

Fish Crow  2

Carolina Chickadee  3    Heard

Tufted Titmouse  4

Purple Martin  2    Flyover Pemberton Lake

Tree Swallow  20

White-breasted Nuthatch  2    Heard

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  4

Carolina Wren  3    Heard

European Starling  1

American Robin  1

White-throated Sparrow  2    Heard

Eastern Towhee  1    Heard

Red-winged Blackbird  3

Brown-headed Cowbird  6

Pine Warbler  2    Heard

Yellow-rumped Warbler  3

Northern Cardinal  2    Heard