Manahawkin WMA 4/23--Green Heron, Ovenbird

The last time I was at Manahawkin we were just getting news of the lockdown. I knew it was going to be bad, but I don't think anyone at the time realized all the ramifications. It's like when the electricity goes off--it's hard to break the habit of looking for the light switch in the bathroom even though you know there's no power, or picking up the remote on the TV to see what's going on even though in some part of your brain you know the TV doesn't work, or realizing that the house is really quiet because the refrigerator is off. So when you see someone on the trail, it's difficult to remember to keep your distance and how far is 6 feet exactly? I figure if I could fall down flat on my face and not hit the person across the trail from me that's far enough though I'm far from a 6 footer.

This is the long way of saying I finally had enough ambition to drive down to Manahawkin and see what's down there. Since there are no roads, I was fairly confident it wouldn't be a busy as Colliers Mills that last couple of days I've been there. Yesterday at Colliers, I was on a trail far beyond where I've ever seen anyone--one that I hadn't walked on in probably 5 years, yet, coming back to the berm I ran into three guys with their 6 hunting dogs--on a very narrow trail. Discouraging.

Manahawkin blockage.
As the late Pete Bacinski would have said, "Why?" 

Today, as I was pulling into the parking lot I saw one car, which didn't make me happy, but as it turned out, the car was leaving and I knew the driver--she gave me the dope on what she'd seen, so I had some confidence I'd have a decent bird walk. However, this time I was stymied when I got out to the impoundments by a work crew on the trail that runs perpendicular to Stafford Avenue--they were cutting down trees that line the trail between two impoundments; why, I have not idea. Habitat restoration? Habitat destruction. All I know is that it blocked a larg part of my usual walk.

I turned around and went back toward the upland section after detouring a couple of time on trails that run through the phragmites where I found nothing of especial interest. The main impoundment in the back was loaded with Glossy Ibises and both white egrets, but there was nothing new or exotic among them that I could pick out.

Back in the woods I took a trail that I sometimes explore--it is the same trail where last year I rediscovered the Townsend's Solitaire. A couple of months ago I was walking along there, finding some good pockets of birds when I saw a raccoon behind a bush. Raccoons in daylight do not make me happy so I turned around. This time there were no critters on the trail so I continued on it to see where it went, having a feeling that I already knew where it would lead to. It was there along a little creek that I saw my first year bird of the day, a Green Heron which flushed at the sound of my approach and sat for a while in a tree, then flew off as I approached, rendering any chance of a photo futile.

When the trail came out to the path I thought it would I looked to my left and saw another birder. Using my bins I saw it was a friends. I called out to him that I was socially distancing and we warily approached each other and had a conversation across the muddy trail. If I'd fallen flat on my face I would have missed his shoe tops by 6 inches. He also told me that he'd heard an Ovenbird on the main trail, so I eventually wandered off in search of that warbler. I finally heard it after walking back and forth for a while, but I never could locate it visually.

Had the trail not been blocked, I feel that I would have added a few more year birds. Had I gotten there an hour earlier, I feel confident that I would have added a few more year birds. But I'll take what I got on another cold, blustery day in what seems like the lousiest April on record.

Blue-winged Teal

30 species

Canada Goose  2

Mute Swan  2    Nesting, unfortunately

Blue-winged Teal  4

Mallard  1    with teal

Greater Yellowlegs  3

Herring Gull  3

Double-crested Cormorant  8

Great Egret  11

Snowy Egret  10

Green Heron  1    

Glossy Ibis  128

Turkey Vulture  2

Belted Kingfisher  2

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard

Blue Jay  2    Heard

Carolina Chickadee  2    Heard

Tufted Titmouse  1    Heard

Purple Martin  1

Tree Swallow  1

White-breasted Nuthatch  1

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2

Carolina Wren  1    Heard

Brown Thrasher  2

American Robin  4

Song Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  4

Red-winged Blackbird  15

Ovenbird  1    Heard

Common Yellowthroat  3

Yellow-rumped Warbler  3