Whitesbog 7/6--Common Nighthawk

Just after dawn, I was standing on the double-laned road at Whitesbog, which is the marker for the boundary between Burlington and Ocean Counties. (The true boundary line is about 100 feet to the east, but for convenience anything to the west of road is Burlco, anything to the east Ocean.) Looking up there were, as I had hoped there would be if I arrived early enough, 3 Common Nighthawks swooping over the Upper Bog, beautiful birds with the white wing patches on the primaries easily discerned in the brightening sky. I was looking west, into Burlington County. I wanted nighthawks for my Ocean County list.

Now, technically, according to eBird protocols, all I had to do was run north down the road, make a right, run another 100 feet east, turn around and see the birds from Ocean County to put them on my Ocean County list. But that's stupid. The birds would still be in Burlington County. Every birding list is a record of a survey (the level of formality changes with the circumstances) and it is a survey of where the birds are not where the birder's feet are. 

Instead, I rooted for the birds to turn around and fly toward me. They were stubborn for a few minutes, but finally one flew above me, then, as I turned around I saw it flying over the water in Ocean County. I had my check mark even if I was still standing in Burlington County. 

And that's how I started my day--with unmitigated silliness. 

The rest of the morning was spent walking my usual routes--along the eastern edge of Union Pond, around Ditch Meadow (Wood Duck) in Burlington County, then going into Ocean County up along the road past the dogleg, over to Big Tank, the Upper Reservoir (a big flock of Tree Swallows, + Brown Thrasher, Orchard Oriole), west along the woods, turn south  and over the dike between the old reservoirs (lots of Eastern Kingbirds), west past the flooded blueberry field and then north along the double-laned road to where I have been parking lately.

In all 34 species for the morning, respectable for a hot, summer morning in the Pine Barrens.

Wood Duck

Mourning Dove

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Common Nighthawk

Great Blue Heron

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Eastern Phoebe

Great Crested Flycatcher

Eastern Kingbird

American Crow

Fish Crow

Tufted Titmouse

Tree Swallow

White-breasted Nuthatch

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Carolina Wren

Gray Catbird

Brown Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

Cedar Waxwing

Field Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

Eastern Towhee

Orchard Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Ovenbird

Common Yellowthroat

Pine Warbler