 |
Ditch Meadow
|
Shari has taken to calling me "Bog Boy" since I'm at Whitesbog so much this month. But the trips are paying off, if not in interesting shorebirds (maybe tomorrow with the NW winds and a cold front predicted for tonight) then in other new birds for me for both Whitesbog and Burlco.
I got a moderately late start today, arriving at the parking spot on the Middle Bog just after 7, trailing behind my friend's pickup. Just after we got out of our vehicles I saw a small flock of what I took for gulls coming in from the east, flying low over the bogs. At first I thought Laughing Gulls, but quickly saw that they were terns and defaulted to the most likely species, Forster's, but my friend demurred, saying "Look at the size of them, look at the bills," and I realized my mistake. It was 7 Caspian Terns, an infrequent visitor to the bogs, heading west. One would be impressive enough there; 7 might break the record.
 |
Spotted Sandpiper
|
Oddly, almost all the shorebird action has shifted back to the Lower Bog, which looks like a sod farm with a stream (Cranberry Run) flowing through it. I counted over 70
Least Sandpipers in there, along with a mix of
Semipalmated Sandpipers &
Plovers,
Killdeer, and
Spotted Sandpipers. After making my figure 8 around the two drawn-down bogs, I stowed my scope in the car and headed over to Union Pond and Ditch Meadow, which were somewhat quiet. I had to got all the way back to the hidden pond to scare up 3
Wood Ducks and a
Green Heron.
Coming back from that pond I saw out of the corner of my eye a bird flitting in the trees, which, given the dearth of passerines today, was an occasion. My first impression was Willow Flycatcher, since I've seen them back there a couple of times this month, but a closer, albeit brief, look told me I had a different flycatcher. My observations, in this order, prominent eye ring, contrasting wing bars, greenish back, yellow on front, small...Yellow-bellied Flycatcher! Not a rarity but I haven't seen this species in years, not since an autumn field trip with Scott up at Sandy Hook. Certainly never seen one at Whitesbog or in Burlco. The bird flew up higher in the trees. I could see it moving around but it stayed pretty well hidden then evaporated out of sight.
Back at the bogs almost all the sandpipers had disappeared. That's the way it is at Whitesbog--a constant turnover.
Nowhere near the species numbers I was getting over the weekend, but then I wasn't putting in the hours or the miles either.
34 species
Canada Goose 2 Lower Bog
Wood Duck 3 Ditch Meadow
Mallard 20 Middle Bog
Green-winged Teal 2 With mallards in middle bog
Mourning Dove 6
Semipalmated Plover 8
Killdeer 4
Least Sandpiper 77
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 10
Spotted Sandpiper 4
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 5
Caspian Tern 7
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 4 Heard
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 1 Heard
Eastern Kingbird 2
American Crow 1 Heard
Carolina Chickadee 2 Heard
Purple Martin 20
Tree Swallow 30
Barn Swallow 5
Carolina Wren 2 Heard
Gray Catbird 10
American Robin 1 Heard
American Goldfinch 1 Heard
Song Sparrow 2
Eastern Towhee 2 Heard
Common Yellowthroat 3
As I've probably mentioned before, I eschew most forms of social media. I even find aspects of eBird creepy (does everyone have to know where I was and when?), so, when I got this picture today in a text message from a friend, I had no idea where it was from. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology (eBird's parent) put this on their Facebook page. It is from yesterday's Whitesbog list. I guess female and immature Purple Martins are worthy of a quiz. At least I know I got the species right! Still, it made me wonder how, out of the thousands of pictures that are uploaded to eBird every day, that one photograph was deemed interesting enough to disseminate to all their followers. How did they even find it? Again, it gives me the creeps.
No comments:
Post a Comment