Palmyra Cove Nature Park 9/6--Cape May Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler

Since I missed so many warblers during the Covid Spring, I've been trying to catch them on their way back south. I could try Sandy Hook, but you have to get there early and it's a haul and it's crowded with people pursuing non-avian activities.  The problem with Reed's Road on IBSP is that once you've walked its quarter mile of marine forest back and forth you're done and what if it's a slow day? So, Palmyra, the Burlco migrant trap, is a good choice for me but only on a Sunday morning when traffic is light and it's just a 55 minute drive. 

But Palmyra is a big place and I only know the main trails and not that well. I was fortunate today to meet in the parking lot a couple of birders I know who are extremely knowledgeable about the park. I started out walking with them and soon had no choice but to stick with them because they were bushwhacking parts of the park I had no idea existed and I would have been hopelessly lost trying to find my way back to my car. 

Green Heron

Groups of birders seem to coalesce and split apart naturally at Palmyra so that at one point there were about 8 of us and then 5 and then 4. The smaller the number, the more comfortable I feel. Warblers were in patches. Yesterday, as I've heard all too often in my birding adventures, was great. Today, they said, was just okay. Still, for someone like me whose steady diet of Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, Common Yellowthroat gets a little dull, a Magnolia Warbler is a thrill, as were all the other warblers we encountered, especially my 3 year birds: Cape May, Blackburnian, and Chestnut-sided Warblers. Granted, none of them were in their breeding finery and most of them were high up and flitting about maddeningly, but I was able to clap eyes on them long enough to put them on the list. I did miss, twice, Nashville Warbler. It is excruciatingly frustrating when 4 or 5 other people are talking about the bird's field marks and you can't even find it in the locust tree (one reason being you don't know what a locust tree is but even if you did, you'd still not be able to find in the "hole on the right hand side"). At least nobody said, "In the green tree" today. 

Unlike last week, we didn't spend much time at the cove itself but were mostly in the woods. Despite my frustrations and aggravations, I did wind up with a list of 56 species. Without my friends guiding me through the dark woods and theoretical trails I'm sure my list would only be half that.

Canada Goose  6    Flyovers

Wood Duck  1    Heard, Cove

Wild Turkey  10

Mourning Dove  3

Chimney Swift  2

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2

Spotted Sandpiper  1

Laughing Gull  100

Herring Gull  15

Great Black-backed Gull  1

Double-crested Cormorant  7

Great Blue Heron  1

Great Egret  1

Green Heron  3

Turkey Vulture  1

Osprey  1

Cooper's Hawk  1

Bald Eagle  1

Red-tailed Hawk  1

Belted Kingfisher  1    Heard

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard

Downy Woodpecker  4

Northern Flicker  1

Eastern Wood-Pewee  1

Least Flycatcher  1

Great Crested Flycatcher  1

Warbling Vireo  3

Red-eyed Vireo  1

Blue Jay  1    Heard

American Crow  1    Heard

Fish Crow  1    Heard

Carolina Chickadee  3

Tufted Titmouse  1

Barn Swallow  1

Red-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard

White-breasted Nuthatch  2    Heard

Carolina Wren  5

Gray Catbird  3

Northern Mockingbird  1

American Robin  2

House Sparrow  2

House Finch  5

American Goldfinch  4

Field Sparrow  4

Baltimore Oriole  1

Common Yellowthroat  1

American Redstart  6

Cape May Warbler  1

Magnolia Warbler  1

Bay-breasted Warbler  1

Blackburnian Warbler  2

Chestnut-sided Warbler  1

Scarlet Tanager  2

Northern Cardinal  1

Blue Grosbeak  1

Indigo Bunting  1