Whitesbog | Colliers Mills | Backyard 4/28--Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Warbling Vireo, House Wren, Hooded Warbler

Great Crested Flycatcher, Whitesbog

Despite hundreds of trips to Brig, I always feel like it's not my territory, that I'm just a visitor there, whereas at Whitesbog, I always feel at home. So after yesterday's trip, I went to Whitesbog this morning, despite it probably not being the best place to be on a good migration day.  Not that I did badly there, but I could have done better in any number of other spots, but they aren't "my" spots. To quote Firesign Theatre (really dating myself here), "How can you be two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?" 

Eastern Kingbird, Whitesbog

After checking out the Lower Bog on the Burlington side and seeing that it was already filled past shorebird interest, I parked at "my" spot by the county line and walked into Ocean, doing a route that took me past most of the birdy spots there, including the dogleg, Big Tank, Upper Reservoir, and some obscure bogs along Antrim Creek. At the corner of Big Tank and the cross dike I finally saw my first Gray Catbird of the month and for the county. A few overwintered in Monmouth County this year, but it took this look to tick the bird down here. Of course, after seeing the first one, the floodgates opened and they were all over today. Then, by the Upper Reservoir, I saw my first Eastern Kingbirds of the year hunting in the marsh and posing on branches and bushes. 

Wood Ducks, Whitesbog

I walked out to the Antrim Creek bogs which haven't been used in 50 or 60 years. If you think the bogs along Cranberry Run look abandoned, you should see these. They're more like swamps than bogs now. I flushed a couple of Wood Ducks back there and while I was admiring them out of the corner of my ear I heard a familiar song. I had to hear it a few times to be certain and the bird was very obliging in that regard. It was calling from the other side of the bog and there was no way I could search for it due to a breach there, but it was my first Whitesbog Hooded Warbler, not to mention my FOY. 

Walking back to to the car on "main road" I heard a "weep" then a few seconds the same call again. Uncharacteristically, for me, I stood in one spot for a few minutes until the bird appeared so I could be certain that it was a Great Crested Flycatcher I'd heard; and, it was. 

It was only around 11 by the time I'd done my 3 1/2 mile ambulation; I thought going to Colliers Mills might be worth a trip. By the time I got there the day had turned hot for the first time this year. I saw Greg & Jeanine there and they'd had a fabulous morning, but they were leaving and told me it was getting quiet. I did however first hear, then in another spot, see, the year's first Warbling Vireo. Colliers Mills is the easiest place around for them and didn't disappoint this year. I was trying to bird Hawkin Road where it was shady and the trees were just leafing out, but I discovered that you cannot bird and talk to a car salesman at the same time. After a half hour on the phone I didn't feel like walking the rest of the way up the road, so I quit for the day with only a puny 16 species observed. 

Mike texted me that he'd had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak at his feeder this morning. We get them annually, but when I got home and saw mostly empty feeders, I knew we wouldn't attract one with that stingy buffet. As I was filling up the squirrel buster feeders I heard a bird scolding, maybe it was me it was scolding, or maybe, being a House Wren, it was just in a mood, but looking up I saw it perched on a broken branch. House Wren is an annual yard bird for us (and everyone else I suppose). We've never had a bluebird in the box we set up, but the House Wrens have made it a false nest a few times. 

All in all a decent day. As I said, I could've done better elsewhere, but every morning I ask myself where do I want to be instead of where should I be. 

Tree Swallow investigating a nest hole, Whitesbog

Brig | Backyard 4/27--Red Knot, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Gull-billed Tern, Least Bittern, Yellow-throated Vireo

Gull-billed Terns

It is always a pleasant surprise to "get" a bird you're really not expecting to "get." I stopped at the entrance ponds at Brig, knowing that Least Bitterns had been heard there the last week or so, but I didn't think I'd be lucky enough to hear them, especially since it was well after dawn when I arrived. But, immediately upon getting out of the car, I heard the soft "coo coo coo" of the bittern calling from the reeds. There may have been two because later I heard another bittern from the other pond when I was walking the road, but I'm interested in quality, not quantity. 

Of course, hearing a bird isn't nearly as satisfying as seeing one, and I wouldn't make a special trip to hear one which is why I haven't got to the left hand side of the middle of nowhere down in Cumberland County to hear a couple of Yellow Rails go "tic tic tic" even though they'd be lifers, or why I haven't been able to get interested in going to Higbee in Cape May to hear a Swainson's Warbler sing, again, even though it would be a lifer. Reward doesn't equal effort in either case. 

But today, hearing the bittern(s), was already a success. By the time I got out onto the drive, after taking my long walk up to the Overlook from the Gull Pond, with a detour to Goose Marker 4, I already had well over 50 species on my list, though only the bittern(s) were new. 

Semipalmated Sandpiper

But soon the year birds started showing up. In with the yellowlegs was one peep (the water seemed very high for shorebirds today) and while I would have liked it to be a Western Sandpiper, I let it go as Semipalmated Sandpiper, the more likely bird. But still the first one of the year. In among a flock of Laughing Gulls were two Gull-billed Terns, so it pays to stop and look at all the flocks because there may be something blending in with what you think you're seeing .

Nothing else new seemed like it was going to show up by the time I got Jen's Trail, so I was just looking to build up the list at that point. But, while talking to a couple of other birders on the trail, one asked me if I had seen the Red Knots. No, I missed them. Well, they were just before the end of the marsh about quarter mile back from Jen's. I couldn't drive back and I wasn't going to do a second loop, but I could walk back. I did, saw a group of shorebirds and knew I needed my scope. So I walked back to the car at the other end of Jen's about a half a mile, got the scope, walked back, saw 3 or 4 Red Knots mixed in with Black-bellied Plovers, was happy, then walked back to the car. So in all, I walked about a mile and a quarter for those knots. So, it shows I will make an effort to see a bird. 

I got home late afternoon and sat out on the patio with Shari drinking a glass of wine, watching the hen turkey casually browse the seeds beneath the feeder, noting the late Pine Siskin picking out sunflower chips, and finally seeing our first backyard hummingbird, when I noticed a call coming from the woods that I'd never heard before in the almost decade that we've been here. I asked Shari if that call sounded like "Threee eight" to her. It did. 10 or 15 times we heard "Threee eight" before it drifted farther out into the woods. And that was our first backyard Yellow-throated Vireo, not to mention the fifth year bird of the day. Very satisfying end to the day. 

My list for a long day at Brig:

72 species

Brant  150

Canada Goose  100

Mute Swan  8

Blue-winged Teal  4

Northern Shoveler  2

Gadwall  2

Mallard  5

American Black Duck  15

Green-winged Teal  20

Bufflehead  2     Gull Pond

Mourning Dove  3

Clapper Rail  2     Heard

American Oystercatcher  2

Black-bellied Plover  25

Whimbrel  75

Red Knot  3     North dike to north w BBPL PROBABLY more very distant

Dunlin  100

Semipalmated Sandpiper  1    

Short-billed Dowitcher  5

Wilson's Snipe  2     Gull Pond

Greater Yellowlegs  20

Willet  6

Lesser Yellowlegs  5

Laughing Gull  35

Ring-billed Gull  5

Herring Gull  50

Great Black-backed Gull  2

Gull-billed Tern  4

Caspian Tern  4

Forster's Tern  75

Double-crested Cormorant  250

American White Pelican  1     Gigantic white bird with huge orange bill at the dogleg.

Least Bittern  1     A soft coo coo coo at entrance pond

Great Blue Heron  2

Great Egret  35

Snowy Egret  40

Glossy Ibis  50

Black Vulture  1

Turkey Vulture  15

Osprey  12

Bald Eagle  1

Red-tailed Hawk  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard

White-eyed Vireo  4     Heard

Blue Jay  3

American Crow  8

Fish Crow  25

Carolina Chickadee  6

Tufted Titmouse  2     Heard

Purple Martin  20

Tree Swallow  15

Barn Swallow  3

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

Marsh Wren  1     Heard

Carolina Wren  2     Heard

American Robin  9

House Finch  3

American Goldfinch  4

Chipping Sparrow  3

Field Sparrow  4     Heard

Seaside Sparrow  1     Heard

Savannah Sparrow  2

Song Sparrow  1     Heard

Swamp Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  4

Red-winged Blackbird  100

Common Grackle  2

Common Yellowthroat  25

Yellow Warbler  1     Heard

Pine Warbler  2

Prairie Warbler  1

Northern Cardinal  5

Cloverdale Farm | Forsythe-Barnegat | Wells Mills Park 4/26--Stilt Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Solitary Sandpiper, Cloverdale Farm

Downy Woodpecker,
Double Trouble

One bird led to another today. After starting the day off at Double Trouble where the neatest thing I saw was a Downy Woodpecker excavating a hole (and where I finally saw my first county Black-and-white Warbler), I drove down the Parkway to Cloverdale Farm. I'd seen that a Solitary Sandpiper was reported there and while it isn't a rare bird, it also isn't a sandpiper you run into casually in the county. I didn't have too much trouble finding it. There was a shallow portion of one of the bogs and no sooner had I said to myself that that would be a good place for a Solitary than one flew in and gave me great looks. 

I was talking to the naturalist there while I tried to pick out an interesting swallow (didn't) and she mentioned the Stilt Sandpiper that had been reported yesterday at Forsythe-Barnegat. I hadn't looked very closely at the report, assuming that it was on the mudflats that are now hard to view since the phragmites have grown up. But instead, she said it was seen from the observation deck about 1/2 mile away. I was amazed. For years, there has been nothing to be seen from that deck except maybe a few loafing gulls. It used to be a great spot, then, inexplicably, it went dead. Maybe a storm subtly changed the habitat, I don't know, but off and on I've checked there the past few years with little to show for the effort. So, this I had to see, and I cut short my visit to Cloverdale and drove down to Barnegat about 15 minutes away. Sure enough, the mud flats there off the observation deck were loaded with yellowlegs, mostly Great, but a few Lesser.  Not too many to be overwhelming though, so I scoped each one and on the second scan found the different sandpiper, a Stilt. It was its feeding habit that first gained my attention, as it tottered up and down like an oil derrick instead of swishing back and forth like the Greater Yellowlegs were doing. Then I check the beak which was slightly curved, the supercilium, which was strong, and the legs, which were darker and said that was it. The wind was blowing too heavily for digiscoping and my camera from that distant produced only hazy pictures, but I'm confident of the ID. I kept looking at the birds comparing and contrasting until, whoosh, the whole flock flew off. They obviously didn't go far, because later in the afternoon, others birders reported seeing the bird. 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Wells Mills Park

Before going home I decided to make a stop at Wells Mills Park. I remembered that when I did the World Series of Birding with Mike and Pete, we used to make a special stop there just to get Ruby-throated Hummingbird for the list, and since I'm impatient and one hasn't appeared at our feeders since one buzzed by Shari a few days ago, I figured I may as well get one there. I set a timer on my phone for 10 minutes. That's how much time I was willing to invest or how much patience I had to spend, it depends on how you look at it. At the 8 minute and 32 second mark I saw one zip to the feeder and then off again. Not satisfying. I set another timer for 8 minutes and only a few minutes later the hummer returned to the feeder where I got a good long look at it and a not great photo. 

So: for those of you keeping score at home, that's 3 year birds and 4 county birds making for a decent day. 

Great Bay Blvd 4/25--Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

With the rain ending a little earlier than I expected, or so the forecast showed, I headed down to Great Blustery Blvd where the rain had tapered to a thin drizzle when I first arrived. But while my car thermometer read 53, with the gusting winds it didn't feel anywhere near that warm. Still, there were birds there and better yet, there were birders there who look in spots I don't usually check. Which is how I got, finally, my year Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. On the south side of the first wooden bridge I stopped to say hello to a couple of birders I know and they told me that they had just seen two of the herons on the north side of the bridge. Truth be told, I do usually check that area, but I wasn't inclined to walk out onto the bridge this morning in the wind and wet. That is until I heard about those birds, which I have been fruitlessly searching for all month. I pulled the car over to spot where it probably wouldn't get hit, trotted back over the bridge and saw the two herons start to fly away. But before I could let out a string of expletives, they settled down into the marsh, in plain view and close enough for decent pictures. And they were adults, which eliminated the dithering over whether the immature bird you're looking at is really a Black-crowned. 

However, I rarely stop on the portion of the road that is bordered by two lines of cedars, north of the first bridge. I usually make the bulwark my first stop, as I did today. But they somehow had spotted a Caspian Tern loafing on a sand bar in the marsh. On the way out it was still there and they texted me so I could get it. I had to kind of half squat and peer through the lower branches, but there was the tern, gigantic next to the neighboring Forster's Terns. County bird for the year. 

They were also kind enough to have stopped earlier on the road to point out a pair of Short-billed Dowitchers they had seen in mixed flock of Black-bellied Plovers and Dunlins. I thought I had looked through that flock, but the one I checked was further south. Again, these birds were in a part of the marsh I tend to blow by. It's a four mile road--I can't be expected to check every inch on both sides. Again, the dowitchers were year county birds. 

I also finally heard a few Clapper Rails, state and county birds for the year. I managed to hear them on my own though I couldn't find one even though a couple sounded like they were close enough to walk over my shoes. 

We walked on the beach by the inlet, hoping to kick up some Saltmarsh Sparrows, but even though the wind was somewhat diminished and the sun teased us a few times by emerging from the gray sky, the sparrows, if they were there, were hunkered down and disinclined to show themselves. 

The walk on the beach and the trot across the bridge was about the extent of my walking there today. Not my favorite way of birding, but under the conditions, the only reasonable way to do it. 

40 species

Brant  10

Canada Goose  3

Mute Swan  4

Mallard  8

American Black Duck  2

Green-winged Teal  5     Northern part of marsh

Red-breasted Merganser  6

Mourning Dove  2

Clapper Rail  3     Heard

American Oystercatcher  4

Black-bellied Plover  90

Dunlin  250

Short-billed Dowitcher  2

Greater Yellowlegs  12

Willet  3

Laughing Gull  1

Herring Gull  75

Great Black-backed Gull  2

Caspian Tern  1     Northern part of the marsh

Forster's Tern  10

Double-crested Cormorant  25

Great Blue Heron  3

Great Egret  40

Snowy Egret  45

Black-crowned Night-Heron  3

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  2    

Osprey  1

Cooper's Hawk  1     End of the road

Fish Crow  1

Purple Martin  1

Barn Swallow  1

Carolina Wren  1     Heard

European Starling  2

American Robin  2

Seaside Sparrow  4     Heard

Song Sparrow  3

Red-winged Blackbird  50

Boat-tailed Grackle  30

Common Yellowthroat  1     Heard

Northern Cardinal  1

Black-crowned Night-Heron, in usual spot, cedars north of the second wooden bridge. 

Whitesbog 4/24--Least Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Our hoped-for mini-shorebird season at Whitesbog, with the Lower Bog half drawn down, is turning out to be a very mini season indeed. I started my morning there and, aside from the reliable Killdeers, there were only two other shorebirds in the bog: A Lesser Yellowlegs and a Least Sandpiper.  The latter was at "least" new for the year. Also in the bog was a single Blue-winged Teal. Last year we had a big flock of long-staying Blue-winged Teals during the summer draw down, so perhaps this drake was a precursor.

Blue-winged Teal

After two days of inhibiting winds, I thought more passerines would be out and about but in my trek around the Ocean County side of the bogs I only found a few of a few different species except for Common Yellowthroats which numbered in the high teens. There are lots of supposedly easy birds I'm still missing for either my year lists or county lists and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong lately. Probably it is my insistence on birding where I feel like being instead of birding where the birds are almost sure to be. Still, a Gray Catbird, a Black-and-white Warbler, they should be everywhere and, looking at eBird, they apparently are, except the wherever I am yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow too. 

Common  Yellowthroat

Meadowedge Park 4/20--Cattle Egret

To continue the analogy from the last post, today I went shopping for birds at the local specialty stores. I started the morning at Colliers Mills, hoping for new warbler, especially the Prothonotary that Greg found yesterday. I was successful with only Ovenbird, new for the county. Then, after walking my 4 miles at Colliers Mills and tracking down the Red-headed Woodpecker in its usual spot, I drove down to Great Bay Blvd, where I was hoping to add some more county birds, but really wanting a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. I could have left after my first stop at the bulwark where I got Willet and Seaside Sparrow for the county. Despite assiduous searching, I was unable to come up with the Yellow-crowned, though I did manage to find 4 Black-crowned Night-Herons, one of which was immature. I took a loooong look at in the scope, but was unable to convince myself it was a Yellow-crowned. 

Not that I was experiencing a dearth of birds...I had 35 species at Colliers Mills and 36 along Great Bay, but nothing new & exciting. Just before I left Tuckerton, I stopped and looked at the eBird email alerts and saw that a Cattle Egret was reported in Ocean County. My first instinct was to dismiss since there was a Cattle Egret at Brig over the weekend and inexperienced eBirders often choose an Ocean County Forsythe site instead of the correct one, but actually reading the alert I saw that the bird was in Meadowedge Park in Barnegat. Oddly, or not, a number of  years ago a Cattle Egret also spent a day or so in that little pocket park. 

The listing was recent and Barnegat was only about 15 miles away up Route 9 so, I powered up there, amazingly only hitting one red light the entire drive. No one else was in the parking lot when I arrived and neither was the bird. But, looking into the adjacent backyard, I saw it wandering around the lawn. I took some pretty good photos, looked around the park and watched a flock of Glossy Ibis land in the muddy area. No White-faced Ibis among them and then took off after only a few minutes. Going back to my car, I looked for the egret and didn't see it on the lawn anymore. Gone already, I thought, until I saw that it was standing and preening on  the homeowner's car. Nice hood ornament. 

Cattle Egret is a tough bird for New Jersey, never mind Ocean County. The invasion from the sixties seems to have not been as successful as it was once thought it might be, so I was very happy to get this bird as a walk up. 

Brig 4/19--Whimbrel, Short-billed Dowitcher, Willet, Caspian Tern, White-eyed Vireo, Seaside Sparrow, Yellow Warbler

Caspian Tern

When we lived in Brooklyn, shopping for food usually entailed walking up and down Court Street, stopping Esposito's for cheese and cold cuts, Carlucci's for bread, the Green Market for vegetables, Kim's  for "health food," and maybe a stop at the bagel store too. It would have been more efficient to go to the supermarket, but that would have meant moving the car from its precious parking spot. 

Today, wanting to build up the year list,  I was faced with an analogous birding dilemma: Go to a woodsy place for warblers and vireos, a marsh for shorebirds and waders, a pond or a lake for whatever waterfowl remain in the area, or go to the supermarket of birding, one might even call it the Costco of birding, Brig. Which I did, since parking is longer a consideration in my life. 

Common Yellowthroat

The morning was clear, warm, and calm. Perfect conditions for walking from the Gull Pond to Jen's Trail and back before doing a couple of loops of the wildlife drive. While I was drinking my coffee at the Gull Pond I had my first year bird, a Caspian Tern sitting alone on mud flat. From there I walked the road and turned onto the drive walking up a little past Goose Marker 4, where I heard my first Seaside Sparrow of the year, but it remained a "heard only" bird since I couldn't find it in the reeds. I retraced my steps and walked along the old railroad bed to the end of the drive and walked "backwards" toward Jen's. Along the way I heard a White-eyed Vireo picking up the beer check. Just before the road to the Overlook, I saw two yellow flashes in a low shrub--one was a Yellow Warbler and the other was the first Common Yellowthroat I've seen this year, after hearing them for the last two days at Whitesbog. 

It was already mid-morning by the time I made it back to the car and started driving the loop. Far out in the marsh toward Atlantic City I saw a large flock of shorebirds which I was pretty sure were Whimbrels. Or at least had Whimbrels mixed in with them as the birds looked various sizes. By the time I got my scope focused on the area they had all settled into the high marsh grass and the only birds I could confidently call Whimbrel numbered 5. I saw another report today of a count of 110. But, I only need one so five was sufficient. 

Black-bellied Plover with Dunlin

On the east dike I was scanning with my binoculars a huge flock of Dunlins, which I suspected contained some other birds. I was debating whether to stop and scope them when I heard a Willet call. It was a thrill to hear my first "pee-willet" though I know that soon enough I'll be sick of the sound. I got out the scope but all I could find were dozens of Greater Yellowlegs at first. Scanning the Dunlins I found a small group of Short-billed Dowitchers. So that made 7 year birds. At that point I had 63 species for the day and the weather had changed from sunny and windless to cloudy and gusty. I stopped for lunch in the parking lot, looked at the forecast and saw that drizzle and light rain was predicted for the next hour. But, it wasn't as if I'd be walking in the rain, so I took another loop around. I wanted to see the oystercatchers better (a pair had been flybys), I was hoping to find the Willet, and I wanted to see if I could add anything else to the list. I managed one Snow Goose, 3 Black-bellied Plovers, and, on the way out, a Bald Eagle on its nest on Lily Lake Road, giving me 66 on the day.

Snow Goose  1     South Dike

Brant  85

Canada Goose  200

Mute Swan  13

Blue-winged Teal  5

Northern Shoveler  40

Gadwall  7

Mallard  8

American Black Duck  40

Green-winged Teal  140

Bufflehead  6

Mourning Dove  3

American Oystercatcher  4

Black-bellied Plover  3

Whimbrel  5

Dunlin  765

Short-billed Dowitcher  5

Wilson's Snipe  2

Greater Yellowlegs  45

Willet  1

Laughing Gull  9

Ring-billed Gull  18

Herring Gull  65

Great Black-backed Gull  12

Caspian Tern  2

Forster's Tern  30

Double-crested Cormorant  42

Great Blue Heron  7

Great Egret  27

Snowy Egret  10

Glossy Ibis  22

Turkey Vulture  5

Osprey  16

Bald Eagle  1

Red-shouldered Hawk  1     Over Jen’s Pond

Red-bellied Woodpecker  2     Heard

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  2

White-eyed Vireo  1     Heard

Blue Jay  4

American Crow  3

Fish Crow  20

Carolina Chickadee  6

Tufted Titmouse  3

Purple Martin  14

Tree Swallow  50

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2

Carolina Wren  5     Heard

European Starling  1

Brown Thrasher  1     Heard Upland

Eastern Bluebird  2

American Robin  5

House Sparrow  1

House Finch  4

American Goldfinch  2

Chipping Sparrow  3

Field Sparrow  5

White-throated Sparrow  7

Seaside Sparrow  1     Heard

Song Sparrow  4

Red-winged Blackbird  200

Ovenbird  1     Heard upland

Common Yellowthroat  4

Yellow Warbler  1

Pine Warbler  1     Heard

Northern Cardinal  4

Great Egret

Whitesbog 4/17--Ovenbird, Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Prairie Warbler

Lower Bog at Whitebog drawn down.

Last night I saw an eBird report that referred to the "drained bog" at Whitesbog. Whoa! I hadn't been there in nearly two weeks so that was news to me. Could we have a spring shorebird season there? I was there first thing this morning and sure enough, the Lower Bog was about half empty and the first birds I saw were not the yellowlegs I thought they might be when I had just my binoculars on them but 4 Pectoral Sandpipers when viewed in the scope. I walked around to the cross dike between Lower and Middle and scoped the other birds in the bog from there--Killdeers and a Greater Yellowlegs, along with a flock of blackbirds picking at the mud with a couple of Great Blue Herons stabbing at sunfish that suddenly had very little room to swim. Tree Swallows and a couple of Barn Swallows zipped above, eating the the annoying gnats that hovered over the bog when they weren't in my face. 

Just then I saw my friend and informant coming up the dike. "What caused all this?" I asked him. It seems that the farmer was doing "repairs" on the bog (bogs are surprisingly high-maintenance) but these repairs consisted of taking out a lot of the old sluice gates to salvage the wood since the farmer had finally decided that he wasn't after all, going to try to turn these old bogs back into productive ones. Which is great news for migrating shorebirds and those who watch them. 

Once he heard that there was a spring migration as well as the fall migration, he agreed to keep the water low there for a couple of weeks. So, I'll be commuting to Whitesbog until the water levels rise. A bad case of FOMO* has developed already. Last week, when I wasn't there, my friend had, in addition to the above shorebirds, snipe, Least Sandpipers, and Black-bellied Plovers, the last notorious for doing touch and goes in the bogs--your life line and theirs have to intersect for the 10 minutes they spend in the bog before moving on. 

But shorebirds were not the highlight of the day. Warblers were. I added 4 species to the year list. The first, Common Yellowthroat, I heard calling when I was setting up the scope to scan the bog. Didn't see one today. Sometimes it takes a while before you eyeball your first witchety. I heard another while I was walking along the landing strip. When I went to look for it, I came across a Black-and-White Warbler right above my head in a low branch. It flew away before I could say the whole name aloud. Later, while circling the Lower Meadow, I heard an Ovenbird sing. I was thinking about something other than birds when the song broke through and returned me to my mission. Finally, having walked well over 4 miles in the Burlington section, I decided to drive around the Ocean County part of the bogs to see if I could add any of those warblers (or anything else) to the OC year list. By then it was well after noon and not a lot of birds were around, but I did find one corner where I had Pine, Palm and new for the year Prairie Warbler. Coming down the road were 4 or 5 unleashed dogs. I can deal with one dog off the leash, but I'm leery of multiple strange dogs so I turned back for my car. It was then that I realized I was hearing another Common Yellowthroat. Again the song burst through my other thoughts. 

For the day, 42 species:

Canada Goose

Wood Duck

Mallard

Bufflehead

Killdeer

Pectoral Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Northern Harrier

Bald Eagle

Belted Kingfisher

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

American Kestrel

American Crow

Fish Crow

Carolina Chickadee

Purple Martin

Tree Swallow

Barn Swallow

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Carolina Wren

European Starling

Brown Thrasher

Eastern Bluebird

American Robin

House Finch

Song Sparrow

Eastern Towhee

Red-winged Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Common Grackle

Ovenbird

Black-and-white Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Palm Warbler

Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler

Northern Cardinal

*Fear Of Missing Out

Home 4/15--Eastern Whip-poor-will

Eastern Whip-poor-will. Shari & I were of one mind tonight when we each stepped outside the house to listen. She thought she'd heard one but all we could hear was distant gunfire from Dix. Amazing how far that sound travels. Then, just as were about to go back inside we heard, from the little grove of trees next to the retention basin, "whip, whip, whip...whip-poor-will,  whip-poor-will," with another bird a few houses away answering with simple "whips." A few minutes later they started with the partial calls again then stopped. We've found that they don't really get going until mid-May.

And now I can look forward to the neighbors complaining about those "damn birds" keeping them up all night. As we live in an over-55 community, I reply, "You guys are all deaf! I can hear you talking to each other a block away. How come you can hear the whip-poor-will, inside your house, with the air-conditioning on?" 

Great Bay Blvd 4/14--Barn Swallow

It should not have taken this long or been this difficult to find a Barn Swallow this year but after a couple of weeks of not just running into one, I actively went looking for them yesterday.  I know that they nest under the building at the marina just before the first wooden bridge on Great Bay Blvd, or at least they have in all the previous years I've been down there, but of course, not yesterday when I stopped there. Too early? 

Then I remembered I had a fallback option at the inlet itself. I walked up to the boundary with the Rutgers facility in the old coast guard station and finally saw two Barn Swallows flying around the building. They didn't look like they were landing anywhere there so maybe it is still too early for them, but at least I saw a couple.

Tree Swallow investigating nest hole

It is not too early, however, for Tree Swallows. I was delighted to see them investigating the two holes in pilings at the launches just before the 2nd wooden bridge. I just like that the swallows are using semi-natural holes (they used to be trees) instead of boxes put out for them. 

I was also hoping to find a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron along the road but failed there too. I wasn't finding any Black-crowned Night-Herons either at the cedar grove by the wooden bridge until a fisherman walking back from the marsh flushed a half dozen of them when he passed by. "Thank you," I said to him. He was a little perplexed but amiably said "No problem." 

It's like when guys running dogs through the fields at Colliers Mills ask me if it's all right or will the dogs bother me. "No, go ahead," I say, "Maybe it'll flush a bird...ethically I can't do that but the dog is okay." 

Still a lot of birds I should have by now for the county that I thought might be along the road but weren't. I can either be frustrated or just consider them pocket birds because I know I'll eventually stumble into them.

28 species for the road.

Brant  60

Canada Goose  3

Mallard  4

Red-breasted Merganser  9

Mourning Dove  1

American Oystercatcher  5

Black-bellied Plover  50

Dunlin  300

Greater Yellowlegs  4

Herring Gull  100

Great Black-backed Gull  1

Forster's Tern  12

Common Loon  1

Double-crested Cormorant  90

Great Blue Heron  1

Great Egret  16

Snowy Egret  10

Tricolored Heron  1

Black-crowned Night-Heron  6

Osprey  12

Northern Harrier  1

Bald Eagle  2

Fish Crow  3

Tree Swallow  8

Barn Swallow  2

Song Sparrow  6

Red-winged Blackbird  100

Boat-tailed Grackle  150

Boat-tailed Grackle

Salem County 4/10--Pectoral Sandpiper, Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Our second foray into Salem County in a month, or so, yielded 2 new years birds, for me, though both were of the zipping around variety--seen clearly but not photographable.  We were on another NJ Audubon field trip led by Scott. We were hoping that migration might have begun in that southwestern county (it hasn't up here) but, as Emily Dickinson pointed out, hope is a thing without feathers, so, while it was notable how many birds had migrated away, ducks in particular, nothing much had replaced them. 

We made most of the same stops we did back in March, starting at Compromise Road where the highlight was a couple of Eastern Meadowlarks. Then it was on to various viewing point of the vast Mannington Marsh. While viewing the marsh from the bridge Scott pointed out the Northern Rough-winged Swallows mixed in with the Tree Swallows. Aside from 4 Mallards there were no ducks, but I did find my Salem County life Glossy Ibis, not that I'm angsting over my Salem County list. 

At the Sunset Bridge overlook, the tide was very high which eliminated the opportunity of sorting through a lot of shorebirds for something tasty like a Ruff, but we did have a close flyover flock of Pectoral Sandpipers, a species not even on my possibility radar yet.  At another spot in the marsh Chris, who was co-leading, pointed out a distant loon that turned out to be a Red-throated Loon (county bird! but who's counting?) which turns out to be the only species flagged as rare for the day. 

We lunched at Fort Mott SP, which overlooks the Delaware, river and state since the border line of the state is the shoreline of the river, so the Common Loon Scott found far out on the water was technically in Delaware, but since eBird is only interested in where you're feet are--county bird! but who's counting?

Our last stop was Supawna NWR, walking one of the grasslands trails, which gave us nothing exciting avian-wise but, as we were walking back, Shari pointed out a little white butterfly to Scott and said "Look, it has orange on its wings" and Scott shouted to Chris, "Falcate Orangetip and everyone started chasing this nondescript butterfly down the trail while MEGO*, since I'm feather-centric. Scott claimed it was the highlight of the day--I guess it's a difficult butterfly to find, though my brother, who knows about this stuff, says they're still pretty easy to find at a spot in Jackson, around 12 miles from here. I felt obligated to at least take a picture of it. Who knows? I may take a blow to the head one day and when I wake up, think that butterflies are interesting. 

For the wandering around, 45 species:

Species                 First Sighting

Canada Goose   Salem River WMA

Mute Swan   Salem River WMA

Mallard   Salem River WMA

Green-winged Teal   Mannington Marsh

American Coot   Mannington Marsh

Killdeer   Compromise Rd.

Pectoral Sandpiper   Mannington Marsh

Wilson's Snipe   Salem River WMA

Greater Yellowlegs   Mannington Marsh

Laughing Gull   Salem River WMA

Ring-billed Gull   Salem River WMA

Red-throated Loon   Mannington Marsh

Common Loon   Fort Mott SP

Double-crested Cormorant   Salem River WMA

Great Blue Heron   Salem River WMA

Great Egret   Compromise Rd.

Snowy Egret   Mannington Marsh

Glossy Ibis   Salem River WMA

Black Vulture   Salem River WMA

Turkey Vulture   Compromise Rd.

Osprey   Mannington Marsh

Northern Harrier   Mannington Marsh

Bald Eagle   Salem River WMA

Red-tailed Hawk   Mannington Marsh

Downy Woodpecker   Mannington Marsh

American Kestrel   Compromise Rd.

Blue Jay   Salem River WMA

Fish Crow   Salem River WMA

Carolina Chickadee   Mannington Marsh

Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Salem River WMA

Tree Swallow   Salem River WMA

Carolina Wren   Salem River WMA

European Starling   Compromise Rd.

Brown Thrasher   Salem River WMA

Northern Mockingbird   Supawna NWR

American Robin   Fort Mott SP

Chipping Sparrow   Fort Mott SP

Field Sparrow   Supawna NWR

White-throated Sparrow   Salem River WMA

Song Sparrow   Supawna NWR

Eastern Towhee   Supawna NWR

Eastern Meadowlark   Compromise Rd.

Red-winged Blackbird   Compromise Rd.

Common Grackle   Fort Mott SP

Northern Cardinal   Salem River WMA

*My Eyes Glazed Over