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.