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