Manasquan River WMA 5/5--Red-eyed Vireo, Orchard Oriole, American Redstart, Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Could the light be any crappier? I suppose 10 o'clock on a moonless night might have afforded lower visibility, but for daylight hours, no, the milky cloud that hung over the fields at Manasquan River WMA and wrapped the tree tops in a gauzy light made it very difficult for these old eyes to find the birds that have abounded there of late. The WMA is the go to place for Blue-winged Warbler and I have gone to it twice this week and come up empty both times. I did see a lot of flitting warblers obscured by mist and budding leaves high in the tree tops and a couple of times was tempted to call them blue-winged but in all honesty they could have been any warbler--or vireo for that matter. 

That said, I did manage to add 4 species. Red-eyed Vireos were singing though not visible but two new warblers (out of the 10 species I listed there) were new and one them I mirabile dictu even photographed. Of the icterids, Orchard Oriole was a new addition. The odd icterid was an Eastern Meadowlark, a new species for me for that patch. Lowering skies kept the raptors down on their roosts. I was there for just under 4 hours; when the raindrops on my binocular lenses became too annoying to look through, I left with 45 species in the fields and woods. 

Canada Goose  3     Heard flyover and near river

Mourning Dove  1

Herring Gull  2

Great Blue Heron  2

Red-bellied Woodpecker  4

Downy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  1     Heard

Great Crested Flycatcher  4     Heard

Eastern Kingbird  9

White-eyed Vireo  2     Heard

Red-eyed Vireo  4     Heard

Blue Jay  3

American Crow  2     Heard

Carolina Chickadee  2

Tufted Titmouse  3

Tree Swallow  8

Carolina Wren  1     Heard

Gray Catbird  17

Wood Thrush  2     Heard

American Robin  6

American Goldfinch  7

Chipping Sparrow  1

Field Sparrow  10

White-throated Sparrow  2

Song Sparrow  1

Swamp Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  2     Heard

Eastern Meadowlark  1

Orchard Oriole  1

Baltimore Oriole  4

Red-winged Blackbird  1

Brown-headed Cowbird  1

Ovenbird  25

Black-and-white Warbler  2

Common Yellowthroat  20

American Redstart  1

Northern Parula  1

Yellow Warbler  1     Heard

Black-throated Blue Warbler  2

Yellow-rumped Warbler  2

Prairie Warbler  4     Heard

Black-throated Green Warbler  1

Northern Cardinal  5

Blue Grosbeak  1

Indigo Bunting  1