Manasquan River WMA 5/9--Blue-winged Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler

My psyche had skidded past disgust and was about to crash into self-loathing. For the 3rd time in a week I had spent hours circling the fields at Manasquan River WMA without even the hint of a Blue-winged Warbler.  This is supposed to be the place to get that warbler; any other bird you might come across there I have other, closer spots to check. And yet I couldn't find one. I played the song on my phone to get to get it fresh in my mind. "I'll never hear that," I told myself, "I can barely hear it on the phone." 

So there I stood in the far corner of the far field, head down, stymied, seething, giving up, ready to go home and watch deGrom pitch. And then I heard "Bzz bzz." I looked up, amazed I could hear such a soft sibilant sound. And upon looking up, I saw movement, and upon raising my binocular, I saw the bird, and it even stayed still for a moment for a half-assed photo. And thus, another demonstration of Zirlin's Second Law of Birding, to wit:

You will not see the bird until you have truly given up.

Earlier in the morning I witnessed the most peculiar behavior by a Cooper's Hawk. Walking along the northern side of the far field, I flushed a Coop out of a tree's low branches. It flew about 100 feet ahead and landed in a leafless bush or sapling. It then hung upside down, wing (you'll forgive the conflicting species expression) spread-eagled. I thought it was caught in brambles; I once saw that happen at Brig. I approached cautiously and the bird flapped around, seemingly helpless, but then, as if to demonstrate that the show was over, it simply let go of the branch with one claw and stood on the ground, staring balefully at me. I have no idea what was going on with the hawk and, as Wittgenstein said, if it could talk, I wouldn't understand it. 

A couple of other birders there had warblers and flycatchers I would have liked to have seen and/or heard, but I was happy to finally get what is supposed to be an "easy" bird. 

41 species

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2

Great Egret  1     Flyover

Turkey Vulture  9

Osprey  1

Cooper's Hawk  1       

Red-bellied Woodpecker  5

Great Crested Flycatcher  2     Heard

Eastern Kingbird  8

White-eyed Vireo  5

Red-eyed Vireo  3

Blue Jay  9

American Crow  6

Carolina Chickadee  6

Tufted Titmouse  1     Heard

Tree Swallow  10

White-breasted Nuthatch  1     Heard

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

House Wren  1

Gray Catbird  40

Brown Thrasher  1

Eastern Bluebird  2

Wood Thrush  4     Heard

American Robin  3

American Goldfinch  6

Chipping Sparrow  1

Field Sparrow  12

White-throated Sparrow  2

Eastern Towhee  1     Heard

Brown-headed Cowbird  7

Common Grackle  3

Ovenbird  15     Heard

Blue-winged Warbler  1

Common Yellowthroat  15

American Redstart  2

Magnolia Warbler  1

Black-throated Blue Warbler  1

Prairie Warbler  4

Black-throated Green Warbler  1

Northern Cardinal  6

Blue Grosbeak  1

Indigo Bunting  7