August Recap--Whitesbog Edition

Short-billed Dowitcher, Middle Bog

Even though I was at Whitesbog 30 out of 31 days, I did do some birding outside those friendly confines. Not much though. I successfully chased the Roseate Spoonbill down at Manahawkin early in the month. It subsequently relocated to Brig. We know this because of a tell-tale chip in its bill. Every day I get eBird rare bird alerts telling me the spoonbill continues at the dogleg but that bird is dead to me. I also made a couple of trips to the BC Fairgrounds, one of which was another successful chase for my year Upland Sandpiper. The other two year birds for the month were found at Whitesbog.

I made one trip to Tuckerton where the highlight for me was finding a Brown Pelican perched upon a piling where Tree Swallows nest earlier in the season. Nice to see a multi use facility down there.

I also added a Wawa bird this month. Yes, I keep a list of all the birds I've seen at Wawas. This month, across the street from the BC Fairgrounds a Cattle Egret was spending time in a farm field. Unfortunately, there was no place to pull over as it was on the corner of Rt 206 and Jobstown Road, a very busy intersection. But there is a Wawa across the highway, so I pulled in there, walked toward the front of the parking lot and was able to see the Cattle Egret in flight as it came over the road. 

Today I started out at Reeves Bogs, mostly because I wanted to see how bad the latest blowout is there. It's big, but because the two thirds of that trail is overgrown and leads to a yet another blow out (this one quite old), it doesn't really change my normal route. I found 13 Great Egrets feeding in the inadvertently drawn down bog there, so now I know where all the egrets we use to see at Whitesbog are. 

I made two trips around the Middle Bog after my stint at Reeves and surprised myself by adding species #104--a Peregrine Falcon which was stirring up the peeps. I expected to see the Merlin which has been dining well on shorebirds this month but this bird was huge in comparison and once it landed at the edge of the bog the facial markings were obvious. 

Because I can, I added up the hours spent and miles covered at Whitesbog this month: 160 hours, 145 miles. I could have walked to Northern NJ and back. Almost an entire week out of the month was spent there. I guess this is called doing what you love. 

For the month, birding only BuCoOcCo, I had 123 species:

Species                 Location
Canada Goose  Whitesbog
Wood Duck  Whitesbog
Mallard  Whitesbog
American Black Duck  Whitesbog
Green-winged Teal  Whitesbog
Bufflehead  Whitesbog
Wild Turkey  35 Sunset Rd
Rock Pigeon  Whitesbog
Mourning Dove  Whitesbog
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  Whitesbog
Common Nighthawk  Whitesbog
Eastern Whip-poor-will  35 Sunset Rd
Chimney Swift  Whitesbog
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  35 Sunset Rd
Clapper Rail  Great Bay Blvd
Semipalmated Plover  Whitesbog
Killdeer  Whitesbog
Upland Sandpiper  BC Fairgrounds
Stilt Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Sanderling  Whitesbog
Baird's Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Least Sandpiper  Whitesbog
White-rumped Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Buff-breasted Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Pectoral Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Semipalmated Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Short-billed Dowitcher  Whitesbog
Wilson's Snipe  Whitesbog
Wilson's Phalarope  Whitesbog
Spotted Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Solitary Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Greater Yellowlegs  Whitesbog
Lesser Yellowlegs  Whitesbog
Laughing Gull  Whitesbog
Herring Gull  Whitesbog
Great Black-backed Gull  Great Bay Blvd
Gull-billed Tern  Whitesbog
Caspian Tern  Whitesbog
Forster's Tern  Great Bay Blvd
Double-crested Cormorant  Whitesbog
Brown Pelican  Great Bay Blvd
Great Blue Heron  Whitesbog
Great Egret  Whitesbog
Snowy Egret  Manahawkin WMA
Little Blue Heron  Whitesbog
Tricolored Heron  Great Bay Blvd
Cattle Egret  Columbus Wawa
Green Heron  Whitesbog
Black-crowned Night-Heron  Whitesbog
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  Great Bay Blvd
Glossy Ibis  Manahawkin WMA
Roseate Spoonbill  Manahawkin WMA
Black Vulture  Whitesbog
Turkey Vulture  Whitesbog
Osprey  Whitesbog
Northern Harrier  Whitesbog
Cooper's Hawk  Whitesbog
Bald Eagle  Whitesbog
Red-shouldered Hawk  Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk  BC Fairgrounds
Eastern Screech-Owl  Whitesbog
Belted Kingfisher  Whitesbog
Red-bellied Woodpecker  Whitesbog
Downy Woodpecker  35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker  Whitesbog
Northern Flicker  Whitesbog
American Kestrel  BC Fairgrounds
Merlin  Whitesbog
Peregrine Falcon  Whitesbog
Eastern Wood-Pewee  35 Sunset Rd
Eastern Phoebe  Whitesbog
Great Crested Flycatcher  Whitesbog
Eastern Kingbird  Whitesbog
White-eyed Vireo  Whitesbog
Red-eyed Vireo  Whitesbog
Blue Jay  35 Sunset Rd
American Crow  35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow  Whitesbog
Common Raven  Whitesbog
Carolina Chickadee  Whitesbog
Tufted Titmouse  Whitesbog
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  Whitesbog
Purple Martin  Whitesbog
Tree Swallow  Whitesbog
Bank Swallow  Whitesbog
Barn Swallow  Whitesbog
White-breasted Nuthatch  35 Sunset Rd
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  Whitesbog
House Wren  Whitesbog
Carolina Wren  35 Sunset Rd
European Starling  Whitesbog
Gray Catbird  Whitesbog
Brown Thrasher  Whitesbog
Northern Mockingbird  BC Fairgrounds
Eastern Bluebird  35 Sunset Rd
American Robin  Whitesbog
Cedar Waxwing  Whitesbog
House Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd
House Finch  Whitesbog
American Goldfinch  Whitesbog
Chipping Sparrow  Whitesbog
Field Sparrow  Whitesbog
Seaside Sparrow  Great Bay Blvd
Song Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd
Swamp Sparrow  Whitesbog
Eastern Towhee  Whitesbog
Bobolink  Whitesbog
Orchard Oriole  Whitesbog
Baltimore Oriole  Whitesbog
Red-winged Blackbird  Whitesbog
Brown-headed Cowbird  Whitesbog
Common Grackle  Whitesbog
Boat-tailed Grackle  Great Bay Blvd
Ovenbird  Whitesbog
Black-and-white Warbler  Whitesbog
Prothonotary Warbler  Whitesbog
Common Yellowthroat  Whitesbog
Hooded Warbler  Great Bay Blvd
Yellow Warbler  Whitesbog
Pine Warbler  35 Sunset Rd
Prairie Warbler  Whitesbog
Northern Cardinal  Whitesbog
Blue Grosbeak  Whitesbog

Green Heron, Whitesbog

The Whitesbog 100 Challenge Redux

Baird's Sandpiper

By the middle of the month I thought perhaps I'd set the bar too low. I was already at 95 species for the month at Whitesbog and it looked like 100 was an easy target. But then there was a fallow week where it was the same shorebirds every day--even the rarities like White-rumped Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, or Stilt Sandpiper, were repeating themselves.

It wasn't until the remnants of Hurricane Henri blew easterly winds into the Pine Barrens that things started to pick up with the arrival of a Wilson's Phalarope. More exciting to me was the arrival of three species that I'd never seen at Whitesbog. First there was the Sanderling that was way off course from the beaches the same day as the phalarope. Then there was a Prothonotary Warbler (& #100) that flew into the cedars behind the parking area noticed by bird magnet Scott Barnes. Always stand close to Scott Barnes is my motto. The other was the duo of Baird's Sandpipers that appeared in the Lower Bog for a few hours the next day. Over the weekend I added Buff-breasted Sandpiper and a Baltimore Oriole to bring the total up to 103. 

Tomorrow is the last day of the month and I'll probably stop by the bogs but I don't plan to devote all my birding time to them. Still the possibility of adding new species but 103 is short of last year's 105. What did I miss? Great Horned Owl stands out to me because I was there quite a few days pre-light listening. I did hear one on on 'Opening Day' which was July 31. Last year we also had Cliff Swallows, Blue-winged Teals, and a Broad-winged Hawk. And a Ruff. And American Golden-Plover. 

But this year there was Biff the Bufflehead staying into August and for the first 12 days of the month one or two immature Black-crowned Night-Herons, very unusual for the spot. So it evens out. The point is that Whitesbog, given enough time and coverage, produces a lot of interesting birding days. The two drawn-down bogs aren't all that large so very often you can really study the shorebirds up close.  I have finally gotten to the point where I am confident in my identification of White-rumped Sandpiper because all month there have been one, two, or three in the bogs and close enough to study the field marks in detail. And, as someone observed, while there are a lot of species (a dozen shorebirds species every day in two bogs is pretty good) there aren't thousands of peeps to pick through. There are 30 Semi Sands and 20 Leasts and somewhere in there you're going to find the White-rumped and anything else is going to stick out nicely only a dozen yards away. And without the heat shimmer I might add. And without the greenheads. 

The Whitesbog List for August 2021:

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
American Black Duck
Green-winged Teal
Bufflehead
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Common Nighthawk
Eastern Whip-poor-will
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Stilt Sandpiper
Sanderling
Baird's Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Wilson's Phalarope
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Little Blue Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk
Eastern Screech-Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Merlin
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Common Raven
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
White-breasted Nuthatch
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
House Wren
Carolina Wren
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Bobolink
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Ovenbird
Black-and-white Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Whitesbog 8/28--Buff-breasted Sandpiper

After a week of exceedingly hot weather, it was overcast, cool, and blustery out on the bogs this morning. Perfect weather to drop in some shorebirds. When dawn broke (I'd been there since 5:15 trying unsuccessfully for Great Horned Owl and "only" hearing whip-poor-wills and a screech owl) there weren't many though in either of the drawn-down bogs. But the pattern seems to be that over the course of the morning the flocks build up, flying in from the east as they look for a place to settle in for the day. 

Jim arrived just at dawn so we got our walk in while we waited for the bogs to attract some birds. I guess the most interesting birds we saw as we walk around the village, the Lower Meadow, and the Triangle Field, were an influx of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers and the Common Raven croaking overhead. Aside from that, it was the usual "tweety" birds and none of them in particularly big numbers. 

By the time we were heading out of the village the winds were picking up, it felt to me from out of the west, and the skies looked ominous, though the radar showed no rain in the vicinity. Back on the dam between the Middle & Lower Bogs we met Tom who had the usual assortment of expected shorebirds, though there was an unusually high number of White-rumped Sandpipers (4 that we could see in one scan sweep). 

For the last week or so there has also been a Green-winged Teal hanging with the fluctuating Mallard flock, distinguished only by size up until today when there were two occasionally flashing the traffic light green on the wings. Otherwise, in eclipse, they are just a duck sp. Okay, a small duck sp. 

Eventually, it seems, if you hang around long enough staring at the shallow pools, the mud, and the grass, something other than a peep or a yellowlegs will miraculously appear and finally today, after about an hour of scoping, Tom found a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. We never saw it come in. (And when it disappeared around noon, we never saw it fly out.) The bird was at first in at the edge of the water but soon flew into the short grass at the eastern end of the bog. No matter where we stood when we circled the bog, it was always halfway out, too far for me, at least, to get more than a doc shot. We circled the bog partly to investigate one curious sandpiper that had an injured leg and was hopping around as it fed. Because the bill seemed longer than a Semi Sand's, it had the potential to be a Western Sandpiper, but none of the other field marks, after extensive study, were showing so we had to let it go as an enfeebled Semipalmated Sandpiper. Later, after I left some other birders who had come for the now absent Buffy found a Western Sandpiper, presumably able to use both legs since none of their notes indicate a limp. 

Buff-breasted Sandpiper is one of the birds I obsessively search for at Whitesbog--it means I don't have to make myself miserable searching the sod farms of Monmouth County for a year bird. American Golden-Plover is also in that category. Last year I found them both in the same day. This year I will continue to circle the bogs until I do--or they get filled. 

For the day, 51 species. Usually the sunrise over the Upper Bog is quite a picture. Today, the darkness just turned to a light shade of gray. 

Canada Goose  6

Mallard  5

Green-winged Teal  2

Mourning Dove  5

Easter Whip-poor-will 2

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2

Semipalmated Plover  3

Killdeer  2

Least Sandpiper  10

White-rumped Sandpiper  4    

Buff-breasted Sandpiper  1    

Pectoral Sandpiper  1

Semipalmated Sandpiper  47

Spotted Sandpiper  2

Greater Yellowlegs  3

Lesser Yellowlegs  10

Gull-billed Tern  1

Green Heron  4

Turkey Vulture  1

Cooper's Hawk  1

Bald Eagle  1

Eastern Screech-Owl 1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1

Downy Woodpecker  1

Hairy Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  1

Eastern Wood-Pewee  2

Eastern Phoebe  1

Great Crested Flycatcher  1

Eastern Kingbird  2

Blue Jay  1

American Crow  5

Common Raven  1

Tufted Titmouse  2

Purple Martin  30

Tree Swallow  50

Barn Swallow  5

White-breasted Nuthatch  1

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  7

Carolina Wren  1

European Starling  6

Gray Catbird  8

Brown Thrasher  1

Eastern Bluebird  3

American Robin  1

House Finch  7

Song Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  2

Red-winged Blackbird  20

Common Yellowthroat  2

Northern Cardinal  1

Whitesbog 8/24--Baird's Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpipers

I got a "late" start today, arriving on the bogs at about 7:15. Already there were 3 birders on the dam between the Middle & Lower Bogs, staring intently into the Lower. "They must have something good," I said to myself and just as I pulled into the de facto parking area the alert went off: 2 Baird's Sandpipers ...Lower Bog.  This was doubly good. First of all, Baird's is a rare sandpiper anywhere in NJ so to have a pair in Whitesbog is an event and secondly, Baird's is a real hard bird (at least for me) to positively identify, so to have some expert eyes on it was a relief. And perhaps trebly good, because it showed that the grass emerging from the mud was starting to attract the grasspipers.  

I hoofed it double time down to the dam and had a hard time finding the birds until they were kindly put into my scope for me. They were very far away in the NE corner of the bog but obvious in the strong morning light. There were also a few Least Sandpipers in their vicinity for size and color comparison. 

The pictures I took were unsatisfactory. I hoped that later, like the phalarope on Sunday, they would move in closer. When I made my second loop my friend and I did find one very close in the Middle Bog. Like the phalarope, they were moving around. I suppose because it was a weekday the place didn't get as mobbed as it did Sunday--of the 4 birders who I talked to, though, it was lifer for two of them. Later in the afternoon, the two Baird's were together again, and closer, in the Lower Bog, more or less where the phalarope was last seen on Sunday.

Other notable sights were my first Wilson's Snipe at Whitesbog this year, three Gull-billed Terns, an adult and two begging juveniles, and another Merlin Murder in the Middle Bog, this time of a Semipalmated Sandpiper. 

There's still at least a week to go to get more grasspipers and perhaps something even exotic. I don't know how long the bogs will stay drawn down. I spoke to the farm briefly this morning and he indicated that he certainly didn't need the water this year, so perhaps the season will extend into September. Hard to say. 

Post-Storm Birding at Whitesbog 8/22

Wilson's Phalarope

Hurricane Henri's storm track looked ideal: while its Cone of Uncertainty was well away from the Jersey coast, its winds still held the promise of blowing some interesting birds inland where they would look for a safe place to land--a place, say, like Whitesbog. So this morning a number of the regular bog stalwarts could be found shouldering theirs scope in the light rain and disappointingly light breeze, circling the Middle and Lower Bogs. Henri may have been a problem up north but in Burlco it was just a rainy day. 

Overnight 2 1/2 inches of rain had transformed the Middle Bog into more of a pond than mud flats, while the Lower Bog had many more muddy pools than yesterday. Interestingly, most of the shorebirds were in the Lower Bog, which is notorious for being "dead" once the other bog gets drawn down. But the only "interesting" birds for the first few hours were a Green-winged Teal and a fairly large group of Stilt Sandpipers. I "needed" the teal for my Whitesbog 100, and most of the other guys (Shari calls us the Bog Boys) "needed" the stilts, but it was a bit of a letdown not to have something with a little more pizzazz come in from the coast. 

Close to noon we began to break up with Tom leaving first though admonishing us to call him if anything really good should fly in. He was almost the sacrificial birder, because as four of us were standing around at the parking spot, talking about this and that, Scott saw a small group of shorebirds fly in--yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpiper. They landed on the far shore of the Middle Bog and Matt, who still had his scope had said, "One of them is a phalarope." Break out the scopes again. Just as all four of us got on the bird it and the yellowlegs took flight to the Lower Bog. Tom was contacted and we made our way to the dike between the two bogs where we quickly relocated the phalarope which turned out to be a Wilson's Phalarope, a very good Burlco (& Jersey) bird indeed. Tom, who hadn't gone far, made it back and got on the bird. Then the alert was sent out and within a half hour birders started to show up. The first two were able to see the phalarope, but I believe that everyone after that had no luck because it just disappeared. No one saw it fly out of the bog, yet no one could find it in either bog. The bogs aren't that big that 4 or 5 people can't survey them thoroughly pretty quickly, yet it was gone. 

Scott, Jim, and I got back our vehicles and saw coming up the road about 30 jeeps. This is why I don't usually go to Whitesbog on Sundays--literally too much traffic. The bastards wouldn't let me pull out so I took the little used cross dike, narrow and with grass higher than my hood, with Scott following and was just passing Union Pond when I got a text from Jim: They have a Sanderling.

Can't leave this place. I pulled over, told Scott (who "needed" it for his Burlco list) and off we went again to the cross dike where the big white sandpiper was busily feeding in a shallow pool. Where did this come from? Sanderlings are obviously exceedingly rare in Burlco (though two weeks ago, on another rain soaked morning we had 5 of them make a touch and go in the Middle Bog) but that's what you hope for in storm birding. 

I spent just under 7 hours there without getting away from the two bogs, which is unusual for me but the birding action and the company was so good that I just couldn't leave to visit my other spots. Tomorrow for that. But because I didn't spend time in the village or behind Union Pond, the list looks light for the hours spent. 

35 species

Mallard  14

American Black Duck  2

Green-winged Teal  1     Lower bog with Mallards, moved with them to Middle Bog.

Mourning Dove  2

Chimney Swift  2

Semipalmated Plover  20

Killdeer  4

Stilt Sandpiper  8     Middle Bog with LEYE then moved to lower bog.

Sanderling  1    

Least Sandpiper  25

White-rumped Sandpiper  3     Lower Bog crossed wingtips

Pectoral Sandpiper  4

Wilson's Phalarope  1    

Spotted Sandpiper  2

Solitary Sandpiper  1

Greater Yellowlegs  4

Lesser Yellowlegs  27

Herring Gull  13     Flyover

Great Blue Heron  2

Great Egret  2

Green Heron  6

Bald Eagle  1

Red-shouldered Hawk  1

Merlin  1

Eastern Kingbird  1

American Crow  1

Purple Martin  100     Tree in Union Pond

Tree Swallow  25

Bank Swallow  1

Barn Swallow  5

European Starling  19

Gray Catbird  1

American Goldfinch  1

Song Sparrow  3

Bobolink  2

Phalarope collision with yellowlegs

BC Fairgrounds 8/8--Upland Sandpiper

Upland Sandpiper just to the right of the tall grass

Bad weather birding: I usually avoid it but today I found myself predawn at Whitesbog in a driving rain with Jim and Matt because the forecast was for an end to precipitation shortly after sunrise and the hope was that the combination of NE winds and rain would drop some goodies into the bogs. It took a while longer for  the rain to stop and the hope to be fulfilled but both occurred around 7 o'clock when another birder there alerted us to the presence of 5 Sanderlings.  

"Sanderlings?" you say, "Sanderlings are worth a rain-soaked morning?" Yes, because while they're common of course 20+ miles east of Whitesbog, running like little wind-up toys along the edges of the receding waves, they are exceedingly rare in the Pine Barrens with only the occasional singleton showing up in odd locations like the Burlco Fairgrounds a few years ago, or drained Chatsworth Lake this spring. Five breaks the record by far. Fortunately, we all got decent looks at the birds because, as if realizing that the sand bar they were on in no way resembled the ocean, they were gone before we could put out an alert that we would have had to instantly withdraw. 

The rest of the morning was spent in conversation and scanning from the dike between the Upper and Middle Bogs and while no new shorebirds showed up, we did have quite a few flyovers of Laughing Gulls, Herring Gulls, and 3 Caspian Terns, all adding to my cumulative Whitesbog month list. Blustery and cold, it sure didn't feel like August. 

After we'd squeezed all the entertainment value out of the bogs, Jim and Matt left to go to look at the Fairgrounds and I spent a little more time kicking around Union Pond and Ditch Meadow. I was just about to hit the exit road when I got a text from Jim that they'd found an Upland Sandpiper at the fairgrounds. There aren't many places to find Uppies in NJ, especially now that the annual Lakehurst Naval Base trips are in the past, so when one plunks down fairly close to you, you go. 

Jim and Matt were still there, the sun was out, the wind had stopped, and the bird was distant but viewable in via scope. Upland Sandpiper seems to be semi-regular at the Fairgrounds, but it's appearance is dependent upon how much of the fields are mown and when. I was there last week and they were mowing the fields then so searching for an Uppie would not have been productive, but given a quiet weekend, one showed up. Easy to find--just look for a clod of dirt that eventually moves. 

Manahawkin WMA 8/2--Roseate Spoonbill

There aren't many birds that would get me to abandon Whitesbog while the bogs are drawn down (FOMO), but a Roseate Spoonbill is definitely one of them.  And, since I stubbornly refuse to subscribe to most of the rare bird alerts (it's a signal to noise ratio problem), it was simply dumb luck that I found out about it. I was standing on the cross dike between the Middle & Upper Bogs with Scott and Debra when Scott got the alert that there was a spoonbill in Manahawkin. "I gotta go," I said half excited, half dreading the 40 minute drive down. But I figured the bird would stick and a big pink wading bird will usually stand out even from a distance. 

Of course Scott and Debra also went down and we added to the crowd of 20+ birders already there. Stafford Avenue has probably never had that much traffic on it. Cars were strewn everywhere. 

The spoonbill was easy to see in the shallow pool from a little hill at the trail head, but impossible to photograph with all the phragmites and vegetation blowing back and forth. Fortunately, I was wearing my permethrin pants and socks so I plunged into the waist-high grass--Manahawkin is mowed for the hunters in the fall, the birders they don't care about. My only fear was that I would flush the bird and ruin it for the others but I found an opening far enough away that afforded a decent angle and was still distant enough not to perturb the bird. The results, as you can see, are not going to win any awards. The bird eventually flew to the far shore of the pool (not my fault) where it was not blocked by green stuff but smaller in the photos. And I seem to have escaped tick-free.

A very cool county bird, one that I have chased a couple of times with no luck--once, at Island Beach on a hot weekend and once at an obscure marina down at Tuckerton. 

And tomorrow: Back to Whitesbog--the Middle Bog is drawing down.