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