Island Beach SP 5/5--Blue-winged Teal, Veery, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Least Flycatcher
photo: © Steve Weiss

I told Shari this morning I was going to Island Beach, again and she said, "You must really like that place." I told her, "Not particularly, but that's where the birds are." I promised myself this year that I would try to make the trek out there more often and so far, the effort has paid off. It's helped that I've been lucky enough to be there at the same time that some very good birders are on the trails too. Today, as I arrived at Reed's Road, I saw Steve's vehicle and texted him. We met up at the bowl and while overall both the road and the bowl were fairly quiet, I racked up some nice year birds, including Rose-breasted Grosbeak (2 males, 1 female), Scarlet Tanager (female), Black-throated Blue Warbler (male), and a Veery (who knows). 

The best bird, though, in terms of degree of difficulty, a Least Flycatcher that Steve noticed and photographed, was only a state and county bird for me, since I had seen one last month in Mexico. The most satisfying species, for me, came as we walked the trail at Spizzle Creek, where Steve, peering through criss-crossing branches, found 2 Blue-winged Teal, a duck I have been looking for all year. And lucky to find them at that since, when Steve called over another birder to see them, they had drifted out of sight, either hard up against the near shore of the pool or else into the tall vegetation. I've probably passed them hidden a half dozen times this year, but today our life vectors intersected. 

Buffleheads were lingering at Spizzle Creek and are now considered "rare," and, most amusingly, the Iceland Gull, a species that once was impossible for me to find in county, was still loafing at the end of the Johnny Allen Cove trail. 

Not counting the birds I saw walking up the alley just outside the park waiting for the 8 o'clock entry, I had 61 species on the 3 trails we birded:

Brant  150
Blue-winged Teal  2   
Mallard  8
Bufflehead  6     
Black-bellied Plover  25     Spizzle
Dunlin  23     Spizzle
Least Sandpiper  35     Spizzle & Johnny Allen
Short-billed Dowitcher  5
Greater Yellowlegs  30
Willet  2
Lesser Yellowlegs  10     Spizzle
Laughing Gull  1
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  15
Iceland Gull  1     
Forster's Tern  3
Double-crested Cormorant  30
Great Egret  1
Snowy Egret  3
Little Blue Heron  1
Glossy Ibis  35
Osprey  15
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Merlin  3
Least Flycatcher  1     
Great Crested Flycatcher  1
Eastern Kingbird  2
White-eyed Vireo  6
Blue-headed Vireo  1
Warbling Vireo  1     Reed’s
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tree Swallow  2
Barn Swallow  2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  6
House Wren  1
Carolina Wren  1
Gray Catbird  50
Brown Thrasher  2
Northern Mockingbird  1
Veery  1    
American Robin  1
House Finch  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  2     Reed's
White-throated Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  2
Eastern Towhee  40
Baltimore Oriole  3
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
Ovenbird  2
Black-and-white Warbler  3
Common Yellowthroat  25
Northern Parula  1     Heard
Yellow Warbler  5
Black-throated Blue Warbler  1
Scarlet Tanager  1    
Northern Cardinal  2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  3