A Couple of Recent Rarities at Whitesbog

It's too bad we can't have someone stationed dawn to dusk at Whitesbog to catch the shorebird rarities, because it stands to reason that some are going unrecorded when we're not looking. Whitesbog gets a fair number of unexpected sandpipers and plovers, but they don't "stick." A couple of recent ones serve as examples.  

Wilson's Phalarope

I spent the morning at Whitesbog on Friday, concentrating on Union Pond which is very shallow due to drought--evaporation has exposed large areas of mud and sand. Union Pond has substituted nicely for the still full Middle Bog--usually the best birds on Union this time of year are Belted Kingfisher, and Purple Martins staging in the trees on 3 little islands. On Friday, I found most of the expected shorebirds, along with more than a dozen Great Egrets and the long-staying (very long-staying) immature Little Blue Herons. Satisfying, but unexciting. I went home, had lunch, started reading a book, when, around 4 o'clock, an alert popped up on my phone: Wilson's Phalarope on Union Pond. I know it wasn't there in the morning, so sometime between noon and 4 it "dropped in." I have the advantage of living only about 15 minutes from the bogs, so I put on my shoes, jumped in the car, and within a half hour had the bird in my scope. A couple of other birders saw the phalarope after I left, but when I returned Saturday morning it was, no surprise, gone. 

Whimbrel

This morning I got there late, after walking around Jumping Brook Preserve where the birding, unfortunately, has slowed down. At the parking spot I recognized a couple of the cars, and I saw guys scoping Union Pond, so I got my scope and started walking toward the SE corner of the pond. I was just making the turn on to the dam between Lower & Middle Bogs when my phone rang and pinged at the same time. I answered the call, and it was Jim, telling me that a Whimbrel had just landed on the mud flat in the pond. Whimbrel is very rare in Burlington County, rare inland anywhere in NJ, and it had never been recorded at Whitesbog until today. The "ping" was the alert for Whimbrel. I got to the pond edge and quickly got the bird in my scope. When Jim & Matt came around from the other side, 5 of us crept up the road to get a closer look at the bird. The bird was a young one since its bill was long and slightly curved, but not nearly as long or curved as you'd expect in an adult. The bird seemed unperturbed by our presence, even letting Jim and Matt creep past it so they could retrieve their scopes, but then, without warning, it started to get restless, called repeatedly and took flight over the Middle Bog heading east toward Ocean County. Maybe the bird had touched down for half an hour. My timing was perfect and totally inadvertent. As I think of it, my lifeline intersected with the Whimbrel's lifeline. Had the birding been more productive at Jumping Brook, I would have missed this bird (my 185th at Whitesbog) and I'd have been devastated. I felt bad for the couple of birders who'd, like me on Friday, run out of their houses when they saw the alert, but didn't have as fortunate an outcome as I did. 

So, the shorebird season at Whitesbog continues to be a good one despite not having the usual bogs drawn down--so far Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Western Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Stilt Sandpiper, plus the phalarope and Whimbrel have been seen since July 31. And now, due to the drought, Middle Bog will start to be drawn down, which should extend shorebird season well into September. Can't wait.