November Wrap-up--A Few New Year Birds

I have always said that November & February are my least favorite months--cold, dreary, gray. I still feel that way about February, but what with climate change, November doesn't seem so bad anymore. Rarely this month did I have to wear a heavy coat and I went gloveless most of the time.  But climate change means that the ducks don't have to move south and that, coupled with the mysterious dearth of land birds, has meant that finding a place with a lot of species has been a chore. I went to all my regular spots this month and some less frequently visited spots and then some places I only hit once or twice a year. Nowhere, with the exception of Brig, had much of interest. Whitesbog, where we yearn in the summer for the bogs to be drawn down, has not been able to attract the usual Tundra Swan flock because, ironically, the bogs remain drawn down, with only Union Pond back to its winter level. 

I would have to say that the bird that gave me the biggest boot this month was one in our backyard. One afternoon, when I glanced up at the feeders, I saw a fairly big bird with a yellow breast and wing bars and no, it wasn't the much prayed-for Evening Grosbeak. It flew away fairly quickly. I thought maybe it was a weird House Finch--I think I remember reading that sometimes they can have an orange cast instead of red. I told Shari and she said, "Sounds like a Baltimore Oriole." 

Baltimore Oriole at our feeder

In our 11 years here, we have had one oriole, once. This area just doesn't attract them--too many pines I suppose. And while I know they are attracted to jelly feeders, we don't have one and I have never seen one at a seed feeder. Nevertheless, when the bird reappeared, Shari was correct, it was a Baltimore Oriole, either a female or a first year male, I'm not really certain, but it was a treat to see on an overcast November 24th. 

For the month I had 119 species, which, checking eBird, is slightly down from the previous two years. Three year birds--the Barred Owl early in the month and the two birds at Brig recently recounted. I made a trip up to Assunpink on Sunday to see the Trumpeter Swans that have returned for the 10th year running. Talk about site loyalty!

Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean

Species            Location
Snow Goose  Double Trouble SP
Brant  Hideaway Cove
Canada Goose  Colliers Mills WMA
Mute Swan  Island Beach SP
Trumpeter Swan  Assunpink WMA
Tundra Swan  Whitesbog
Wood Duck  Whitesbog
Northern Shoveler  Manasquan Reservoir IBA
Gadwall  Holly Lake
American Wigeon  Holly Lake
Mallard  Golden Drive
American Black Duck  Cattus Island County Park
Northern Pintail  Brig
Green-winged Teal  Whitesbog
Redhead  Island Beach SP
Ring-necked Duck  Whitesbog
Greater Scaup  Brig
Lesser Scaup  Brick Township Reservior
Surf Scoter  Island Beach SP
White-winged Scoter  Island Beach SP
Black Scoter  Island Beach SP
Long-tailed Duck  Island Beach SP
Bufflehead  Cattus Island County Park
Common Goldeneye  Brig
Hooded Merganser  Lake Barnegat
Red-breasted Merganser  Island Beach SP
Ruddy Duck  Cattus Island County Park
Pied-billed Grebe  Reeves Bogs
Rock Pigeon  New Egypt
Mourning Dove  35 Sunset Rd
American Coot  Manasquan Reservoir IBA
American Oystercatcher  Great Bay Blvd
Black-bellied Plover  Island Beach SP
Killdeer  Whitesbog
Sanderling  Island Beach SP
Dunlin  Brig
Purple Sandpiper  Island Beach SP
Least Sandpiper  Brig
Long-billed Dowitcher  Brig
Wilson's Snipe  Cranberry Bogs
Greater Yellowlegs  Whitesbog
Lesser Yellowlegs  Whitesbog
Bonaparte's Gull  Island Beach SP
Laughing Gull  Cattus Island County Park
Ring-billed Gull  Manasquan Reservoir IBA
Herring Gull  35 Sunset Rd
Lesser Black-backed Gull  Island Beach SP
Great Black-backed Gull  Island Beach SP
Royal Tern  Island Beach SP
Red-throated Loon  Island Beach SP
Common Loon  Island Beach SP
Northern Gannet  Island Beach SP
Double-crested Cormorant  Tilton Point
American White Pelican  Brig
Brown Pelican  Island Beach SP
Great Blue Heron  Whitesbog
Great Egret  Island Beach SP
Snowy Egret  Waretown
Black Vulture  35 Sunset Rd
Turkey Vulture  Whitesbog
Northern Harrier  Island Beach SP
Sharp-shinned Hawk  Island Beach SP
Cooper's Hawk  Colliers Mills WMA
Bald Eagle  35 Sunset Rd
Red-shouldered Hawk  Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk  New Egypt
Barred Owl  Jumping Brook Preserve
Belted Kingfisher  Whitesbog
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  Jumping Brook Preserve
Red-bellied Woodpecker  Whitesbog
Downy Woodpecker  Whitesbog
Hairy Woodpecker  Whitesbog
Northern Flicker  Whitesbog
American Kestrel  Pointville Rd
Peregrine Falcon  Island Beach SP
Eastern Phoebe  Jumping Brook Preserve
Blue Jay  35 Sunset Rd
American Crow  35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow  Waretown
Common Raven  Whitesbog
Carolina Chickadee  35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse  35 Sunset Rd
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  Whitesbog
Golden-crowned Kinglet  Whitesbog
Red-breasted Nuthatch  35 Sunset Rd
White-breasted Nuthatch  35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper  Whitesbog
Winter Wren  Whitesbog
Carolina Wren  35 Sunset Rd
European Starling  Colliers Mills WMA
Gray Catbird  Cattus Island County Park
Northern Mockingbird  Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Bluebird  Colliers Mills WMA
Hermit Thrush  Whitesbog
American Robin  Whitesbog
House Sparrow  Tilton Point
House Finch  35 Sunset Rd
American Goldfinch  35 Sunset Rd
Snow Bunting  Island Beach SP
Chipping Sparrow  Double Trouble SP
Field Sparrow  Jumping Brook Preserve
Fox Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd
Dark-eyed Junco  35 Sunset Rd
White-throated Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd
Saltmarsh Sparrow  Brig
Savannah Sparrow  Colliers Mills WMA
Song Sparrow  Whitesbog
Swamp Sparrow  Whitesbog
Eastern Towhee  Whitesbog
Eastern Meadowlark  Colliers Mills WMA
Baltimore Oriole  35 Sunset Rd
Red-winged Blackbird  Tilton Point
Rusty Blackbird  Jumping Brook Preserve
Common Grackle  Golden Drive
Boat-tailed Grackle  Great Bay Blvd
Common Yellowthroat  Whitesbog
Yellow-rumped Warbler  Whitesbog
Black-throated Gray Warbler  Brig
Northern Cardinal  35 Sunset Rd

Editing Doggerel

 

This sign is from Whitesbog, but I saw one with the same sentiment in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, so I suppose it is fairly common wherever outdoor weddings are held. I first noticed the sign this summer leaning up again one of the buildings in Whitesbog Village and whenever I'd see it the last few months, I'd notice that something about it nagged at me. Today I realized what it was: The meter is off.

This little piece of doggerel is written in, harkening back to my English major days, dactylic trimeter, which is one stressed beat followed by two unstressed beats:

Pick a seat

Not a side

You are loved

by the

Groom and Bride

The fourth line is missing a beat, a word. The meter would be filled out by "both."

by both the

It's a little thing (maybe) but it's the kind of thing that bothers me because it seems obvious (and easily fixed) and yet is wrong in at least two places more than 100 miles apart. And "both" would also make the verse stronger by emphasizing the unity of the Groom and Bride. The kind of things I worry about when the birding is slow:

Of doggerel

I am no fan.

At least I know

It has to scan.

Brig 11/26--American White Pelican, Black-throated Gray Warbler (Lousy Pictures Included)

For over a week a couple of nice birds have been seen at Brig, one of them which I'd never seen in New Jersey. I held off going down, knowing that Shari & I would be on Scott's trip today. I hoped both species would stay and, happily, both did, and even more happily, both were fairly stress-free. 

Black-throated Gray Warbler

When Shari & I arrived at 8:45 at the parking lot, a birder asked us if she was in the right place, because she couldn't find the group. I told her they were probably looking for the Black-throated Gray Warbler that had been hanging out on the Leeds Eco-trail for nigh over a week now. As we were parking the car, we saw the group coming up the road with satisfied looks on their faces. A lot of folks hadn't seen the bird yet, so a big part of the group turned around and walked onto the boardwalk where the bird was flitting from tree to groundsel to phragmites, active as warblers are wont to be. A western species that occasionally pops up on the East Coast, the last one in New Jersey occurred a few years ago while we were in Australia, so this was our first chance to see one in the state. The last one that we saw was out west, with Scott, in Idaho. I tried to take pictures, but the bird was hopping around as if the vegetation was on fire. Amazingly, one of my random shots got the bird in a corner of the frame. The yellow dot in front of the eye is a good field mark, reassuring you that you're not looking at a Black-and-white Warbler. 

This time of year, the impoundments of Brig are given over to much duckage (a word I learned from Scott) and while there was a good variety of ducks, there weren't huge flocks of them. Probably the two most interesting ducks were seen early on in the Gull Pond, both hens: a Common Goldeneye and a Greater Scaup. There were a few coots, a few swans, some Canada Geese, but surprisingly, no Brant, and the big flock of Snow Geese that some saw in the air I missed completely. 

The sky was "infinite blue" and the leaders spent a lot of time staring up into it, trying to find a Golden Eagle. There was apparently at least one good candidate, but as I said in Shari in the car, "Even if they find one, I'll never see it." When I stare into the sky looking for hawks, it is hard to separate them out from the floaters in my vitreous jelly. So, unless a bird is really low, like some of the Bald Eagles that flew right over us, or, even better, perched on a tree top, I don't spend a lot of effort trying to find those high in the sky raptors. 

American White Pelican lumps

The other species I was hoping we'd get today was the flock of American White Pelicans that have been there for almost two weeks. I've seen white pelicans at Brig before, but only single birds. The usual count for the current flock is 8, though today I was only able to count six "big white lumps" in the eastern pool. At least when we saw them again, on the north dike, one of the birds was stretching out and we got the full profile with huge yellow pouch. American White Pelicans are laughably large. How large? I remember in Florida seeing both Brown Pelicans and White Pelicans resting on a sandbar. By comparison the Brown Pelicans looked like Mourning Doves next to the white ones. 

There was not much going on in terms of land birds today which seems to be the theme of the autumn, though a walk through the fields around the Visitor's Center while my companions were talking about hockey and soccer did produce some of the more common tweety birds. For the trip I had 49 species which is a little light for this time of year. But two year birds this late in the year has to rate as a success. 

Canada Goose  50
Mute Swan  4
Tundra Swan  3
Wood Duck  4
Northern Shoveler  20
Gadwall  5
American Wigeon  50
Mallard  20
American Black Duck  10
Northern Pintail  40
Green-winged Teal  1
Ring-necked Duck  8
Greater Scaup  1
Bufflehead  1
Common Goldeneye  1     Gull pond. Hen
Ruddy Duck  5
Mourning Dove  1
American Coot  5
Black-bellied Plover  10
Dunlin  1000
Least Sandpiper  4     South dike. Small shorebirds running along mud
Long-billed Dowitcher  1
Greater Yellowlegs  7
Ring-billed Gull  30
Herring Gull  20
Double-crested Cormorant  1
American White Pelican  6     
Great Blue Heron  4
Great Egret  7
Black Vulture  5
Turkey Vulture  1
Northern Harrier  3
Bald Eagle  4
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  3
American Crow  5
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard
Tufted Titmouse  2
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Robin  1     Heard
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Saltmarsh Sparrow  3     South dike
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1     Heard
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Black-throated Gray Warbler  1     
Northern Cardinal  2

A Half-hour on Rome Pond 11/22

Red-shouldered Hawk

I spent the morning walking around the Ocean County side of Whitesbog, where the recent dearth of passerines continued; I considered myself lucky to come across a little pocket of bluebirds and chickadees by the Antrim bogs. Walking across what used to be Otter Pond and is now Otter Meadow, I saw not a single bird, sparrow, raptor, corvid, nothing. 

My drive out takes me past Rome Pond on the Burlco side. When I was coming in this morning there was a small flock of geese in the shallow water and one Wood Duck along with some robins. They all flushed when "The Paperboy" in his blue pickup rumbled by. But I was thinking, as I made the turn onto the road that runs along the pond, that if I was asked about Rome Pond (the name derives from the time when Whitesbog had seasonal pickers, mostly Italians, who stayed in two encampments, Rome and Florence), I would say that most of the time there was nothing to see there, but once in a while some interesting birds do show up so it is always worth a hard look. If I could turn my thoughts into reality with regularity, I promise to use the power only for good. Because today was one of those days that Rome Pond was the best spot in Whitesbog. 

Wilson's Snipe

Eastern Meadowlark

I could see on the mud flats some robins and crows. The robins got up and flew and I saw why: perched in a tree at the pack was a beauty of a Red-shouldered Hawk. I also saw a bird with a long sharp beak that in the glare I took for a flicker, but, as I saw other birds moving through the mud, I hauled out the scope. The flicker turned out to be one of 4 Eastern Meadowlarks. While not rare bird for the county, they are exceedingly scarce at Whitesbog and I have never seen one on Rome Pond. I also found one Wilson's Snipe which didn't altogether surprise me since snipe is one of the "interesting" birds that occasionally show up on the pond, but also feeding with the meadowlarks was another icterid species, 4 Rusty Blackbirds.  

Luckily, there was no traffic on the road today or any heavy equipment going into the Fenwick Bogs, so I could scan for about a half hour without having to move the car. The crows came back after the hawk left and just as I was shouldering the scope, a Belted Kingfisher flew in. So, the most productive half-hour of the day came when I thought I was done and just happened to see some movement in the mud. 

Whitesbog 11/9--Return of the Tundra Swans

On Sunday, walking around Reeves Bog in the unseasonably warm weather (otherwise known as "hot"), my informant made a prediction: "As soon as that cold front pushes through on Tuesday, the swans will be back at Whitesbog." That seemed to me a little early, but I haven't been going to Whitebog for 50+ years like him. 

And of course, he was right. This morning, Union Pond (the only water available to them) had 6 Tundra Swans in it, 5 adults and one immature. Yesterday my friend said that there had been two. While Whitesbog is the best place to see Tundra Swans close up, it doesn't necessarily get the biggest numbers (Reeves gets a good number, as does Franklin Parker Preserve), and this year, with the Middle Bog still in a muddy state, there just isn't enough room for the big flocks that I was seeing a few years ago. Looking at my old lists, I see that I once had 101 birds there, and flocks of 60 to 80 were the norm. Back in the day, I'm told, the numbers were closer to 200. The last couple of years 20 to 40 has been the expected range. Hard to speculate as to why the numbers have decreased; most of the birds fly farther south and spend the winter on Chesapeake Bay, so our population fluctuation may be a blip in the numbers. 

However, a couple of years ago, one of the Burlco birders noted that immatures were scarce and since then we've been keeping an informal eye out for the grayish swans. It is possible that the birds that head to New Jersey have not been having successful breeding seasons and so there are fewer adults to make the cross-country trip. 

On the one hand, it's good to have these birds back; on the other, that's another signal that I better get used to being cold. 

  

Jumping Brook Preserve 11/8--Barred Owl

Omen, a prepared mind, or just coincidence? 

Yesterday, while I was walking on a rail trail in Forked River, I came upon a birder I hadn't seen in a while, riding her bike. For a few years in a row, I went to her house to see a Barred Owl that had taken up residence in a box her husband had built. Using a scope, we could see the owl pretty well without disturbing it. And that was how I'd get my county Barred Owl. 

Then, during the pandemic, I didn't go and after the pandemic, it didn't seem so urgent to see any one particular bird. She mentioned that she'd try to text me on the GroupMe app, but I, averse to social media, am not on it. 

This morning, as I was walking on the entrance trail to the Jumping Brook Preserve, I heard what I at first took to be dog barking back on Cranberry Canners Road, but then it sunk in to me that what I was hearing was a Barred Owl calling. I listened and again heard the Hoot-wa and again. I didn't get the classic Who Cooks for You, but I knew for sure that it wasn't a Great Horned Owl. Nice. Another patch bird for the site. 

Actually, I listed two other new birds for Jumping Brook today. At the back of the side bogs I came across a lone Rusty Blackbird, and in the reservoir at the back of the preserve I found a single drake Bufflehead. 

I always wear my muck boots at Jumping Brook because I never know what kind of condition the trails will be in. Lately, even though there hasn't been that much rain, the entrance trail is slightly flooded from an overflowing bog. This is the handiwork of beavers, who are chewing through the trees at a rapid rate. While I'm used to seeing trees chewed to a point at their base and toppled over, I had never come across a tree chewed up in the middle, like the photos below. Of course, it makes sense, since the inner bark of a tree is, along with leaves and twigs, the diet of a beaver, I'd just never seen it before. 

For the walk around the bogs, I only had 20 species (it has been very quiet of late), but the owl was a year bird and a treat. 

Wood Duck  3
Ring-necked Duck  2
Bufflehead  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Barred Owl  1     
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  3
Carolina Chickadee  2
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Northern Mockingbird  1     Cannery
Hermit Thrush  1
American Robin  1
Dark-eyed Junco  8
Savannah Sparrow  1
Rusty Blackbird  1