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