February--Short Month Wrap-up

Wilson's Snipe, Cranberry Bogs

Bald Eagles, New Egypt

At least dreary February is a short month. It's been a disappointment that a couple of my favorite places to walk, Whitesbog and Colliers Mills, have been devoid of birds, so I took to going to places I don't visit as much, trying, as I wrote the other day, to find at least as many species as I can see in our backyard. The Cranberry Bogs on Dover Road were good this month, especially with the Wilson's Snipe(s) in residence, and Jumping Brook Preserve, with the addition of a simple bridge over a breach in the dams became a much longer, and therefore potentially interesting, walk than previously. I went to the ocean a few times, Island Beach, Barnegat Lighthouse, Manasquan Inlet, but this ennui engulfs me almost as soon as I start to seawatch and the old Mississippi Fred McDowell song starts playing in my head..."You got to move, you got to move..."

For the month I listed 110 species, 4 less than last February, and added 11 species to the year list, two of which were rare--the Harris's Sparrow up in East Windsor and the Western Tanager around the block from here. 

Counties birded: Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean

Species   First Sighting
Brant   Mantoloking Bridge County Park
Canada Goose   Colliers Mills WMA
Mute Swan   Assunpink WMA
Trumpeter Swan   Assunpink WMA
Tundra Swan   Whitesbog
Wood Duck   Cranberry Bogs
Gadwall   Forsythe--Barnegat
Mallard   Ocean County Park
American Black Duck   Whitesbog
Northern Pintail   Manahawkin WMA
Green-winged Teal   Great Bay Blvd
Canvasback   Cedar Run Dock Rd
Ring-necked Duck   Colliers Mills WMA
Greater Scaup   Cedar Run Dock Rd
Lesser Scaup   Lake of the Lilies
Common Eider   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter   Graveling Point
Black Scoter   Island Beach SP
Long-tailed Duck   Graveling Point
Bufflehead   Lake Shenandoah County Park
Common Goldeneye   Graveling Point
Hooded Merganser   Ocean County Park
Common Merganser   Assunpink WMA
Red-breasted Merganser   Poplar St boat ramp
Ruddy Duck   Assunpink WMA
Wild Turkey   Jumping Brook Preserve
Pied-billed Grebe   Lake Shenandoah County Park
Horned Grebe   Cedar Run Dock Rd
Rock Pigeon   New Egypt
Mourning Dove   Colliers Mills WMA
American Coot   Lake of the Lilies
American Oystercatcher   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Killdeer   Colliers Mills WMA
Sanderling   Island Beach State Park A6
Dunlin   Graveling Point
Purple Sandpiper   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
American Woodcock   Crestwood Community Gardens
Wilson's Snipe   Cranberry Bogs
Greater Yellowlegs   Great Bay Blvd
Razorbill   Manasquan Inlet
Bonaparte's Gull   Manahawkin WMA
Ring-billed Gull   Lake Shenandoah County Park
Herring Gull   Ephraim P. Emson Preserve
Lesser Black-backed Gull   Island Beach SP
Great Black-backed Gull   Graveling Point
Red-throated Loon   Great Bay Blvd
Common Loon   Bay Pkwy
Northern Gannet   Manasquan Inlet
Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Double-crested Cormorant   Poplar St boat ramp
Great Blue Heron   Ocean County Park
Black Vulture   Whitesbog
Turkey Vulture   Wawa Rt 70 & CR 530
Northern Harrier   Cedar Run Dock Rd
Sharp-shinned Hawk   35 Sunset Rd
Cooper's Hawk   35 Sunset Rd
Bald Eagle   Whitesbog
Red-shouldered Hawk   New Egypt
Red-tailed Hawk   Lake Shenandoah County Park
Belted Kingfisher   Ocean County Park
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   35 Sunset Rd
Red-bellied Woodpecker   New Egypt
Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Northern Flicker   New Egypt
American Kestrel   Assunpink WMA
Merlin    New Egypt
Peregrine Falcon   Whitesbog
Blue Jay   Colliers Mills WMA
American Crow   35 Sunset Rd
Common Raven   New Egypt
Carolina Chickadee   Colliers Mills WMA
Tufted Titmouse   Colliers Mills WMA
Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Jumping Brook Preserve
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Lake Shenandoah County Park
Red-breasted Nuthatch   Lake Shenandoah County Park
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper   35 Sunset Rd
Carolina Wren   Colliers Mills WMA
European Starling   New Egypt
Brown Thrasher   Manahawkin WMA
Northern Mockingbird   Lake Shenandoah County Park
Eastern Bluebird   Ocean County Park
Hermit Thrush   Whitesbog
American Robin   Colliers Mills WMA
House Sparrow   New Egypt
House Finch   New Egypt
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Snow Bunting   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Chipping Sparrow   Ocean County Fairgrounds
Field Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA
American Tree Sparrow   Whitesbog
Fox Sparrow   Manahawkin WMA
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-crowned Sparrow   Hancock Field
Harris's Sparrow   Hancock Field
White-throated Sparrow   New Egypt
Savannah Sparrow   New Egypt
Song Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA
Swamp Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Towhee   Island Beach SP
Red-winged Blackbird   New Egypt
Brown-headed Cowbird   New Egypt
Common Grackle   Bay Pkwy
Boat-tailed Grackle   Cedar Run Dock Rd
Pine Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Poplar St boat ramp
Western Tanager   Crestwood Village
Northern Cardinal   New Egypt

Common Goldeneye, Harvey Cedars

Jumping Brook Preserve 2/26--Wild Turkey

I thought I would eventually be writing a post that said something along the lines of, "Well, finally, the turkeys have returned to our backyard. I haven't seen them since October 24th of last year." I may note the first half that sentence sometime this year, but it won't be my first sighting of them since last fall. 

Since someone built a rudimentary bridge over one of the breaches between bogs at Jumping Brook Preserve, I've been exploring paths that were inaccessible previously. These dikes go back to the boundary line between the preserve and Fort Dix and today had a few sparrows, some which, like Savannah and Swamp Sparrows, are supposedly infrequently reported and some of which were too fast to identify.  I also came across a Greater Yellowlegs, which, according to eBird had never been reported in the 20km x 20km square that I was in at this time of year--amazing. And while I was documenting that yellowlegs, 8 Common Ravens flew over head, breaking the filter. When I emerged from the preserve on to Cranberry Canners Road 2½ hours later, I had 28 species for the day, which lately, ain't bad, though I missed easy ones like chickadee and White-throated Sparrow. 

I was opening the door to my car when I looked to my right and saw 3 Wild Turkeys, two toms, one on either side of the cannery fence and another turkey, which I think was immature, crossing the road. The toms would occasionally display, I guess trying to establish dominance, which was amusing considering the fence between them. I don't know if one flew into the cannery's yard, or two flew over  the fence. When I say "cannery" I mean the ruins of the cannery, which was once a big New Egypt operation and one of the precursors of Ocean Spray. 

I've been seeing reports of turkeys in Toms River, but nothing from the western section of the county, so it was good to finally run into these guys. 

My Jumping Brook list:

29 species
Canada Goose  4
Mallard  1
Ring-necked Duck  15
Hooded Merganser  18
Wild Turkey  3     CC Road by cannery fence
Mourning Dove  2
Killdeer  3     Heard on 3 separate bogs
Greater Yellowlegs  1     Possibly 2. Saw one on different bog after first one flew off
Turkey Vulture  2
Red-shouldered Hawk  1     Heard CC Road
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  2
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  11     Exact count. 6 at cannery 3 on entrance path 2 on bogs
Blue Jay  4
American Crow  1     Heard
Common Raven  8     Exact count. 6 then 2 all croaking as they flew overhead
Tufted Titmouse  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  2     Heard
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
Eastern Bluebird  1     Heard entrance
American Robin  1
House Finch  1     Heard
Dark-eyed Junco  3
Savannah Sparrow  2     Bogs near Ft Dix
Song Sparrow  2
Swamp Sparrow  1     Bogs near Ft Dix
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Northern Cardinal  1     Heard CC Road

Manahawkin WMA 2/25--Brown Thrasher

Brown Thrasher

Tired of going to spots and not seeing as many species as I could see looking out my back window, I drove down to the Manahawkin WMA, which has the advantage of 3 habitats--grass, woods, and water. I parked on Stafford, instead of the parking lot off Hilliard, so I could scope the impoundments first, then double back, ditch the scope and walk Stafford both directions, entering the woods off Stafford then looping around through the grassy areas, back again along the impoundments to the car. It was a good strategy. The impoundments had a lot of ducks, including 120 Green-winged Teal. It wasn't too long ago that I made a special trip to Jackson to get 3 of these little ducks. Northern Pintails were in both impoundments, a very handsome duck, a fairly large number of Hooded Mergansers were scattered around, along with the usual black ducks and Mallards. One Gadwall was in the mix too. 

Not too much activity on Stafford aside from a couple of flushed Great Blue Herons in the marsh and Buffleheads around the Bridge to Nowhere. The path in the middle of Stafford that takes you into a hardwood forest was pretty dead until I got about halfway along when it exploded with birds--sparrows, woodpeckers, a Hermit Thrush, chickadees, etc., and at the edge of a little clearing, two Brown Thrashers, new for the year, flew up into a tree where I was able to take one truly lousy picture before they disappeared.

For the morning's walk I totaled 34 species, much better than I've done at any one spot probably all month.

Canada Goose  6
Mute Swan  6
Gadwall  1
Mallard  22
American Black Duck  38
Northern Pintail  21
Green-winged Teal  120
Bufflehead  7
Hooded Merganser  31
Greater Yellowlegs  6     Back impoundment
Ring-billed Gull  4
Herring Gull  10
Great Blue Heron  4
Turkey Vulture  2
Bald Eagle  2
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  5
Carolina Chickadee  3     Heard
Tufted Titmouse  1     Heard
Carolina Wren  2     Heard
Brown Thrasher  2     Hardwood Forest
Hermit Thrush  1     Heard hardwood forest
American Robin  6
House Finch  2
Fox Sparrow  1     Hardwood forest
White-throated Sparrow  3
Song Sparrow  6
Red-winged Blackbird  1     Heard
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
Northern Cardinal  1     Heard

And then this afternoon, I spent a lot of time looking out my back window where I saw 15 species, including a Yellow-rumped Warbler, a Brown Creeper, and my first Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the month. It helps to live on the border of the Whiting WMA. 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Hancock Field 2/23--Harris's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow (digiscope)

I usually feel that looking for a little bird in a big field is a mug's game, so I wasn't too eager to go up into Mercer County to chase the reported Harris's Sparrow. But, when I read the descriptions, they all said it was feeding with a flock of White-crowned Sparrows. Since I haven't been able to find White-crowns in my two spots--a driveway outside of Assunpink and strip of hedges in New Egypt, I figured they would be my consolation prize when I probably didn't find the rarity.

I drove up to East Windsor to the newly named hotspot of Hancock Field (Please stay on the road), missing the turn onto the gravel road in the murk of the morning. When I got there, I parked my car near the brush pile landmark, and immediately 20 juncos flew out of it. Not what I wanted. I plunked down my scope and soon a few White-crowned Sparrows emerged from the brush, feeding probably not more than 5 feet away from it. I like White-crowns and I scanned around from adult to immature birds. Then, because I wasn't expecting it, the Harris's Sparrow popped up in my eyepiece. I had a choice: watch the bird or try to take a picture of the bird--distant and enshrouded in fog. I watched the bird, getting all the field marks for a first year bird--it looked fine in my scope, invisible in my binoculars. One other guy was there, scoping from a 90 degree from where I stood. He walked over and we compared notes. 

Some other birders started coming up, but from what I can tell from the rare bird alerts, the bird didn't reappear until late this afternoon. This is only my second Harris's Sparrow. (By the way, I hate the orthography of "Harris's." I prefer the ownership apostrophe on the terminal "s" in these cases.) The first one (which I saw 3 times) was a few years ago, also in Mercer County, just a tad inland from where Washington crossed the Delaware. It was just this time of year, too. I remember seeing the original report during the Great Backyard Bird Count, so dismissed it, as birds are routinely misidentified during that 4 day period--"Brewer's Blackbird is common at my feeder," "We have Common Ground Dove year round." That sort of thing, but in this case, the stopped clock was right and the bird hung around for more than a week on a residential street. 

When the HASP disappeared (presumably back into the brush), I started fooling around with digiscoping with my phone. I did surprisingly well with the White-crowned Sparrows, which were aesthetically much more pleasing than the blotchy Harris's Sparrow. 

Barnegat Lighthouse SP 2/22--Snow Bunting

Snow Buntings

The big draw at Barnegat Lighthouse is the inlet and the treacherous jetty, but I was much more interested in the scooped-out dunes area that was done as plover and tern nesting habitat a few years ago. There's a pond there now, but I wasn't even interested in the waterfowl in there; instead, I walked about 3/4 of the way around the pool, stopping every 50 feet or so, looking, looking, looking. I figured if I was going to run into Snow Buntings this winter, this was the day to do it--relatively warm, with no wind. 

And finally, out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. I just knew it was a Snow Bunting and getting my binoculars on to the moving bird proved myself right. Then a few more followed it, picking at the base beach grass, eating seeds, I guess. They blend in so perfectly with the sand and vegetation that I had to practically step on one before I could find them.

Fortunately, I wasn't inclined to go on to the jetty today (I rarely am), because the tide was so high that a 3/4 mile long pool lined the beach side of the rocks. However, I was able to get the Lighthouse specialties when I got to the ocean, since the Harlequin Ducks were roosting on the rocks and the jetty had a flock of Purple Sandpipers huddling with Dunlins. 

The most entertaining part of the day was listening to the Long-tailed Ducks. Late winter is when they start their mating call which I can only transcribe as an incessant "Ehhhr-waanta-waant." It was the soundtrack of my walk as they were everywhere--the inlet and big flocks near the jetty and farther south along the beach. 

Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)

The other specialty I saw was the Ipswich sub-species of Savannah Sparrow. A single bird flew by me and landed on the sand, picking at the seaweed for something to eat--what I can't imagine. I'll check this day off as a success.

24 species
Canada Goose  60
Mute Swan  2     Plover Pool
Mallard  20
American Black Duck  2
Greater Scaup  1
Common Eider  6
Harlequin Duck  7
Black Scoter  9
Long-tailed Duck  100
Bufflehead  45
Red-breasted Merganser  10
American Oystercatcher  6     4 flyover 2 in plover pool
Dunlin  25
Purple Sandpiper  20
Herring Gull  200
Great Black-backed Gull  10
Common Loon  30
Great Cormorant  7
American Crow  4
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
House Sparrow  1
Snow Bunting  5
Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)  1
Red-winged Blackbird  2

Ocean County Fairgrounds 2/20--Chipping Sparrow

 The deadness of winter continues. For the last few days I've been driving all over Hell and Gone (another name for Ocean County), looking for the most, supposedly, common of birds to add to my year lists and getting very little bang for my $3.22 gallon gas. True, yesterday at Reed's Road I heard an Eastern Towhee, new for the county, and at the end of the Johnny Allen Cove Trail I espied, distantly, a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, but those weren't the birds I had in mind.  I mean, where are my waxwings? Where are my Snow Buntings? Where are my Fish Crows for crying out loud!

Today was more of the same nothing. I hit a couple of places where there are large expanses of grass surrounded by trees, hoping they would attract something of the above (except Snow Buntings, of course) and the soccer fields and baseball fields were active, but with robins, cowbirds, starlings and the like. 

I rarely go out after lunch, but I saw a report from the Ocean County Fairgrounds, a spot I almost never go to--even when on the rare occasion I visit the Robert J. Miller Airfield across the road. It isn't even a 15 minute drive from here so I drove over and walked on the empty field. Looked like nothing was there at first but at the far end I saw a flock of birds hopping around. Of course, before I could even start for them, they flew up into the trees. Pete used to say any sparrow on the ground that flew up into a tree was a Chipping Sparrow until proven otherwise. But with the flashing white outer tail feathers, these looked like juncos to me. 

However, when the flock came down, and mixed in with the robins, there were a few sparrows that were not gray & white--they were, indeed, Chippies. Chipping Sparrows use to be really rare in winter--I remember a CBC where ours got flagged--but with the warmer weather of late they are just "infrequent." Seems to me not so infrequent that everyone else in the county hasn't already listed them. Still, I was happy to get them on my list. In a few weeks, I know, they'll be all over my backyard, but in dreary February, I want novelty now.

Crestwood Village 2/15--Western Tanager

 At about 4:45 this afternoon, I got an alert on my phone about a Western Tanager in my neighborhood. Below is the text of my eBird report:

The address where the Western Tanager was reported is literally around the corner from my house--.4 miles. I immediately walked over there. I was dubious, thinking perhaps it was an oriole (which would still be good). I walked in the woods first, thinking the bird might be there, then came out and walked down Milford to the address listed. Naturally, no bird was there, but two doors down I heard, "Pit-rick" loud, 3 times. I couldn't locate the bird before it flew out of a small tree and back into much taller trees where I lost it. If the bird had alighted in the tree where I thought it went, it would have been pushed out by the 20 robins that suddenly landed in it.

 According to a fellow birder whom I've been texting, this is the third Western Tanager sighting in the county this winter, all widely separated. All have been one day wonders. What kills me is that the house where the bird was spotted has one cylinder feeder and gets the rarity, while we, much less than .4 miles away as the tanager flies, have 7 or 8 feeders and 2 birdbaths and the bird doesn't show up here. And I've been looking because today is a Feederwatch day. 

County bird. Not the most satisfying sighting, but county bird nevertheless. 

Cranberry Bogs 2/14--Wilson's Snipe

The abandoned cranberry bogs on Dover Road had two appealing aspects to them today: Firstly, there was no possibility of an inane conversation about eagles with a guy in a pickup truck and secondly, I there was the possibility of finding a Wilson's Snipe for the year.

Despite going there a lot, I am usually in the peculiar position of always knowing where I am but never being exactly sure how I got there. All the trails look alike (overgrown), and two of the landmarks I use, skeletal pump house remains, are duplicates of each other, so I often turn down a trail and find myself in a spot I wasn't particularly aiming for. But that's okay, because at least none of the bogs are breached (unlike Reeves Bogs), so there isn't a lot of backtracking to do if you make an inadvertent turn. But like Reeves Bogs, I always wear my waterproof Muck boots, since you never know which trail is going to be flooded. One trail, that I used to like to take, when viewed on the Google satellite map, shows up as water for a about a hundred yards and, that's the only trail I avoid now. So I guess it isn't strictly true that none of the bogs are breached. My rule of thumb is to walk only where I can see the bottom; from prior experience, I know the murky depths of that stretch, and I don't want to repeat the slippery walk through the brush on the side of the trail. 

So today, on my snipe hunt, I decided to walk trails I usually don't consider promising. It paid off as I almost immediately found 3 snipe flying out of one of the muddy bogs. It is completely unclear to me how the water is controlled there, if at all. Sometimes, bogs have water in them, sometimes they're muddy. I walked around to where I saw the snipes fly and looking back into the first bog, heard a Killdeer. Then I saw two snipe fly back to where I started. Later in the morning, upon returning to the same bog, half-accidentally, I saw both the Killdeer and a snipe on the far side. I got good looks, but always, no matter where I stood, they were on the opposite side. 

Geese and duck numbers were down from my visit on Sunday though I saw more kinds of waterfowl and I was again only able to come up with 19 species of birds altogether. But it is always fun to flush a snipe.

Mourning Dove 

Canada Goose  2
Mallard  13
American Black Duck  21     Scattered around + flyovers
Ring-necked Duck  6
Bufflehead  2
Hooded Merganser  2
Mourning Dove  2
Killdeer  1     
Wilson's Snipe  3     
Turkey Vulture  4
American Crow  6
Carolina Chickadee  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
American Goldfinch  2
Field Sparrow  2     Buildings
American Tree Sparrow  3     Bogs
Red-winged Blackbird  8

Northern Cardinal  1     Heard     

Third Pickup Truck/Eagle Conversation of the Year

Locale: Whitesbog

Vehicle: Grey Chevy Silverado (not the same truck from conversation #1)

I have my binoculars to the sky, watching two Red-shouldered Hawks.

Dialog:

Pickup Truck Driver: Looking at eagles?

Me: No. Red-shouldered Hawks.

PTD: I saw one close last week. I got lucky

I don't know if he's referring to eagles or hawks and don't ask.

Me: They're around.

He drives off. 

 

Cranberry Bogs 2/12--Wood Duck

I went to the abandoned cranberry bogs on Dover Road this morning, hoping for a Wilson's Snipe. The walk got off to an inauspicious start, when the first bird I saw was the snipe's near cousin, an American Woodcock--dead. There are sections there where it wouldn't be surprising to come across a woodcock, but atop a hill next to a huge sandpit is not one of them. The bird looked freshly dead and didn't seem to show any signs of raptors at work. I know that some natural history museums might like it as a specimen, but since I have an aversion to dead animals, I left it there. Probably will make a snacky-poo for a vulture. 

I didn't find a snipe, though I know one is still there, but I did, finally, add a year bird to the list when I came across a trio of Wood Ducks. At first, they were so still that I had to look twice to make certain they weren't decoys but decoys rarely squeal and fly off before you can get a picture, so they're on the list. Other than that, not much else to report. For a moment I thought I might have a couple of Chipping Sparrows to add to the year list, but upon further inspection they turned out to be American Tree Sparrows, again. It's another instance of priming--I want Chipping Sparrow so I see Chipping Sparrow, even though American Tree Sparrow is usually the harder bird to find--though not this winter. 

As with seemingly every other body of water around here, the duckage was light--I counted 28 Ring-necked Ducks along with a couple of Hooded Mergansers, 3 Mallards, and a flying black duck. Yesterday, at Colliers Mills, I was so disgusted that the 4 ponds I check had not one specimen of waterfowl on any of them, not even a goose, that I drove two miles up Success Road to Success Lake where I triumphed with 3 Tundra Swans, a goose, a couple of black ducks, and a Bufflehead. We're not even halfway through February yet--I don't know how much more of nothing I can take. 

Today's little list: 

19 species
Canada Goose  40
Wood Duck  3
Mallard  3
American Black Duck  1
Ring-necked Duck  28
Hooded Merganser  2
Killdeer  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  2     Heard
Carolina Chickadee  3     Heard
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
Eastern Bluebird  7
American Robin  20
American Goldfinch  1
American Tree Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  1     Heard
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Northern Cardinal  1     Heard

Second Pickup Truck/Eagle Conversation of the Year

Locale: Colliers Mills Lake

Vehicle: Red Jeep Patriot (technically not a pick up truck but for our purposes it will suffice.)

I am scoping the north end of the lake looking for anything besides Canada Geese. Driver approaches.

Dialog: 

Driver: How ya doing?

Me: Hi

Driver: Looking for eagles?

Me: No

Driver throws away cigarette, gets in vehicle, leaves. Had he stuck around 5 more minutes I could have shown him an immature eagle being chased by a Red-tailed Hawk. 

 

First Pickup Truck/Eagle Conversation of the Year

Locale: Stafford Avenue between Manahawkin WMA and Bridge to Nowhere.

Vehicle: Gray Chevy Silverado

(Truck slows down approaching me as I think, "Oh please don't stop." Truck stops.)

Dialog:

Pickup truck driver: Birdwatching?

Me: Yes

PTD: Are there eagles here?

Me: Yes

PTD: (pointing to Manahawkin side) In the marsh? 

Me: (pointing north) Over there

PTD: In the woods. Ever see them?

Me: All the time.

PTD drives off. 

Home | New Egypt 2/1--Pine Warbler & Priming

Two semi-interesting events this first of the month. Second one first: I looked out at one of our suet feeders and saw my first Pine Warbler of the year.  There have been winters when I could not not see a Pine Warbler on the feeder, to the point where I had to tell the eBird reviewer that I was tired of documenting this supposedly rare bird, but this has not been one of those winters. Still, it is no longer listed as "rare" in Ocean County during the cold months. 

The first one was while I was driving around New Egypt, looking for kestrels on the wires along the roads, as I often do in the winter. There's no good reason to do this, since I'm going to see a kestrel eventually in the county, more than likely at Colliers Mills, but I do it anyway. And thus, I was able to demonstrate the psychological concept of "priming." Since I was looking for kestrels, when I saw a bird land atop a pole on Long Swamp Road that wasn't a crow, I pulled off to the shoulder, shot a few pictures through the side window and figured I had my county kestrel. I couldn't really stay there and study the bird in that precarious position, but I was primed for kestrel. It wasn't until I got home and looked at my photographs, that I realized it wasn't a kestrel at all, but a Merlin, which is actually more infrequent in that area than kestrel. If I hadn't been looking for kestrel, I probably would have known immediately that the bird on the pole was a Merlin, but too often we see what we want to see. In this case, inconsequential. But too often, of late, not.