April Review--37 Year Birds

Red-tailed Hawk, Cranberry Bogs-Dover Road

Just as it is a commonplace for people to say, "We don't have spring anymore, we go directly from winter to summer," a similar sentiment regarding migration is constantly expressed by birders--that is: Migration stinks this year." 

I think I have heard this every year that I've been a birder, and maybe migration was different back in the day. There are a few possible explanations for the idea that migration is disappointing this year (and every year). One is delusion--just as there really is a spring but people forget the nice days as soon as it gets really warm, migration may be more or less as it always has been, but birders forget the good days when they're slogging around not finding much. 

Or, possibly, to quote Randy Newman, "What has happened down here is the winds have changed." Maybe an overall weather pattern has shifted migration to the west--apparently Texas and the Gulf Coast are doing spectacularly this year. 

But the explanation I favor is the one that is probably too painful to accept, even though the scientific evidence coincides with every birder's experience: There just aren't as many birds as there use to be. Climate change leads to loss of habitat, development leads to loss of habitat, farming leads to loss of habitat, and so forth. To paraphrase Senator Everett Dirksen, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about a lot of birds." 

Wild Turkey, backyard

With all that said, I had a pretty good month, despite the lack of warblers. I added 37 species to my year list and quite a few of them were rarities, including two county lifers--Common Murre at Manasquan Inlet and Roseate Tern, today, just outside Island Beach SP. Yesterday, there was the White-faced Ibis at Meadowedge Park, and earlier in the month I found the Vesper Sparrow that stayed a few days by the beeping monitors on Great Bay Blvd. Last Friday, I ventured up to Sandy Hook to go on one of Scott's trips and was pleased to finally get Black-capped Chickadee for the year. May not seem like an exciting bird, but when you live in south Jersey, surrounded by Carolina Chickadees, the Black-capped version becomes a target. I remember once being in Central Park at the feeders, talking to a local birder and I told him that every one of the birds we were looking at I had in my backyard...except that one--the Black-capped Chickadee. Shari & I spent two day in Nassau County with our friends and I didn't find any chickadees there, so it was becoming something of a mini-nemesis. 

And, as always, Eastern Whip-poor-will has been calling every night that I listen for it since early in the month--even tonight, it is singing in the rain. 

For the month,134 species. The list includes our last day in Delaware, the weekend in New York, and 4 New Jersey counties.

Counties birded:

Delaware: Kent, New Castle

New Jersey: Burlington, Cape May, Monmouth, Ocean   

New York: Nassau

Species   First Sighting
Brant   Manasquan Inlet
Canada Goose   Dover Mall Pond
Mute Swan   deCamp WildlifeTrail
Wood Duck   Jumping Brook Preserve
Blue-winged Teal   Manahawkin WMA
Northern Shoveler   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Mallard   Jumping Brook Preserve
American Black Duck   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Green-winged Teal   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Ring-necked Duck   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Black Scoter   Manasquan Inlet
Bufflehead   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Hooded Merganser   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Red-breasted Merganser   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Ruddy Duck   Hempstead Lake SP
Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd
Mourning Dove   Dover
Eastern Whip-poor-will   35 Sunset Rd
Chimney Swift   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Ruby-throated Hummingbird   35 Sunset Rd
Clapper Rail   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Virginia Rail   Whitesbog
American Coot   Colliers Mills WMA
American Oystercatcher   Manasquan Inlet
Black-bellied Plover   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Piping Plover   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Killdeer   Jumping Brook Preserve
Sanderling   Sandy Hook
Dunlin   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Purple Sandpiper   Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Short-billed Dowitcher   Manahawkin WMA
Wilson's Snipe   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Spotted Sandpiper   IBSP Marina
Greater Yellowlegs   deCamp WildlifeTrail
Willet   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Lesser Yellowlegs   Manahawkin WMA
Common Murre   Manasquan Inlet
Bonaparte's Gull   IBSP Marina
Laughing Gull   Manasquan Inlet
Herring Gull   Manasquan Inlet
Great Black-backed Gull   Manasquan Inlet
Caspian Tern   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Roseate Tern   IBSP Marina
Forster's Tern   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet
Northern Gannet   Manasquan Inlet
Double-crested Cormorant   Manasquan Inlet
American Bittern   Manahawkin WMA
Great Blue Heron   Jumping Brook Preserve
Great Egret   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Snowy Egret   Cattus Island County Park
Little Blue Heron   Shelter Cove Park
Tricolored Heron   Shelter Cove Park
Green Heron   Pond on Schoolhouse Road
Black-crowned Night-Heron   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron   Ocean City Welcome Center
White Ibis   Ocean City Welcome Center
Glossy Ibis   Cattus Island County Park
White-faced Ibis   Meadowedge Park
Black Vulture   Wawa-Medford
Turkey Vulture   Wawa-Medford
Osprey   Manasquan Inlet
Northern Harrier   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Cooper's Hawk   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Bald Eagle   Jumping Brook Preserve
Red-shouldered Hawk   Jumping Brook Preserve
Red-tailed Hawk   Middletown DE
Belted Kingfisher   Double Trouble SP
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Jumping Brook Preserve
Downy Woodpecker   Jumping Brook Preserve
Hairy Woodpecker   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Northern Flicker   Jumping Brook Preserve
Merlin   deCamp WildlifeTrail
Peregrine Falcon   Island Beach SP
Eastern Phoebe   Jumping Brook Preserve
White-eyed Vireo   Manahawkin WMA
Blue Jay   Jumping Brook Preserve
American Crow   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Fish Crow   Dover
Common Raven   Jumping Brook Preserve
Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd
Black-capped Chickadee   Sandy Hook
Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd
Northern Rough-winged Swallow   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Purple Martin   Jakes Branch County Park
Tree Swallow   Jumping Brook Preserve
Barn Swallow   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Red-breasted Nuthatch   Jumping Brook Preserve
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
House Wren   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Marsh Wren   Cattus Island County Park
Carolina Wren   Dover
European Starling   Dover
Gray Catbird   Colliers Mills WMA
Brown Thrasher   Colliers Mills WMA
Northern Mockingbird   Wawa Dover
Eastern Bluebird   Jumping Brook Preserve
Hermit Thrush   deCamp WildlifeTrail
Wood Thrush   Double Trouble SP
American Robin   35 Sunset Rd
House Sparrow   Wawa Dover
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
Red Crossbill   Double Trouble SP
American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd
Chipping Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Field Sparrow   Jumping Brook Preserve
Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd
White-throated Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Vesper Sparrow   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Seaside Sparrow   Cedar Bonnet Island
Savannah Sparrow   Jumping Brook Preserve
Song Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
Swamp Sparrow   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Eastern Towhee   Cattus Island County Park
Red-winged Blackbird   Jumping Brook Preserve
Brown-headed Cowbird   Cranberry Bogs--Dover Rd
Rusty Blackbird   Jumping Brook Preserve
Common Grackle   Wawa Dover
Boat-tailed Grackle   deCamp WildlifeTrail
Ovenbird   Whitesbog
Black-and-white Warbler   Colliers Mills WMA
Common Yellowthroat   Colliers Mills WMA
Hooded Warbler   Colliers Mills WMA
Yellow Warbler   Meadowedge Park
Palm Warbler   Jumping Brook Preserve
Pine Warbler   35 Sunset Rd
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Jumping Brook Preserve
Prairie Warbler   Whitesbog
Northern Cardinal   Dover
Indigo Bunting   IBSP Marina

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Ocean City Welcome Center

IBSP Marina 4/30--Roseate Tern, Spotted Sandpiper, Indigo Bunting

Roseate Tern with a Forster's Tern looking like I felt.

I was lolling on the couch, half-awake this afternoon, listening to the rain, which is approaching Book of Noah proportions, when I got a text from Steve that there were Roseate Terns at the Island Beach SP Marina. Shoes, hat, jacket, out the door. Not only is Roseate Tern rare in New Jersey, I have never seen one in Ocean County. In fact, I've only seen the species once, a few years ago at the Shark River Inlet. For a Roseate Tern I could stand in the rain. 

Steve, who lives closer, was already there when I arrived, slightly frazzled from negotiating all the mysterious street closures on the way down. He had texted me that one was still on the dock--and, as we all know, you only need one. I bolted from the car and immediately saw the bird in front of a group of Forster's Terns--the blush on the chest was obvious and probably easier to see than if it had been sunny. It turned to the right and I saw the thin black beak. It was really too far away for my camera, but I hauled out the scope and managed one halfway decent digiscope photo. 

Then it got amusing. I would have been very happy to end the month with a county lifer, but Steve pointed out a Spotted Sandpiper standing on the dock, which was also a year bird for me (there were actually two), and then, in a place you'd never expect to find one, an Indigo Bunting flew by the far end of the dock, then turned, wisely, inland, zipping right by us. Another year bird that has been frustrating me this month. And then the skies opened up, again, and we beat a retreat to our vehicles. 

With the Wood Thrush I heard at Double Trouble this morning during a brief break in the downpours, I added four species to the year list on the last day of the month. 

Meadowedge Park 4/29--White-faced Ibis, Yellow Warbler

I didn't expect to go out today as we neared our 24th consecutive hour of rain, but a report came in from Barnegat's Meadowedge Park the was too enticing to ignore. Looking at the weather map, I saw that the rain was light down there and I figured I could, at worse, sit in my car and look for the reported White-faced Ibis, a species I haven't seen in a couple of years. 

Usually, the ibises congregate on a muddy patch on the right as you enter the park, and today there were about 10 or 15 Glossy Ibises feeding there, which I quickly determined had no White-faced in with them. However, on the other side of the park, there were 3 cars and another flock of ibis feeding on the lawn of the private house next to the park. Because of the rain, there was a large puddle on the lawn and the ibises were feeding around there, along with a Greater Yellowlegs, Laughing Gulls, geese...the usual assortment. One of the cars was familiar to me, being Scott's, so I parked and walked over. Just as Scott said from the driver's seat, "It's in there, Larry," the whole f*&@#*!g flock of 90+ ibises flushed into the air. Ibises are very skittish and my approach on foot probably did the flushing. 

At least I had Scott & Deb to talk to while I tried to find & turn on my patience knob. There were a lot of herons hanging around, more than usual, perhaps because the neighboring marshes were so flooded. After 40 minutes or so, the ibises started to return to the lawn--first one or two then five, then the whole flock again and with them, yay, was the White-faced Ibis, a nice example with pink and white bare skin around the eye, pink legs, and oddly, a noticeably lighter bill than the Glossies. However, in the dreary drizzle and at the distance we stood, I couldn't get a picture. I wasn't going to approach closer and scare them all over again.  Bonus bird: while I was standing there a Yellow Warbler sang--FOY, and was, surprisingly, new for the patch. The WFIB, not surprisingly, was also a patch bird. 

My weather app made it appear that I was on the southern edge of the rain, so I thought I'd drive down Manahawkin to see if there was anything in the impoundments and walk along Stafford Road. My weather app was wrong as the "light rain" persisted. I pulled up to the trail, on Stafford to find that Scott & Deb had preceded me. We scanned the impoundments, which had a very late Hooded Merganser hen, a Tricolored Heron, and not much else. None of us was enthusiastic about walking the tick infested, soaking wet trail to the back impoundment.  

I gave it a shot to walk in the rain down Stafford toward the bridge but after a while, not seeing anything exciting, the walk failed the fun test and I turned around. Which is when I flushed an American Bittern from the reeds right next to the road, the 2nd time I've seen bittern there this month. And that was enough birding for a day I thought would only consist of feeder birds. 

LBI 4/27--Piping Plover, Seaside Sparrow

Met my birding buddy Bob Auster this morning at Cedar Bonnet Island on the LBI causeway, where it was a lot rainier and colder than the weather reports had led us to believe. We both had a few birds in mind to get as FOY. I my ploy was to use Bob's better ears to hear a Seaside Sparrow in the marsh at CBI, which he did, as did I eventually. I'd probably have missed it without Bob as the weather conditions were not conducive to my standing in one place and just listening. Bob, who lives up in Somerset County, was hoping for a couple of waders that are hard to find in those parts, but the only ones we came up with at CBI were Great Egrets and Glossy Ibises, not the target birds for us. 

Then it was on to Barnegat Light SP, a spot Bob doesn't visit except in winter--well the weather was right, at least. Barnegat Light isn't that interesting in the warmer months (which April supposedly is), but it does host an area especially dug out a few years ago for nesting, endangered birds, one of which, Piping Plover, was my target bird for the day. (Bob had already seen the species up at Sandy Hook.) We walked along the stringed off area, scoping the sandy barrens, but only found the plover's arch enemies, Herring & Great Black-backed Gulls. Wherever a Piping Plover had decided to nest, which consists of a scratch or two in the sand, the monitors had put up a cage over it to protect it, along with a number of surveillance devices aimed at the cage. But we didn't see any plovers in any of the cages. We walked to the ocean and picked up a few birds, like gannets, Black Scoter, and a flock of Purple Sandpipers (a surprise to us both that they were still there so late into the spring), when we saw a couple of small shorebirds flying out over the jetty then making a U-turn into the protected area. Those, I thought, were probably Piping Plovers, but I really didn't want to count that crappy look even if I could be certain of their identity. 

Walking back, though, we saw a couple, right by the string line and then later, checking out a cage we hadn't seen, there was one sitting inside, perhaps incubating an egg or two. Still, no waders for Bob.

We checked a couple of marshes on the bayside with no luck, so I suggested we got to the Joe Torg Preserve a little south of the Light, which is a big marsh with a rickety boardwalk. Bob had never been there, I had only been there in the winter. We walked out and Bob looked around and said it was good habitat and with a little patience, we might find some herons. 

"Patience? Bob, this is Larry you're talking to." 

Nevertheless, we hung out at the end of the boardwalk and out of nowhere, a Snowy Egret appeared. That was a good sign. A little longer, and sure enough, in came a Tricolored Heron, one of Bob's targets, displacing the Snowy in a ditch. The Snowy and the Tricolored switched places off and on--there must have been some good eating in that draw and after we saw a Great Egret fly in, we decided that we'd been patient enough. 

But wait, there's more. I left, but Bob lingered, having a post-birding snack. His binoculars were put away, so, I'd say that qualifies as giving up according to the Second Law of Birding. And, as he later texted me, what flies in and lands in front of him? A Little Blue Heron, his other target wader for the day. Never fails. 

Whitesbog 4/21--Ovenbird, Prairie Warbler

Prairie Warbler

I haven't been to Whitesbog all month, which is a long gap for me. I wasn't expecting much, but I enjoy walking the bogs there more than anyplace else. I decided to do the Ocean County side, where the trails are less populated, if you want to consider 3 or 4 dog walkers on the Burlco side, population. As soon as I slipped my car into "my" spot, I heard (then saw) a Black-and-white Warbler and the first of many, many Common Yellowthroats--which I was actually to see today instead of just hearing them as I had been for the last week. Walking the borderline between the counties I heard Ovenbird coming from the trail that leads to Little Tank, so I walked there, flushing Wood Ducks on my way. I heard another but didn't even try to track them down visually. 

However, walking along the side of Little Tank, I heard a Prairie Warbler's ascending buzz and that one I did want to see, so I hung around an oak with catkins and soon enough the warbler made an appearance. Oddly, it was the only one I saw there today--they're usually a little more abundant. 

What was abundant: the aforementioned Common Yellowthroats, Red-winged Blackbirds, and an ungodly number of Eastern Towhees. I was commanded to drink my tea from every direction almost every step I took during my 4-mile walk. I ran into my informant, and he told me that Virginia Rails were back at the usual spot (not saying where), so I walked over there, made a few grunt calls and had a response (and some bush rustling) from one or two rails which were right in front of me. And like my informant, once I knew that they were there, I left them to themselves. 

Back in the Antrim Bogs, hard by the Fort Dix border, I had a good number of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, visual of a croaking Common Raven, a calling Red-shouldered Hawk, and a Cooper's Hawk mobbed by blackbirds. 

In all 42 species on my hike from the county line, past the Upper Reservoir, along the Antrim Bogs, and then a walk around what we still call Otter Pond, even though it is acres of grassland now. 

Canada Goose  2
Wood Duck  4
Mallard  5
Mourning Dove  2
Virginia Rail  1     1+
Killdeer  1
Double-crested Cormorant  4     One in Second Reservoir three flyover
Turkey Vulture  1
Cooper's Hawk  1     Mobbed by blackbirds
Red-shouldered Hawk  1     
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  5
Common Raven  1     
Carolina Chickadee  4
Tufted Titmouse  2
Tree Swallow  10
Red-breasted Nuthatch  3     Little Tank & Antrim Bogs
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  7
Carolina Wren  1
Brown Thrasher  1
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  1
American Goldfinch  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Savannah Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  5
Swamp Sparrow  2
Eastern Towhee  75     All over. Not especially high count for distance walked & time of year
Red-winged Blackbird  40
Common Grackle  1
Ovenbird  2
Black-and-white Warbler  4
Common Yellowthroat  50
Palm Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  4
Prairie Warbler  1

Pareidolia

(Look it up) 

Great Bay Blvd 4/20--Clapper Rail, Willet

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Willet

I barbelled the interesting birds today at Great Bay Blvd. My first stop, in the cedar alley to look at the marsh, produced both of my year birds for the day: a very loud Clapper Rail, and 5 distant Willets. At the end of the road, in the little grove that leads to the beach I heard what I can only describe as a loud belch. Usually, when I heard a weird bird noise, I can't locate the source, but today, I looked up about eye level in one of the trees and there was a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron sitting among the branches. Very odd. I have never seen either night-heron in that grove. Usually, they are by the stands of cedar trees near the bridges. Odder still, because I didn't find one Black-crowned Night-Heron today in any of the usual places, so to find this relatively early yellow-crown was completely unexpected. 

The 4 1/2 miles between the two spots amounted to a very windy "meh." 28 other species, but nothing very entertaining to report.

Brant  40
American Black Duck  12
Mourning Dove  2
Clapper Rail  4     all heard
American Oystercatcher  3
Black-bellied Plover  17
Dunlin  200
Short-billed Dowitcher  1
Greater Yellowlegs  9
Willet  5
Lesser Yellowlegs  2
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Caspian Tern  1
Forster's Tern  25
Common Loon  1
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Egret  3
Snowy Egret  14
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1     
Osprey  3
Blue Jay  1
Fish Crow  3
Tree Swallow  3
Barn Swallow  3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Song Sparrow  15
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Boat-tailed Grackle  100
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1

Jakes Branch CP 4/18--Purple Martin

When I used to do the World Series of Birding in Ocean County with Mike & Pete, our go to spot for
Purple Martin was an obscure street in Barnegat where there were martin houses behind the real houses. Every year since, I've gone down that street and found Purple Martins, until this year when the martin houses seemed to be gone--perhaps the property changed hands. 

I didn't panic. But after not intersecting with them at the Cranberry Bogs yesterday, or Double Trouble today, I started thinking about where I might find martin boxes nearby--I didn't feel like a schlep to Brig just get this year bird. I don't go to Jakes Branch CP very often--it's about a mile away from Double Trouble and there's usually nothing there that I won't see other places, but I was fairly certain they had a martin house next to the little pond. (Jakes Branch is an interesting place to go for reasons other than birds. It has a great nature center with a high viewing platform that gives you an expansive view of the Pine Barrens. You can see all the way to the Lakehurst base where the Hindenberg exploded. Many of the trails are ghost streets, originally carved out of the woods when a newspaper in New York, over 100 years ago, was giving away building plots as a sales promotion--nothing ever got built. Then, in 2002, a devastating wildfire leapt over the Parkway and destroyed much of the area, so naturally it was turned into soccer and baseball fields.)

The martin houses were right where I imagined them to be, and a few martins were sitting outside on the perches. Put it on the list. 

Cranberry Bogs 4/17--Barn Swallow, House Wren

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

There is a sand pit at the Cranberry Bogs right off Dover Road that I so want to see nesting Bank Swallows in that this morning, when I saw brown swallows flying over it and landing on the side of the pit where there were holes in the side, I almost convinced myself that finally the Bank Swallows had found a new place to nest. Alas, both the swallows and the holes were too big and what I had were Northern Rough-winged Swallows and holes that looked more like dens for mammals than birds.  And when I consider it unselfishly, I actually don't want Bank Swallows to nest there because I'm certain some jerk in an ATV will destroy the side of the pit by driving down it. 

However, I did manage to find quite an assortment of birds there, including my first Barn Swallows of the year and my first House Wren, singing around the buildings, where one or two are reliably found at this spot. It is also getting a little trickier to walk around there--where the grass is high, which is about half the trails, the ticks are active, so I walked a route I don't usually take. That course doesn't take me past the bogs where the snipe and Killdeers have been, but fortunately, they've move to a different bog with mud flats and I was able to list both species

House Wren

42 species
Canada Goose  5
Wood Duck  2     Hen & drake
Mallard  5
Ring-necked Duck  2
Mourning Dove  4
Killdeer  1     
Wilson's Snipe  3     
Laughing Gull  1
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  5
Turkey Vulture  1
Northern Flicker  1
Eastern Phoebe  2
Blue Jay  4
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  1
Common Raven  1     Back reservoir
Carolina Chickadee  8
Tufted Titmouse  1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  5
Tree Swallow  25
Barn Swallow  6
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1     Heard woods
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3
House Wren  1     Buildings
Carolina Wren  1
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Robin  5
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  1
Chipping Sparrow  2
Field Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  4
Eastern Towhee  15
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Brown-headed Cowbird  4
Common Grackle  1
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  5
Pine Warbler  3
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  4

Tree Swallow on very old nest box in middle of reservoir

Colliers Mills 4/16--Red-headed Woodpecker, Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat

I was standing in the woods at Colliers Mills this morning when I said to myself, "I guess I'm not going to see a Red-headed Woodpecker today...maybe even this year." (I tend to the morose.) This was my third or fourth search this year and I had sincerely given up, as the Second Law of Birding stipulates. Immediately upon muttering that grumble, as if I was uttering a magic spell, I heard a Red-headed Woodpecker giving its "Queer!" call. It sounded as if was 10 or 20 yards directly in front of me, but there is no straight-line walking in those woods with all the fallen tree trunks, so I zig-zagged my way toward the edge of the woods, where the nest has been, only to overshoot the mark because the woodpecker was calling behind me. I turned around and caught a glimpse of it, and then it led me a merry chase, from tree to tree, sometimes in sight, sometimes high in the canopy, until it finally landed on a broken trunk and drummed away while I took photos from a distance. And now I no longer have any interest in that bird until January 1, 2024. 

Witchety-witchety and a squeaky wheel sound were what I went to Colliers Mills for, and I succeeded in tracking down the former (Common Yellowthroat) at the northside of Turnmill Pond, and the latter (Black-and-White Warbler) in a few places in the woods. Easy, abundant warblers, but always a pleasure to get the first ones. 

The most unusual bird I found there today was at the spillway on Turnmill--an American Coot. In some places this would be an unremarkable sighting, but in my previous 325 trips to Colliers Mills I had never seen one. Coots are usually gregarious, so finding just one struck me as odd, though I didn't beat the reeds to see if there were any more secreting themselves. 

The First Law of Birding states that if a guy in a pickup truck asks you if you've seen anything "good" he doesn't care, he just wants to tell you about eagles he has seen. Well, the disease seems to have spread to passenger vehicles, because I had my fourth inane eagle conversation of the year with a guy in a Honda Civic, who was "walking" his 3 dogs along the road at the back pond--they run ahead and he follows in his car, a practice I cannot adequately express my contempt for--it's lazy, irresponsible, and makes the assumption that you and your dogs are the only ones in the woods. Anyway, he stopped and after telling me that they were just stretching their legs (out of the 14 legs involved, 12 of them were), asked me if I had seen anything..."good." I told him I had heard some good thing (I was thinking the yellowthroats). Then he dropped the eagle question. "Not today," I told him. "Oh, I saw one last week, you know there's this pond...(Oh, yeah, he's going to tell me about the geography of Colliers Mills). I cut him off and said, "I know, there's eagles all over the place." 

"Really? I never see them."

"You're not looking." 

"Oh." And then, thankfully, he drove on. 

The woodpecker was the 40th species for the trip, and I decided that was enough and headed back to the car. 

Canada Goose  4
Wood Duck  5
Mourning Dove  8
American Coot  1     
Killdeer  4
Herring Gull  1     Flyover
Double-crested Cormorant  1     Turnmill Pond
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  4
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  4
Blue Jay  5
Fish Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tufted Titmouse  10
Tree Swallow  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2     Heard berm & woods
White-breasted Nuthatch  5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  4
Carolina Wren  5
European Starling  5
Brown Thrasher  1
Northern Mockingbird  2
Eastern Bluebird  3
American Robin  11
Chipping Sparrow  5
White-throated Sparrow  2
Savannah Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  15
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Brown-headed Cowbird  4
Black-and-white Warbler  3
Common Yellowthroat  2
Palm Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  5
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  3

Ocean City Welcome Center 4/15--Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, White Ibis

It was not too long ago (July, 2015) that a White Ibis in New Jersey was an event. Shari & I braved 4th of July weekend traffic to go to the Ocean City Welcome Center to see an immature bird and it seemed like half the birders in NJ were there at the time. Today, we stopped there on our way back fromthe Cape May Bird Observatory's Optics Sale (where I picked up new binoculars to replace the ones I had literally worn out), and there, in the marsh and in the trees of the heron rookery were, oh, I don't know, TWO HUNDRED White Ibises, most of them adults. A few years ago, a pair nested at that rookery. Now, dozens and dozens are nesting there. They're not even listed as rare in Cape May County anymore.

That's the good news. The bad news is why. Climate change. Habitat loss down south and warmer weather up here has allowed the species to extend its range northerly, as many species have. The Northern Cardinal was only relatively north in the past--it was a southern bird that kept moving up. 

The rookery also is famous for the large number of nesting Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, scattered in the trees along with Black-crowned Night-Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Glossy Ibises...I broke the eBird filter on 4 species today--counting is impossible and my numbers were WAGs, but a filter set at 35 or 40, while probably applicable in the rest of Cape May County, is ridiculously low for the rookery. 

It was foggy most of the morning, but the rookery is so close to the elevated parking lot (you look down on the rookery) that I wasn't worried about not seeing birds. I did think it would discourage photographers, since the light was bad, but they were out in force, as usual. While I love going there annually, it is barely birding. There is absolutely no challenge to finding the birds. I've said this before: It is like going to the zoo with the difference being that the birds are countable. 

17 species (+1 other taxa)
Brant  2
Canada Goose  1
Mallard  2
Mallard x American Black Duck (hybrid)  1
Bufflehead  9
Herring Gull  10
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Great Egret  45     
Snowy Egret  40     
Black-crowned Night-Heron  20
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  40     
White Ibis  200     
Glossy Ibis  50
Osprey  1
Fish Crow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Boat-tailed Grackle  40

Shelter Cove 4/14--Tricolored Heron

I put in way too much effort for this bird. 

Sometimes, a supposedly "easy" bird just eludes you--I think of it as your life line not intersecting with its life line, except that there are so many life lines not crossing your path. It isn't like finding a rarity which is a "Dr John event"--right place, right time. Tricolored Herons are in virtually every marsh in Ocean County starting in the spring (one or two even spend a warm winter on LBI), so I usually don't have to actively go looking for them. In the past, it's played out like this: I got to Cattus Island CP, look to the left when I hit the first marsh, and boom, I have my Tricolored Heron. Then I'd email a friend in North Jersey (where they are distinctly rare), that the tricolors have returned to Cattus and go on to the next bird. 

But last week a walk around Cattus' marshes turned up no tricolors. Four miles of marsh along Great Bay Blvd on Tuesday was bereft of the species. I missed them at Spizzle at IBSP the last time I was there. Today, I checked every marsh from every angle again at Cattus, going so far as to walk through the marsh all the way to the Ocean County Parks Headquarters' Yellowbank Trail and failed to find one. What is going on here?

Finally, with time to kill before meeting Shari for an appointment, I ate a quick lunch then went over to Shelter Cove, which is about a mile from Cattus. I never bird Shelter Cove in the warmer weather because it is then that the soccer and baseball fields are actually used and the beach is full of kids and their parents. But it has a marsh. 

I tiptoed through the goose shit on the soccer field and came to an opening in the phragmites that looks out on the marsh, which is just a continuation of the same habitat at Cattus & OCPHQ. Framed by phragmites was a Little Blue Heron. A disappointment. I took a few more steps, shifted my viewpoint slightly right (geographically, not politically), and there, there, finally, was a Tricolored Heron, staring off into space, posing, as if to say, take my picture already so I can get out of here, which I did and it did. 

Manahawkin WMA 4/13--American Bittern, White-eyed Vireo

I went down to the Manahawkin WMA this morning with the goal of adding a couple of state/county year birds and found two new year birds that weren't even on my mind when I set out. I'd seen Blue-winged Teals and one Short-billed Dowitcher last month down at Bombay Hook, but they don't really count until they're seen in NJ--preferably in Ocean County. In the back impoundment I quickly found the Blue-winged Teal mixed in with a large flock of Green-winged Teals and then a little farther on, a gathering of Short-billed Dowitchers were feeding on the far shore. I was surprised to see them flagged as "rare." Obviously, it's just a timing flag--these are early, perhaps, but Short-billed Dowitchers are not a run down to see 'em bird. Later, on my way back to the woods and fields, they had shifted closer to the trail and I was able to document them. 

Short-billed Dowitchers

My method of late at Manahawkin has been to park on Stafford instead of the lot on Hilliard, so that I can use the scope to check out the impoundments, then double back, put the scope away, and walk back to the upland area. After I ditched the scope I had just come to the "T" when out of the phragmites an American Bittern flushed--a huge brown, striped heron, that flew low over the reeds then landed in another patch, not to be seen again. Bitterns are hard birds anyplace, they camouflage so well, so it is always a thrill to find one--the last few I've seen have been at Spizzle Creek at IBSP, where I do look for them. This bittern was a first, for me, at Manahawkin. 

Glossy Ibis

I was walking around the circular field about 1/2 mile past the impoundments when I heard a bird singing diagonally across from where I was--it was a White-eyed Vireo, which again, I hadn't considered as a target. I should have; it is spring, after all. He was a persistent little fellow and kept up his "pick up the beer check" song the entire time I approached. WE Vireos are usually mid-level birds and this one was no exception--I saw him right in front of me, but in the dense shrubbery so pictures were not going to happen, especially since he decided to jump around once I found him.

So, in all, 4 state/county birds, 2 year birds, 41 for the walk on a surprisingly warm April day. 

Canada Goose  5
Mute Swan  8
Wood Duck  1
Blue-winged Teal  2
Mallard  12
Green-winged Teal  100
Mourning Dove  2
Dunlin  2
Short-billed Dowitcher  8     
Greater Yellowlegs  52     Flocks of 28,4, & 20
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
Herring Gull  8
Great Black-backed Gull  2
American Bittern  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  2
Snowy Egret  1
Glossy Ibis  54
Turkey Vulture  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Belted Kingfisher  2
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  5
White-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  6
Fish Crow  2
Carolina Chickadee  12
Tufted Titmouse  1     Heard
Tree Swallow  8
White-breasted Nuthatch  3     Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Carolina Wren  10
American Robin  6
White-throated Sparrow  5
Savannah Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  20
Eastern Towhee  1     Heard
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Brown-headed Cowbird  4
Pine Warbler  2     Heard
Northern Cardinal  7

Great Bay Blvd 4/11--Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Vesper Sparrow

While Shari & I were away over the weekend visiting friends in NY, more new species kept popping up on my alerts. With most of them, it is only a matter of time and neoprene before I add them to the list, but one species was intriguing enough for me to make another trip down to Great Bay Blvd, especially since the bird appeared one day after I'd been there. I went there with little expectations that the bird would hang around, but figured there had to be something interesting to see along a 4 mile stretch of marsh.

At 700 Great Bay Blvd there is an array of environmental testing instruments run by Rutgers, including one wind monitor that is famous for its constant and incessant, every five seconds "beep." Because there are no homes for miles around, it bothers no one except for birders, like me, who stop there because many odd species of sparrows over the years have been found in the sand area in around the fenced off area. The cedars across from it are also one of the Black-crowned Heron roosting sites along the road. 

They were there, and after finding about 10 Song Sparrows, I finally found the sparrow I hoped to see when I spotted one with a bold white eye ring--a Vesper Sparrow, always rare in New Jersey, but not the first one that I've seen in that very spot. There's something about the gravel, pulverized shells, and sparse vegetation there that attracts the sparrows, common and oddball alike. 

Everything else I saw today was more or less what's to be expected there, and I though the Vesper Sparrow would be the only new year bird for the day, but on the drive back up the road, I saw a brown sparrow with a square tail fly across the road--a Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Pretty unusual for that area and I'm surprised to see one of them before I see a Barn Swallow, especially since they like to nest beneath the eaves of the one of the marina buildings. 

30 species
Brant  70
Northern Shoveler  1
Mallard  5
American Black Duck  8
Green-winged Teal  50
Bufflehead  15
Red-breasted Merganser  12
Mourning Dove  3
Black-bellied Plover  6
Greater Yellowlegs  16
Herring Gull  100
Great Black-backed Gull  3
Forster's Tern  25
Common Loon  2
Double-crested Cormorant  17
Great Egret  15
Snowy Egret  12
Black-crowned Night-Heron  8
Osprey  5
Bald Eagle  1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Tree Swallow  3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Vesper Sparrow  1     
Song Sparrow  15
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Boat-tailed Grackle  50
Pine Warbler  1     End of the road
Northern Cardinal  2