Cranberry Bogs 4/3--Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

It's the return of the tweety birds! Little birds that flit about in the foliage, never sit still, and are almost always partially obscured by a twig or a leaf. Well, I suppose it's better than looking through a thousand sandpipers for the one that's just slightly different. 

Another abandoned cranberry operation today, the bogs off Dover Road in South Toms River. I had been wondering if they were originally part of Double Trouble's system (they're part of the park now), but I learned, from one of my Pine Barrens sources, that they were run by a guy who leased a number of bogs in Ocean & Burlington until it became uneconomical to comply with the new rules.

The one new bird for today was found almost immediately upon getting to the derelict buildings--a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in a dead tree. I thought I heard one yesterday at Jumping Brook (my Merlin app said it "heard" one in the cacophony of tweety bird song, but ever since Merlin "heard" a Prothonotary Warbler in my backyard, I've been a tad skeptical) but I'd prefer to see my FOYs rather than hear them (whip-poor-wills and owls excepted). 

Wandering around the bogs and pretty far back in the woods I came across 40 species:

Canada Goose  6
Wood Duck  2     Back reservoir
Mallard  4
Ring-necked Duck  21
Bufflehead  1
Hooded Merganser  2     Drake & Hen back reservoir
Mourning Dove  2
Killdeer  2     Muddy Bog
Wilson's Snipe  2     Muddy Bogs
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1     Heard woods in back
Northern Flicker  3
Eastern Phoebe  8
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  12
Tufted Titmouse  4
Tree Swallow  15
Golden-crowned Kinglet  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch  3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
Carolina Wren  1
American Robin  3
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  2
Field Sparrow  2     Heard
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Song Sparrow  10
Swamp Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Brown-headed Cowbird  10
Common Grackle  2
Palm Warbler  2
Pine Warbler  15
Yellow-rumped Warbler  5
Northern Cardinal  2