A birder once told me to look carefully at the common birds so I would know them well and then could eliminate them fast when I saw a rarity. I can't say that I followed this advice assiduously over the years, but just by their ubiquity, I know when I'm not looking at a Common Yellowthroat, which was the case this morning on the gravel drive between the main road and the Winter Anchorage at Island Beach SP. I was coming back from scoping the Sedge Islands (American Oystercatchers, Black-bellied Plovers, Caspian, Royal, Forster's Terns, Brown Pelicans, etc...), when I saw a warbler on the ground. Immediately I knew what it wasn't. I only got a few seconds look at it, naked eye (thank you Dr H for the cataract surgery!), but I could see that it was "laterally bifurcated" meaning that the top of the bird, head and back was dark, and the lower parts, flanks and throat were yellow. There aren't too many warblers like that--they don't call them yellowthroats for nothing--and since this is the time of year when Connecticut Warblers migrate through and are reported at Island Beach, I was very confident in what I had. Of course, this ground warbler jumped into the brush at the side of the road, and though I could see movement in the leaf litter, I never could refind the bird.
I'd have to check, but I think that's the first time I've been to Island Beach since Memorial Day (nope, was there 6/1), but the idea is the same...I avoid the greenheads, mosquitoes, and people all summer at the expense of missing some terns, shearwaters and petrels which maybe, maybe, I would get lucky and see from the beach.
After doing Reed's Road, the Tidal Pond Trail, and Spizzle Creek before the anchorage, I didn't have enough energy to walk the southern end of the park down to the inlet...I got perhaps halfway there before I decided to turn around. Nothing I could see was flying out in the ocean, but the beach itself was surprisingly busy with shorebirds. I spent a little time checking out one Black-bellied Plover hoping it was a golden, but couldn't turn it into one.
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| Ring-billed Gull |
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| Laughing Gull, Juvenile |
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| Black-bellied Plover |
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| Ruddy Turnstone |
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| Semipalmated Plover |
Canada Goose
Mourning Dove
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Carolina Chickadee
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Seaside Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Red-winged Blackbird
Black-and-white Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
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