New Egypt 2/24--White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow, New Egypt

I returned to Jumping Brook Preserve this morning for the first time since my unfortunate episode in September when, while I was considering whether I could step over a breach in the path between two bogs, I lost my footing as the edge gave way and slipped waist deep into the water, losing my phone which somehow inexplicably managed to slide out of my pocket and sink into the muck. Apparently, iPhones don't float.

The last time I was there, what must have been an army of beavers had managed to create so many dams, that the bogs were overflowing and the paths, for a hundred yards at a stretch, were not just underwater, but flowing streams. I was happy to see today, that whoever the caretaker of the property is was taking care of the property, because the front bog had obviously been drained, drawing off all the water on the paths, and the other reservoirs were very low. Only one Killdeer in all that mud, but the robins, bluebirds, and blackbirds were all happily foraging. The evidence of the beaver brigade was everywhere--formidable trees gnawed down, pointed stumps every few feet, wood chips scattered all around. But I could walk instead of slosh. 

Unfortunately, even in the reservoirs that were full, there wasn't much waterfowl to find--14 black ducks were the largest number of ducks or geese that I could find. A few Ring-necked Ducks, a pair of Hooded Mergansers and only 4 geese were the best I could do. There were a couple of spots I didn't try since I'm still a bit leery of the more out of the way areas, but the big reservoir at the back, where I would expect to find a big flock of ring-necks, had only 2 geese floating on it. The best birds I had all morning there were on the way out--I heard, as I often do there, a Red-shouldered Hawk crying "Keer, keer, keer" and I found a Brown Creeper spiraling up a tree then down to the next one. Brown Creeper is a patch bird there for me. 

I'd been walking in a light, but steady rain almost the entire three hours I was at Jumping Brook. Of course, as soon as I got to my car, it had stopped. I had been considering going over to the longhorn cattle "pastures" not too far away, even though that spot, which once was the place for Sandhill Cranes in the county and was where Shari spotted Northern Lapwings (that year's celebrity species), hasn't been very interesting of late. I used to stop at a fence line on Brynmore Road and check out the sparrow flock, but nothing the last few times I've been there has turned up. I went anyway, and it was the same thing today, nothing there but a Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and a House Sparrow. There was some entertainment when I was held up by the farmer's pet Swan Goose which would not let my car get by on Inman--I had to stop, get out of the car, and let the bird attack my ankles before it would move away--even then it walked along the side of my car screeching into the window as I drove carefully away, trying not to kill it. 

I scanned the fields for shorebirds but found only a flocks of robins and starlings. I parked and walked to the treeline that is beyond the pastures--there is a scraggly tree there that often has a flock of mixed sparrows in it. Today was one of those days--besides the predictable House Sparrows, I found another Song Sparrow, a couple of Savannah Sparrows, a couple of Chipping Sparrows, and then one sparrow that obviously wasn't a House Sparrow but, finally, the bird I always look for on Brynmore, a White-crowned Sparrow. Sans white-crown, which is why I didn't recognize it at first--the first winter birds have brown caps--but the conical shape of the big, shape of the head, the long tail, all gave me the field marks I need. So, the trip was worth it. Pickup truck guys: I saw an eagle, beautiful adult perched in a tree. 

I might even have seen two. There was a hawk very far away across the pasture that, with the overcast lighting and with its back to me, I couldn't make out very well--I assumed it was an immature eagle but it looked too light on its back for me to definitely say. I don't think it was anything exotic, but I took a digiscope of it and put it on my eBird list anyway. If anyone wants to take a guess, have at it.

Jackson Liberty HS 2/19--Horned Lark

The best place for an impressive display of Horned Larks is in Jackson, on the soccer fields of Liberty High School.  But, since wandering school grounds with binoculars is, let us say, frowned upon by law enforcement, the only times to go there are on weekends. I was fretting a bit Sunday night, when another weekend had passed without me getting there to put the larks on the list. You tell yourself that eventually you'll get there but "eventually" has a stale date on it. Then, the little 💡 went on--"Tomorrow is Presidents' Day--no school!" At 8:30 this morning, I parked my car in the empty lot and walked across the road to the empty soccer fields, turned to my right and found a flock of 85 Horned Larks feeding on the brown grass. They blend in so perfectly with the turf and are so skittish about being approached, that I have never gotten a very good photo of the larks there. But I took a lot of distant shots of the flock to put on my eBird list, since 85 explodes the filter for a count. 

I watched the larks for 20 minutes feed and fly around (they tend to get up, fly off, and then return to where they started), and then headed over to Bunker Hill Bogs, about 5 minutes away. It is about a mile and half walk from the parking lot to Butterfly Road, through yet another former cranberry operation. The back bogs, I was hoping, would produce Wood Duck, which I still "needed" for the county. If not, Butterfly Bogs, across the street from the exit of Bunker Hill Bogs, might have them. But my first walk through didn't yield any woodies (a lot of stiff water) and Butterfly Bogs was even stiffer. However, on my return trip I flushed a drake and hen Wood Duck from the edge of the bog just before the metal bridge. And for you pickup truck drivers keeping score, I did see an eagle. In the two spots I totaled 32 species in about 3 hours of walking:

Species                First Sighting
Canada Goose   Jackson Liberty HS
Wood Duck   Bunker Hill Bogs
Mallard   Jackson Liberty HS
Ring-necked Duck   Bunker Hill Bogs
Hooded Merganser   Bunker Hill Bogs
Rock Pigeon   Jackson Liberty HS
Mourning Dove   Bunker Hill Bogs
Killdeer   Jackson Liberty HS
Herring Gull   Jackson Liberty HS
Black Vulture   Bunker Hill Bogs
Bald Eagle   Bunker Hill Bogs
Belted Kingfisher   Bunker Hill Bogs
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Jackson Liberty HS
Northern Flicker   Bunker Hill Bogs
Blue Jay   Jackson Liberty HS
American Crow   Jackson Liberty HS
Common Raven   Bunker Hill Bogs
Carolina Chickadee   Bunker Hill Bogs
Tufted Titmouse   Bunker Hill Bogs
Horned Lark   Jackson Liberty HS
White-breasted Nuthatch   Bunker Hill Bogs
Brown Creeper   Bunker Hill Bogs
Winter Wren   Bunker Hill Bogs
European Starling   Jackson Liberty HS
Eastern Bluebird   Jackson Liberty HS
American Robin   Bunker Hill Bogs
Dark-eyed Junco   Jackson Liberty HS
White-throated Sparrow   Bunker Hill Bogs
Song Sparrow   Jackson Liberty HS
Red-winged Blackbird   Bunker Hill Bogs
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Bunker Hill Bogs
Northern Cardinal   Jackson Liberty HS

Reeves Bogs 2/18--Rusty Blackbird

Rusty Blackbird

Sometimes, rare that it is, I just get a feeling that today's the day for a certain bird. I got that feeling twice this morning. The first time was upon arrival at Reeves Bogs, where I so often find myself on Sunday mornings. 6:45 AM and I thought the conditions perfect--cold, windless, the purple fading from the skies as the sun inched up over the cedars, white lumps of Tundra Swans dotting the bog. The second time was when I was walking up between the front bog and the maple swamp, with the sun now lighting up the tops of the bare trees that line the path. I had heard a couple of "conka-rees" from Red-winged Blackbirds (my informant insists that they are singing earlier now than in the past--usually, he says, you don't hear them until mid-March), when I saw a blackbird flying from the bog into the treetops. On absolutely no evidence I said to myself, "That's going to be a Rusty Blackbird," and so it was. Reeves, in the winter, is fairly reliable for Rusties, but why that one was going to be the bird, I have no idea. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. 

If I could only get a Virginia Rail to call from the maple swamp, I'd have my three Reeves specialties (Wood Duck was last week). 

Tundra Swans at dawn

I knew for two reasons that I wasn't going to get a lot of species today--for one thing it was cold, the bogs half-covered with a thin sheet of ice, and for another, my route was going to have to be different since the rudimentary bridges over some of the breaches would be too icy to cross. My informant, who built many of them, has often told me, don't try them when there's frost, you'll go right into a bog. So I had to walk a route that spent a lot of time in the woods and along a couple of forest roads where there is very little bird activity. My walk took me past the first bog (where most of the Tundra Swans were), around Milton's Reservoir (two more swans there and two in the outlet pond, onto Cooper Road, a left on Muddy Road, past the Atlantic White Cedar Preserve, along Bear Hole (two more swans), along the third bog, (two more swans), around for a look at the second bog (66 Ring-necked Ducks and 8 Hooded Mergansers), then back into the woods and finally back to the car. Just under 4 miles. And hardly a peep out of the birds. But I did see two eagles for all you guys in pick-up trucks. 

Only 17 species, but one year bird and a good walk around one of my favorite places. 

Canada Goose  40
Tundra Swan  37
Mallard  5
American Black Duck  10
Ring-necked Duck  66
Hooded Merganser  8
Mourning Dove  3
Bald Eagle  2
Belted Kingfisher  1     Flew into maple swamp
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tufted Titmouse  4
Eastern Bluebird  1
American Robin  1
Dark-eyed Junco  2
Red-winged Blackbird  5
Rusty Blackbird  1

Reeves Bogs 2/11--Wood Duck

Reeves Bogs, 6:45 AM

I made my first trip of the year to Reeves Bogs this morning, arriving just before dawn. I would write "sunrise" but the sun never showed today. In the gloaming as I was parking in the clearing by the big dead tree, I could see many white lumps in the big front bog--38 Tundra Swans I eventually counted, my high for the year, even more than the 33 I saw the other day at Whitesbog. A week ago, I only saw 8 on the PWBC.  At this point in the season, these must be returning swans, making their northwester diagonal migration. 

There were a number of possibilities for year birds at Reeves--I was probably a little late for screech-owl and I couldn't get a Virginia Rail to call from the maple swamp as they sometimes will. But the most likely of the birds I did get--7 Wood Ducks flew out of the swamp and into the front bog as I started my walk up the south side of the bog and 7 Wood Ducks flew out 10 minutes later, just as I was getting to where they had landed near the breach in that bog. 

Tundra Swans

Since I hadn't been there in almost two months, I didn't know what to expect in terms of the so-called trails. I just resigned myself that I might have to do some backtracking depending on how high the water was in some crossing spots, and I did have to--between the beavers and the all the rain, getting around there is an adventure. But I'm glad I had to turn around because I saw my informant and his dog coming up toward me--the dog, having seen my car, knew I was there and started tracking me. Luckily for my informant, I wasn't too far into the bogs--I have seen a disgusted face on him when his dog has insisted on finding me way over in the Cedar Restoration Area, a spot he doesn't normally walk to. I told him it was no go on that path, and we walked around the bog the other way, crossing one of his "bridges" which are not for the faint of heart. 

Aside from the woodies and the swans, there were more waterfowl than I often see there--geese and Mallards, of course, but also about 60 Ring-necked Ducks (another species probably staging for a northward migration), Hooded Mergansers, 2 American Black Ducks, and 2 Buffleheads (infrequent) in Milton's Reservoir. 

Old well

The great thing about walking with my informant is that I always learn something new, whether it be botany, herpetology, or local history and geography.  Today is was history. We were in the field to the east of the parking area that had just undergone a prescribed burn--only partially successful because of the dampness. But instead of knee-high weeds, you could see the ground. "There used to be houses here you know," said my informant. Reeves was once a thriving cranberry operation--on the other side of the parking area you can see the foundation of the packing house. Hard to imagine, since where we were walking was nothing but trees, mostly dead, and abandoned fox dens, but soon we came to an old well head, which could be a real ankle breaker if one was walking around there when the grass was high. You learn something new every day and most of it not worth knowing but this strikes me as an exception. 

A typical Pine Barrens winter walk--only 20 species but the cool bird requirement (Wood Ducks are easily my favorite waterfowl) was fulfilled.

Canada Goose  35
Tundra Swan  38
Wood Duck  7     
American Black Duck  2
Ring-necked Duck  60
Bufflehead  2     
Hooded Merganser  6
Red-shouldered Hawk  1     Back bogs
Belted Kingfisher  1     Bear Hole, heard
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  2
Winter Wren  1     Heard
Eastern Bluebird  5
American Robin  20
American Goldfinch  1
Dark-eyed Junco  15
Red-winged Blackbird  6

Lake of the Lilies 2/9--Lesser Black-backed Gull

 I made a few stops around Point Pleasant this morning. Things didn't get off to a good start at Baltimore Avenue which has been turned into a construction site, so I wasn't able to set up my scope, what with dump trucks backing up and excavators scurrying around on their treads. And the tide was in, so there was no sand bar on which one may find an "interesting" gull. Three minutes of that was enough. 

Purple Sandpipers, Manasquan Inlet

I drove over to the Manasquan Inlet and set myself up on the jetty. Unlike the jetty at Barnegat Light, one can walk this jetty without risking life and optics. One can stand on it and scope the ocean without worrying about slipping between the rocks with one wrong step. One does not have an excuse to like "this is too dangerous" or "this is too wet" to get off the jetty. And if you like to look at Common Loons, that was the place to be today. I was kind of hoping for gannets, which I need for the county, but none were in evidence. I did see one Razorbill, always fun to find, but no Dovekies, murres, or guillemots, which are a lot more fun. Most of my entertainment was provided by a big flock of Purple Sandpipers that were feeding on the cement jacks that buttress the jetty. I heard them peeping when I got toward the end of the jetty, and they kept flying up and over the inlet. Every so often, I'd rest my eyes by looking down into the crevasses and see them standing there. Unlike the Barnegat jetty, there doesn't seem to be much growing on the cement there, so what they're finding to eat is a mystery. 

To the south there was what my friend Linda would call a large "herd" of gulls, Herring and Great Black-backed. In any large congregation of gulls there is a very good probability of finding an "interesting" gull if one is 

A) patient &

B) knows what one is looking for.

Since A) does not apply to me and I am spotty on B), I did not walk down the beach to scope the herd. 

Killdeer, Lake of the Lilies

Instead, I went to Lake of the Lilies. It was better than the last time I was there, when the water was 90% frozen, but the duckage was much less than what I'd expect. Predominately scaup (2 greater, the other lesser) and Ruddy Ducks, with the usual American Coots. (Any guesses as to why this is the best place south of the Manasquan Reservoir to find coots?) There was also a big flock of gulls in the middle of the water. I walked around 3/4 of the lake (.4 miles), trying to find anything unusual (Tufted Duck would be nice), while thinking to myself, again, that out of all those gulls, one must be an oddball. When I turned around and got back to my car on Elizabeth Ave, a birder I know had set up his scope just behind where I was parked. We compared notes ("Too bad about Baltimore Avenue") and talked about gull experts we know. We also wondered where the Killdeer were that usually feed on the grassy strip between the water and the fence. Wondering brought two of them in--who knows where they were hiding--and then J found a Lesser Black-backed Gull immature, no less, just to add to the degree of difficulty. I had some difficulty finding it (Greater Black-backs kept getting in the way), but then the bird took off and flew to our right, giving very good looks. When it returned, a few minutes later, good comparisons could be made between it and the other bigger gulls. J was saying before he found the Lesser, that he wanted to get good at gulls. I just want to get good gulls. And I'll mooch them if I have to. 

Bayview Ave Park | Barnegat Lighthouse SP 2/7--Black-bellied Plover, Least Sandpiper, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Red Crossbill

Black-crowned Night-Heron (immature)

Two targets and two surprises made for a good day on LBI. On my way up to Barnegat Lighthouse, I stopped at the Bayview Avenue Park. After a quick look at the bay from there I drove a little farther north to the corner, where a grove of trees surrounds a municipal well. I don't know if this is technically part of the park, but I include it in my lists. My target there was Black-crowned Night-Heron, a bird that roosts there in the winter. It used to be you had to walk along the road and hope you'd see one tucked high up in a cedar. Then, sometime in the last few years, a path was cut into the grove by parties unknown. This made it easy to find the herons, at first. But then they disappeared for a year or so. One theory was owls, another was too damn many people traipsing in there to say hello. The latter idea seems more likely to me. 

The opening of the path is not quite as easy to find as it first was, overgrown as it is with phragmites, so that might have helped in the return of the herons, because as soon as I took steps onto the path, I flushed two immature birds. There were probably a lot more in there, but I didn't want to disturb the roost any more than I already had. I stood exactly where my first two steps had taken me, took some photos of one bird, and left happy. Year bird--as if I'm not going to eventually see night-herons dozens of times this year, although, as a friend of mine once observed, "At my age, you never know." 

Least Sandpiper

My first surprise of the day was while walking around the pond at Barnegat Lighthouse to get to the end of the beach. In the winter, this is a much better way of getting there than either walking on the jetty or trying to cross the inlet on the beach that feeds the pond. In the summer, when the pond is restricted for the nesting plovers and oystercatchers, it is either hope for low tide or wear muck boots. Nothing much of interest was in the pond--the usual waterfowl and gulls--but when I got to the eastern end of it I found one Dunlin feeding along the edge, and then, a couple more skittering around the geese and with those two were two Least Sandpipers, rare for this time of year, although it is the third time I've had Least Sandpiper in winter there. 

I got to the jetty, took one look at the spray exploding over it, and knew I wasn't going to spend much time up there. The rocks were all slippery and I had a time of it finding one that was low enough and dry enough to get up there, but I couldn't look over the edge where the Harlequin Ducks hang out without get a shower of seawater. It was amusing to watch the Purple Sandpipers fly up out of the rock crevasses every time a wave hit. It was entertaining for three minutes, and then I jumped off onto the beach. 

Black-bellied Plover

With the rough seas I didn't see much profit in spending a lot of time scoping the ocean, though it wasn't hard to identify the rafts of Long-tailed Ducks. I found a few skunk-heads (Surf Scoters) bobbing in the swells, but my walk south to the buried mast of the Sea Star didn't turn up anything else. When I returned to the jetty the waves hitting the rocks seemed to have calmed down and standing atop there were two birding friends of mine, so I clambered up again. This time, in addition to the arial antics of the Purple Sandpipers, I was able to get close enough to the jetty to see some Harlequin Ducks. Comparing notes, they told me they had seen a Black-bellied Plover on their trek through the sand and I told them of the Leasts. I had come to the Light thinking it was time to add Black-bellied Plover to the year list so I walked along the jetty until I came to a little flock of Dunlins feeding among the rocks and with them, one plover. Easy to see why they're "Grey Plovers" in Europe. D & L & I met up again by the pond, but we couldn't find "my" Least Sandpipers. We walked along the berm on the south side of the pond, and it was there that I got the only bird I might not see/hear again all year.  D called out "Red Crossbill!" just as the "jip jip" call was sinking into the auditory processing area of my brain. 

For the Light, 33 species. The night-herons were the only other species at the Bayview Ave Park that weren't duplicated at the Light. 

Brant  100
Canada Goose  50
Mallard  10
American Black Duck  15
Harlequin Duck  4
Surf Scoter  5
Long-tailed Duck  100
Bufflehead  5
Red-breasted Merganser  70
Mourning Dove  1
Black-bellied Plover  1
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Sanderling  4
Dunlin  25
Purple Sandpiper  30
Least Sandpiper  2     
Herring Gull  300
Great Black-backed Gull  50
Red-throated Loon  1
Common Loon  1
Great Cormorant  9
Turkey Vulture  1     Dunes
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
European Starling  200
Northern Mockingbird  2
American Robin  1
House Sparrow  5
House Finch  1     Heard
Red Crossbill  1     
Snow Bunting  50     Pond
Savannah Sparrow (Ipswich)  2
Red-winged Blackbird  5     Phragmites on edge of pond
Yellow-rumped Warbler  5

PWBC 2/4--Great Horned Owl

Because most of the Pine Barrens lie outside any Christmas Bird Count circles, for the last 9 years Jim Schill has organized a Pinelands Winter Bird Census the week before the Super Bowl. Twice in the last week I was at Whitesbog scouting my territory for the census, both times starting way before daybreak, listening for owls in all my usual spots: Behind the Barrel Factory, the Triangle Field, at the entrance to the bogs from the Village, at the parking spot by the Middle Bog, and at the double-laned road. Both times I heard nothing, despite repeatedly playing various hoots, trills, and whinnies through a blue tooth speaker. This morning I got there even earlier than the previous two times and decided to try different spots. Driving in on the road along Rome Pond I stopped and played some hoots--and was rewarded at 5:19 by the responding hoots of a Great Horned Owl. At 5:30 I stopped at the double-laned road which is the de facto border between Burlington and Ocean Counties. I intended to try for owls in Ocean but played some hoots and whinnies. Two minutes later the hoots got another GHOW calling back. Whether it was in Burlington or Ocean I couldn't tell, but since eBird is a survey of where your feet are, not where the bird may be, I was able to list it for both counties by walking 50 feet to my east. A crescent moon lit my way. 

I then drove into the Ocean County portion of Whitesbog, hoping to get Eastern Screech Owl and Barred Owl to call. Barred Owl was a long shot--once, many years ago, I heard one there, but my informant there once told me that they nested behind Big Tank, so I drove up there and played "Who cooks for you?" a number of times and got no response. That didn't surprise me or really even disappoint me. Not getting any screech owls did disappoint me. I had to remind myself that most of the time on the census, I would get one or the other of the owls--only once, maybe twice, have I heard both. 

By 6:30 it was getting light, though sunrise was a little more than a half hour away. I futilely tried the Triangle Field for screech before driving into the Village with a zip-loc bag of seeds that I used to replenish the feeders there, figuring I would come back later and pick up the easy birds. On a census, every bird is equally important (though there is an Orwellian sense that some birds are equally more important).

25% of the Tundra Swans counted today

I then drove out to the bogs to survey the waterfowl. That didn't take long because I can count to 8 pretty fast. That's how many Tundra Swans were on Union Pond. Time was, Sonny, that it was nothing for this old-timer to get 30, 40, even 80 Tundra Swans on Union and the 3 adjacent bogs, not mention birds on the Upper Reservoir. But the last couple of years have seen their numbers plummet. 8 is about as small a number as I can remember--even yesterday I had 11. There were lots of geese, a few Mallards, and some Ring-neck Ducks.  Even the Hooded Mergansers I had been seeing lately had disappeared. 

Reinforcements arrived around 8:30 in the persons of Scott and Deb. Last year, when I couldn't do the census because it fell on Shari's significant birthday, Scott filled in for me, and I was happy to have their company and their eyes and ears. I probably would have missed the siskins zipping overhead and Deb found cowbirds at the feeders when I was looking elsewhere. And where I might have had one Hermit Thrush, with Scott we had 5. 

We walked a goodly amount in Whitebog on both sides of the borderline, picking up dribs of black ducks in Ditch Meadow and drabs of Buffleheads over on the Ocean County side. After we'd exhausted Whitesbog, we drove over to Pasadena Road which runs along J.J. White's property and it was there than we finally had our first raptor (not counting Turkey Vultures) of the day, a Red-tailed Hawk. It was there also that we finally got a Carolina Wren and most of our sparrows, including 9 Field Sparrows. The last new bird of the day was an American Kestrel Deb found on the roof of a shed as we were driving out. 

I drove over to Country Lake Estates to look at the eponymous lake--bupkus--a vulture and two geese. This I took as a signal from the birding gods to give it up, go home, and drink a beer. 

For the day 42 species, which is actually a little more, I think, than I normally tally:

Species                First Sighting
Canada Goose   Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)
Tundra Swan   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Mallard   Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)
American Black Duck   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Ring-necked Duck   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Bufflehead   Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)
Mourning Dove   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Herring Gull   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Turkey Vulture   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Red-tailed Hawk   Pasadena Road
Great Horned Owl   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Belted Kingfisher   Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Northern Flicker   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
American Kestrel   Pasadena Road
Blue Jay   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
American Crow   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Common Raven   Whitesbog (Ocean Co.)
Carolina Chickadee   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Tufted Titmouse   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
White-breasted Nuthatch   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Carolina Wren   Pasadena Road
European Starling   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Northern Mockingbird   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Eastern Bluebird   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Hermit Thrush   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
American Robin   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
House Finch   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Pine Siskin   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
American Goldfinch   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Field Sparrow   Pasadena Road
Fox Sparrow   Pasadena Road
Dark-eyed Junco   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
White-throated Sparrow   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Song Sparrow   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Red-winged Blackbird   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Brown-headed Cowbird   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Whitesbog (Burlington County)
Northern Cardinal   Whitesbog (Burlington County)

Crestwood Village 2/2--Wild Turkey

I didn't get very far today. My weather app claimed it wasn't raining around Whitesbog, while it was just drizzling here. I drove two blocks and found my first Wild Turkeys of the year. Common in Crestwood Village, they wander all over. For a long time last summer & autumn I had my own posse of turkeys that would hang around the side door until I fed them.  These might have been from that gang, because as soon as I got out of the car to take their picture, they ran up to see me. Unfortunately, I had no seeds with me. 

I find it risible that people are afraid of turkeys and complain that they've been attacked by marauding gangs of turkeys, or trapped in the house because menacing turkeys stand ready to strike in their driveway. They're turkeys. They're dumb. And they tend to run away from anything bigger than them (or smaller if they're yappy little dogs). Which is more evidence that these guys (four jakes and a tom) knew me. 

While I was taking the pictures with my phone, the drizzle started to be real rain and my weather app changed its tune--suddenly it was raining at Whitesbog. And would continue all day. I turned the car around and went back home, having fulfilled the "one cool bird a day" requirement. 

Are you sure there's no food in there?

Brig 2/1--Northern Pintail, Clapper Rail

Northern Pintail

I made my first trip of the year down to Brig today, meeting my buddy Bob Auster there. I got there about an hour before Bob (I don't have nearly as long a drive as he does) and made my way to the Gull Pond. Not much was shaking down there, so I walked the road up to the start of the drive. I did see one interesting duck in the pond along the road, a hen Common Goldeneye. You don't see many goldeneyes at Brig. 

I walked the first 1/8 of mile or so of the Wildlife Drive. At the start, I passed 5 women who were intently peering into the phragmites. I suspected they were looking for a bittern, but I wasn't interested in just standing around. The usual ducks were in evidence--shovelers, Green-winged Teal, Mallards, black ducks--nothing to stop you in your tracks, but I did hear, very loud, my first two Clapper Rails of the year. 

On the way back, three of the women were still standing at the corner. I asked what they were looking for and one responded that they were listening for Saltmarsh Sparrow. Not totally unreasonable, I thought, but pretty early, and besides they wouldn't be singing this time of year, not that I can hear their faint songs or calls anyway. Ergo, there are better ways to spend your time at Brig. 

I moved on. The other two women in the group were on the road, looking at Yellow-rumped Warblers. One asked me if it was possible that she'd seen an Orange-crowned Warbler. I said it was possible but didn't tell her that the bird she described wasn't an orange-crowned. (Of course, it's a lot easier to say what a bird isn't than what it is, since it can only be one species while it cannot be 10,000 species.) It turned out that their interest in Saltmarsh Sparrows stemmed from their being from Ohio. But their real target had been the Red-flanked Bluetail. When I told them I lived in Crestwood Village, I became something of a celebrity to them--fame by association, I suppose. I didn't tell them that if the situation was reversed, and the bluetail was in Columbus, Ohio, I sure as hell wouldn't drive all the way out there to see it. 

I made my way back to the parking lot and met Bob. We did two loops of the drive plus a walk on Jen's Trail and a walk around the trails by the Visitor's Center. We each had 52 species with him having a couple I missed and vice versa. My only other new bird for the year was Northern Pintail. In terms of beautiful ducks, pintail is right up there with Wood Duck and Harlequin Duck, though it is a more austere beauty. 

Eagles and Northern Harriers were the main raptors we saw. The coolest sight of the day was when, on the east dike, we spotted a gray ghost hovering over the road right in front of the car. It then turned and glided by, seeming to look through the car window at us. It probably wasn't more than 15 feet away. Striking. 

My day list:

Snow Goose  2500
Brant  125
Canada Goose  130
Mute Swan  4
Northern Shoveler  100
Gadwall  12
American Wigeon  1
Mallard  35
American Black Duck  250
Northern Pintail  25
Green-winged Teal  48
Canvasback  15     North Dike
Bufflehead  15
Common Goldeneye  1     Hen Gull Pond
Hooded Merganser  25
Red-breasted Merganser  7
Ruddy Duck  12
Mourning Dove  1
Clapper Rail  2     Heard
American Coot  3
Greater Yellowlegs  6
Dunlin  40
Ring-billed Gull  45
Herring Gull  70
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Double-crested Cormorant  8     Flyovers & 2 off North Dike
Great Egret  4
Great Blue Heron  10
Black Vulture  1
Turkey Vulture  3
Northern Harrier  4
Bald Eagle  5
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Blue Jay  2
American Crow  2
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  5
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Carolina Wren  3
European Starling  15
Hermit Thrush  3     Jen’s Trail & Visitors ctr
American Robin  20
House Finch  6
Fox Sparrow  1     Jen’s Trail, heard
Dark-eyed Junco  1
White-throated Sparrow  3
Song Sparrow  3
Red-winged Blackbird  30
Boat-tailed Grackle  1     North dike
Yellow-rumped Warbler  15
Northern Cardinal  2