Double Trouble SP | Ocean City Welcome Center 4/16--Lesser Yellowlegs, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Ovenbird, Worm-eating Warbler

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Ocean City Welcome Center

A bifurcated day. I started the morning early, since the whip-poor-will woke me up at 5:20. A walk around Double Trouble seemed like it might turn up some new birds which it did, including one that was totally unexpected. First thing in the morning, the area behind the sawmill is often very active, as it was today, with Common Yellowthroats singing and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers buzzing around, but one bird caught my attention in a bush.  I couldn't see it very well but size and "giss" told me it was a warbler. Luckily, it flew up out of the bush and into a tree that was just starting to bud. Definitely a warbler but one with a black strip behind its eye and a buffy face. Then it "sang" a song that was cross between a Pine Warbler and Chipping Sparrow--huh! a Worm-eating Warbler. A couple of gnatcatchers came into the tree and chased it away. I don't see a lot of worm-eaters--I'm lucky to hear a couple a year--and I have definitely never had one at Double Trouble, so this was a treat. 

No Louisiana Waterthrush again today, but at the reservoir along Mud Dam Road there are now mud flats where two weeks ago there was water and on those flats I found the usual Killdeer and the not so usual Lesser Yellowlegs. I'm often leery of separating the yellowlegs if they don't call, but this one was, as I once hear Greg describe it, a "delicate" sandpiper, feeding daintily in the muck. 

I was also looking for one more warbler today and figured the best place to look for it was along the purple trail but walked toward there along Mud Dam I got lucky and heard the unmistakable song of the Ovenbird and got even luckier when some forceful pishing brought it out of the brush and onto a branch over my head. Three year birds in a couple of hours, I was happy.Late morning, Shari & I headed down the Parkway for our annual trip to the Ocean City Welcome Center on the causeway to (where else) Ocean City. The rookery there is quite an attraction, even if you're not an ardent photographer. I've often said that it's like going to the zoo, because it is so-ooo easy to find the birds. That was and was not the case today. 

Part of the rookery

I remember 9 years ago when one White Ibis showed up in the rookery. It was an event and birders from all over New Jersey, including us, made the trip down to see the bird. Today, the bird is no longer flagged as rare in Cape May County. In fact, the rookery is now overwhelmingly a White Ibis breeding colony. There were at least 125 White Ibises there, and probably many more. I see that last year I listed 200 and that's probably closer to the actual number. But, as the White Ibises move in, something has to move out, as there are only so many trees in that little patch of marsh. And what have move out, it seems, are the Yellow-crowned Night-Herons.  When I looked over the railing, all I saw were white waders nesting and roosting--mostly ibises, with some Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets sprinkled in. It was distressing not to find any yellow-crowns when last year I broke the eBird filter by listing 40 (which was probably an undercount). Finally, I saw one flying in the back of the marsh. About a half hour later, Shari found another walking on the edge of the rookery, gathering sticks, which was a good sign, meaning that some nesting is still going on there. In all, we found perhaps 5 yellow-crowns, including an immature bird, but it is nothing like in years past. Perhaps it's early and the yellow-crowns will find a way to fight their way back in, but right now the White Ibises have the hammer. 

Little Blue Heron
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Aside from Green Herons and, surprisingly, Great Blue Herons, we found every wader you'd expect in NJ, including nesting Little Blue Herons and one Tricolored Heron. And two American Oystercatchers out on point of land made the day for Shari. If I was going to introduce somebody to birding, the place I would take them is the rookery. 

Double Trouble:

40 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose  5
Mallard  3
Mallard (Domestic type)  1
Mourning Dove  1
Killdeer  1     
Lesser Yellowlegs  1     
Herring Gull  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  5
Osprey  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Eastern Phoebe  2
White-eyed Vireo  2
Blue Jay  2
American Crow  3
Common Raven  1     Croaking
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  3
Tree Swallow  2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  6
Carolina Wren  2
American Robin  5
House Finch  2
Chipping Sparrow  10
Field Sparrow  2
Dark-eyed Junco  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  4
Eastern Towhee  7
Red-winged Blackbird  6
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Ovenbird  1
Worm-eating Warbler  1     
Common Yellowthroat  3
Palm Warbler  2
Pine Warbler  4
Yellow-rumped Warbler  2
Northern Cardinal  2

Ocean City Welcome Center

23 species
Brant  55
Canada Goose  5
American Black Duck  1
Clapper Rail  1
American Oystercatcher  2
Laughing Gull  1
Herring Gull  2
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Forster's Tern  2
Yellow-crowned Night Heron  5    
Black-crowned Night Heron  3
Little Blue Heron  3     
Tricolored Heron  1
Snowy Egret  20
Great Egret  25
White Ibis  125
Glossy Ibis  12
Osprey  1
Fish Crow  1
House Finch  1
Song Sparrow  2
Red-winged Blackbird  1
Boat-tailed Grackle  20

Black-crowned Night-Heron