Brig 5/25--Gull-billed Tern, American White Pelican, Yellow-breasted Chat

American White Pelican

The appeal of a huge white bird was enough to overcome my reluctance to go to Brig, a reluctance that springs from my "hunter's knowledge" of the place as it was phrased to me today by another birder. In other words, I've been there so many times, know the refuge so well, that there is rarely any novelty when I go there--I know what to look for at each Goose Marker and that prospect can be wearying.  

Usually, when I go to Brig alone, my routine is to walk from the Gull Pond through the upland section to Jen's Trail (or what used to be called Jen's Trail) then back. After that, I'd do a loop around the Wildlife Drive. Today, I changed it up to increase my chances of finding that big rare American White Pelican that has been floating around for the last few days. I drove directly onto the drive without even glancing at the Gull Pond, parked around GM 4 and walked up to the observation platform where the pelican has been seen paddling around in the impoundment. And didn't find it. I did come across a Gull-billed Tern on a sandbar with Laughing Gulls, Black Skimmers, and various peeps and thought that I might have to be satisfied with that as my new bird for the year. 

I turned around and walked to the beginning of the drive, tried to scare up a Sora at the first pool, failed, returned to my car and started birding in earnest (actually, I was in Galloway, NJ). As I approached the observation tower, I looked into the bay on my right and there it was! Unmistakable as the cliche goes on eBird. Where this huge bird was hiding I don't know, though I suppose it could hunker down behind a bank of the marsh--as the picture shows, they can change their aspect ratio pretty drastically. I also learned today (from the same birder who gave me the "hunter's knowledge" phrase) that the protuberance on its beak was not a growth, but something that appears in breeding season.  

American Oystercatcher

With that out of the way, I just drove leisurely around the dikes, picking up the birds where I'd expect them to be--the oystercatchers on the rocky shoreline, the Common Tern at the sluice gate at the NE corner, and every mud flat full of sandpipers, the largest numbers going to Dunlin and Semipalmated Sandpipers. The only real surprise (in life, I don't like surprises, in birding they're my goal) was a single Snow Goose off the north dike. Brig usually has one or two lingering Snow Geese; oftentimes they're injured birds. This one may be too, but it didn't seem in any distress. 

Common Tern

Snow Goose

When I got to the trail formerly known as Jen's (apparently it has been renamed as part of the Bristow Trail), I parked the car and began my walk through the uplands and over to the Gull Pond, reversing my usual route, wild man that I am. About a half mile down the road I came up on a Brig's regular Saturday bird walk--I knew a few of the participants and we stopped to chat--speaking of chats, I was informed that I had just walk past where they had heard one. I wrote myself a mental note to listen on the way back. 

On the way back, I did stop, and it didn't take long for me to hear the "blat blat blat" and other vocal stylings of a Yellow-breasted Chat. I even managed to see one hopping around bushes and a cedar tree, though never long enough to get a good look much less a photo. In fact, as far as I can tell, there were three chats, because I heard another from the other side of the road and still another farther along, close to the entrance road to the Refuge Overlook which everyone still calls the Experimental Pool just as everyone still calls it Brig (not Forsythe). Changing a brand name is very hard. 

A second drive around the impoundments added Red Knot, Ruddy Duck (late), American Black Duck, and the cry of a Red-shouldered Hawk (flagged as "rare") where the chats were still singing their idiotic "songs" 

So it turned out to a very good day, with 3 year birds and 77 species altogether:

Snow Goose  1
Canada Goose  75
Mute Swan  40
Mallard  7
American Black Duck  20
Ruddy Duck  1     Dogleg
Mourning Dove  4
Clapper Rail  3
American Oystercatcher  4
Black-bellied Plover  15
Semipalmated Plover  10
Short-billed Dowitcher  6
Willet  15
Ruddy Turnstone  100
Red Knot  3     Mud flat across from observation tower on south dike
Dunlin  500
Least Sandpiper  10
Semipalmated Sandpiper  500
Laughing Gull  300
Herring Gull  4
Great Black-backed Gull  1
Black Skimmer  20
Gull-billed Tern  5
Forster's Tern  30
Common Tern  1
Double-crested Cormorant  10
American White Pelican  1   
Black-crowned Night Heron  1
Snowy Egret  15
Green Heron  1     GM 5
Great Egret  45
Great Blue Heron  6
Glossy Ibis  2
Turkey Vulture  2
Osprey  15
Red-shouldered Hawk  1   
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  4
Eastern Kingbird  7
White-eyed Vireo  2
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  3
Fish Crow  4
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
Tree Swallow  2
Purple Martin  25
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2
Barn Swallow  4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
House Wren  1
Marsh Wren  10
Carolina Wren  5
European Starling  1
Gray Catbird  15
Brown Thrasher  2
American Robin  4
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  1
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  3
Seaside Sparrow  4
Song Sparrow  5
Eastern Towhee  2
Yellow-breasted Chat  3
Orchard Oriole  2
Red-winged Blackbird  125
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Ovenbird  2
Common Yellowthroat  15
Yellow Warbler  20
Pine Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  3
Blue Grosbeak  1