Cranberry Bogs 5/6--Orchard Oriole

Orchard Oriole

So intent was I on picking ticks off my pants this morning while walking along an overgrown dike out on the bogs in South Toms River that when I saw a bird fly out of small tree into another, it took me a moment to realize that that was one of the birds for which I was risking my health. It was a female Orchard Oriole, and obviously FOY. I particularly was feeling the lack of this species since I had blithely told a friend, who had one at his feeder, that I was sure to get one and that was two weeks ago. After I flicked another Lonestar Tick off my knee--they worry me more than Deer Ticks since they don't take very long to transmit their diseases unlike Deer Ticks which have to be sucking your blood for quite a long time--I saw a very handsome brick red male to my right, but it flew off and hunkered down into the brush. I also heard two more males singing their rather disjointed song farther back when I had prudently decided to stay on the sandy trails. 

I also, finally, saw my first Green Heron for the year in this county--I heard the squawk first then saw it fly across out of reservoir and over to the trees lining the banks of the largest reservoir there. There is one bog there that is drained, and it is where I usually find Killdeer and, once this year, Wilson's Snipe. Today, there were 23 Least Sandpipers feeding in it, while on a mud flat on one of the smaller reservoirs, I found a Solitary Sandpiper--I was hoping for a Spotted. I also added one patch bird this morning--a singing Scarlet Tanager that I at first heard around the buildings and was finally able to track down along the dike that runs perpendicular to the rudimentary road there.

In all, 41 species, not counting the domestic-type Mallard keeping company with the wild ducks in the bog with the Least Sandpipers. 

Canada Goose  4
Wood Duck  2
Mallard  4
Mallard (Domestic type)  1     
Mourning Dove  5
Chimney Swift  3
Solitary Sandpiper  1     
Least Sandpiper  23    
Green Heron  1     
Great Egret  1
Northern Flicker  3
Eastern Phoebe  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  3
Eastern Kingbird  2
White-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  10
American Crow  1
Fish Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  1
Tree Swallow  30
Barn Swallow  35
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3
House Wren  2
Carolina Wren  2
Gray Catbird  10
American Goldfinch  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  3
Song Sparrow  3
Eastern Towhee  4
Orchard Oriole  4    
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Common Grackle  5
Ovenbird  1
Black-and-white Warbler  2
Common Yellowthroat  15
Yellow Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  1
Prairie Warbler  3
Scarlet Tanager  1     
Northern Cardinal  2