September Wrap-up--All Over the Place

The month began with dozens of American Golden Plovers on a sod farm in Burlco and ended with a semi-nemesis bird for Ocean County--2 Pileated Woodpeckers at Colliers Mills (only my second county sighting of this local rarity).  Neither one was a year bird--the plovers were repeats from the last day of August and Shari & I saw two Pileated Woodpeckers at Bombay Hook in August. Still, nice bookends for the month. 

In between those days I ranged farther afield than I usually do in a month--my first trip up to Sandy Hook since New Year's Day, a day at Brig, a couple of forays into Monmouth County, one of them co-leading a field trip with some Brooklyn birders, a few trips over to Island Beach SP--and in all these places, there were rare birds. Of course, it helps that in most of these spots I was with really good birders which always increases your chances of seeing some cool birds. 

Drake & hen Wood Ducks, Cranberry Bogs

As the month wound up, I was walking around Reeves Bogs with my informant and his dog. I guess my mind hadn't made the transition from early fall migration to the end of fall migration, because I said possibly the dumbest thing I've ever said when trying to identify a bird. We saw a warbler flitting around a tree, and we couldn't get good looks at it, but then it flew a little higher and I caught a glimpse of a patch of yellow on its rump. My brain, still living in early September, went into what warblers have yellow-rumps--Magnolia? Cape May? "How about Yellow-rumped Warbler?" my friend said. Yeah, like duh, it's September 28, of course the Yellow-rumps are back! And this is why I am not qualified to lead field trips.

9 year birds in a  month where I tallied 143 species, which is quite a bit more than my usual count this time of year.

Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean

Species               First Sighting
Canada Goose   Whitesbog
Mute Swan   Lake Carasaljo
Wood Duck   Whitesbog
Northern Shoveler   Brig
Mallard   Whitesbog
American Black Duck   Brig
Northern Pintail   Island Beach SP
Green-winged Teal   Brig
King Eider   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Ruddy Duck   Brig
Wild Turkey   35 Sunset Rd
Rock Pigeon   Shelter Cove Park
Mourning Dove   Whitesbog
Eastern Whip-poor-will   35 Sunset Rd
Chimney Swift   Lake Carasaljo
Ruby-throated Hummingbird   35 Sunset Rd
Clapper Rail   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
American Coot   Lake of the Lilies
American Avocet   Brig
American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Black-bellied Plover   Sandy Hook
American Golden-Plover   Allen Sod Farms
Killdeer   Allen Sod Farms
Semipalmated Plover   Cattus Island County Park
Short-billed Dowitcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Spotted Sandpiper   Double Trouble SP
Solitary Sandpiper   Double Trouble SP
Lesser Yellowlegs   Double Trouble SP
Willet   Sandy Hook
Greater Yellowlegs   Double Trouble SP
Curlew Sandpiper   Brig
Buff-breasted Sandpiper   Reed Sod Farm
Dunlin   Brig
Baird's Sandpiper   Sandy Hook
White-rumped Sandpiper   Sandy Hook
Least Sandpiper   Double Trouble SP
Pectoral Sandpiper   Double Trouble SP
Semipalmated Sandpiper   Double Trouble SP
Laughing Gull   Cattus Island County Park
American Herring Gull   Shelter Cove Park
Great Black-backed Gull   Sandy Hook
Least Tern   Sandy Hook
Caspian Tern   Brig
Forster's Tern   Sandy Hook
Royal Tern   Sandy Hook
Pied-billed Grebe   Whitesbog
Eared Grebe   Brig
Common Loon   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Double-crested Cormorant   Whitesbog
White Ibis   Lighthouse Center
Glossy Ibis   Brig
Yellow-crowned Night Heron   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Black-crowned Night Heron   Lighthouse Center
Little Blue Heron   Island Beach SP
Tricolored Heron   Island Beach SP
Snowy Egret   Cattus Island County Park
Green Heron   Whitesbog
Great Egret   Cattus Island County Park
Great Blue Heron   Whitesbog
Brown Pelican   Island Beach SP
Black Vulture   35 Sunset Rd
Turkey Vulture   Allen Sod Farms
Osprey   Shelter Cove Park
Cooper's Hawk   Sandy Hook
Northern Harrier   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Bald Eagle   Island Beach SP
Red-tailed Hawk   Cranberry Bogs
Belted Kingfisher   Cattus Island County Park
Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Cattus Island County Park
Downy Woodpecker   Whitesbog
Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog
Pileated Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA
Northern Flicker   Whitesbog
American Kestrel   Colliers Mills WMA
Merlin   Cedar Bonnet Island
Eastern Wood-Pewee   Whitesbog
Eastern Phoebe   Whitesbog
Say's Phoebe   Sandy Hook
Great Crested Flycatcher   Cattus Island County Park
Eastern Kingbird   Whitesbog
White-eyed Vireo   Double Trouble SP
Warbling Vireo   Lake Carasaljo
Red-eyed Vireo   Double Trouble SP
Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd
American Crow   35 Sunset Rd
Fish Crow   Wawa South Toms River
Common Raven   Cranberry Bogs
Carolina Chickadee   Whitesbog
Tufted Titmouse   Whitesbog
Horned Lark   Reed Sod Farm
Tree Swallow   Double Trouble SP
Barn Swallow   Whitesbog
Ruby-crowned Kinglet   Island Beach SP
White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd
Red-breasted Nuthatch   Double Trouble SP
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Whitesbog
Northern House Wren   Cranberry Bogs
Marsh Wren   Island Beach SP
Carolina Wren   Whitesbog
European Starling   Shelter Cove Park
Gray Catbird   Whitesbog
Brown Thrasher   Island Beach SP-
Northern Mockingbird   Whitesbog
Eastern Bluebird   Lighthouse Center
American Robin   Cattus Island County Park
Cedar Waxwing   Island Beach SP
House Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd
House Finch   35 Sunset Rd
American Goldfinch   Whitesbog
Chipping Sparrow   Whitesbog
Field Sparrow   Sandy Hook
White-throated Sparrow   Island Beach SP
Seaside Sparrow   Cattus Island County Park
Nelson's Sparrow   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Saltmarsh Sparrow   Brig
Savannah Sparrow   Brig
Song Sparrow   Whitesbog
Lincoln's Sparrow   Island Beach SP
Swamp Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA
Eastern Towhee   Whitesbog
Bobolink   Cedar Bonnet Island
Baltimore Oriole   Island Beach SP
Red-winged Blackbird   Cranberry Bogs
Brown-headed Cowbird   Sandy Hook
Common Grackle   Double Trouble SP
Boat-tailed Grackle   Island Beach SP
Ovenbird   Lighthouse Center
Black-and-white Warbler   Assunpink WMA
Common Yellowthroat   Whitesbog
American Redstart   Cedar Bonnet Island
Cape May Warbler   Island Beach SP
Magnolia Warbler   Island Beach SP
Bay-breasted Warbler   Island Beach SP
Yellow Warbler   Great Bay Bvld. WMA
Blackpoll Warbler   Island Beach SP
Black-throated Blue Warbler   Island Beach SP
Palm Warbler   Whitesbog
Pine Warbler   Whitesbog
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Reeves Bogs
Prairie Warbler   Island Beach SP
Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd
Indigo Bunting   Assunpink WMA

Great Bay Blvd 9/29--Nelson's Sparrow

 I went down to the inlet beach at Great Bay Blvd specifically to look for Nelson's Sparrows, a tricky bird to both find and identify. I didn't think I'd find one in the jaws of a German Shorthaired Pointer. 

The dog, which belonged to a fisherman, was running around on the beach and through the marsh grass. There was a time, when I lived in the city, that I was frightened of dogs off leash, but now, aside from German Shepherds which I associate with the Gestapo, I don't mind them. In fact, I was a bit pleased to see the dog rushing through the reeds. Maybe it would flush up a Nelson's, birds that are notorious for running on the ground through the vegetation instead of flying. The tide was hight so there was too much water in the marsh for me to walk through but the dog didn't care. When I was just on the borderline of the Rutgers property, the dog came running by me. I saw a sparrow on the beach running toward the phrags, but the dog blocked its way. It tried to fly back to the beach and the dog maneuvered around and snatched at it with its teeth. The bird headed back to the phrags and then the dog caught it in its mouth. I have never seen a dog catch a bird. Cats yes. But never a dog.

I yelled NO NO, to the dog, but it paid no attention. It ran away with the bird in its mouth. I chased after it at the same I was yelling at its owner that it had just killed a bird. The owner came over and started to explain nature to me. There is no profit in arguing with idiots, so I just let him prattle on, even when he said the dog was supposed to point, no catch. Obviously, he wasn't much of a dog trainer. The dog, by this time, had dropped the sparrow. I pushed its muzzle out of the way and looked at the bird, which was still breathing. Blurry stripes and an orange wash on its mangled breast--a Nelson's. A hell of way to see it. And I confess, my shameful thought was, "It's still alive, I can count it." 

Then the dog picked up the sparrow and ran off with it, dropped it in the mud and then rolled on its back, crushing whatever was left of the bird. It then ran off into the marsh and flushed another sparrow, which flew into the high reeds away from the dog's reach, but not before I was able to glimpse its orange breast--my second Nelson's. 

The gory scene put me in a bad mood. I wasn't much in the mood for birding right then. There was a small group of birders on the beach who happened to be from Chicago--what were they doing there. It seems that their plan had been to go to Brig, but it was inexplicably closed--something about spraying, so they had pivoted to Tuckerton, hoping that the Forsythe site would update and say that the Wildlife Drive was again open. In the meantime, they and I saw a Saltmarsh Sparrow, some pelicans and lots of terns. The shorebirds they were hoping for were not around. The only shorebird I recorded today was a flock of Greater Yellowlegs on a mud bank off the first wooden bridge.  

Immature Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Driving back up the road I stopped at one of the cedar stands by the first wooden bridge and found both flavors of night-heron, and out in the marsh a single. But as I said, after the murder, my heart really wasn't in it anymore. 

22 species
Mute Swan  1
Mourning Dove  1
Clapper Rail  1
Greater Yellowlegs  41
Laughing Gull  25
American Herring Gull  20
Forster's Tern  50
Double-crested Cormorant  30
White Ibis  14
Yellow-crowned Night Heron  1
Black-crowned Night Heron  1
Tricolored Heron  1
Snowy Egret  55
Great Egret  100
Great Blue Heron  3
Brown Pelican  7
Tree Swallow  20
European Starling  10
Nelson's Sparrow  2     
Saltmarsh Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  1
Boat-tailed Grackle  20

Brig 2/26--Eared Grebe

I met Bob Auster down at Brig this morning to see what the tail end of migration might turn up. Aside from the expected sandpipers and waders, there were two birds that were rarities that we were interested in.  Before Bob got there I met the local guru of birding on the road to the Gull Pond and asked him about the Curlew Sandpiper that has been recorded there for a week or more, though I hadn't seen any listing for yesterday. I had seen one at Bombay Hook last month, but Bob still needed it for the year and besides it would go on my state list for 2025. The guru told me it was still there, at the famous dogleg, though it was hard to tell which side of the cedar tree it would be on. He also let me know that it wouldn't be as easy an i.d. as the one in Delaware, since this was a juvenile, lacking the red wash on the head and breast--in good light you could see a little bit of buff coloring, but nothing dramatic. 

American Avocets (5 breaks the eBird filter)

Bob also got the same intel when he arrived as I was walking in the woods. We met up and started down at the Gull Pond where there was a big flock of Wood Ducks, always a happy sight, and a few Caspian Terns flying around. Once we got onto the Wildlife Drive proper, we saw dozens of egrets--both great and snowy--and the first Glossy Ibises I'd seen this month. Our first big flock of shorebirds, up around GM 4, was mostly Semipalmated Sandpiper with a few White-rumped Sandpipers and a Pectoral Sandpiper. We didn't linger there too long--I suppose if we had, a Western Sandpiper might have been found. 

We continued on, with the number of egrets reaching ridiculous territory, until we got the dogleg and began in earnest to look for the Curlew Sandpiper. It actually didn't take Bob long to find it, while I was scanning ducks (I like ducks), but it was pretty far away. The scopes showed it to be our target, but we couldn't 100% rule out a Dunlin at the that distance. Fortunately, on the other side of the cedar, much closer to the road, the flock that was on the distant sandbar upped and flew over to join some other shorebirds in the cut, and among them was the Curlew Sandpiper, with the buff wash evident and the right curve to the bill. 

Tricolored Heron

I hadn't been paying as much attention to the rare bird reports as Bob, so I was surprised to hear that the grebes I had seen vaguely described, had turned out to be Eared Grebes, a rarity any time in NJ and really early in September. I was also surprised to hear that they weren't in the bay but in the Northwest Pool, where the phalaropes had been frolicking this year. We drove over there and started scoping a huge flock of ducks (I like ducks), mostly Northern Shovelers, with Ruddy Ducks mixed in. Bob found a grebe and then it dove and Bob found another grebe and then it dove and I was lucky, I saw one grebe, with a black cap and white cheek and then it dove and this game of Whack-a-Grebe went on for about a half hour. Had I not known that those grebes were Eared Grebes, I wouldn't have been able to tell you with certainty that they weren't Horned Grebes, but since Horned Grebes had not been reported then by default, they became Eared Grebes. Not very satisfying but then an Eared Grebe, in basic plumage, is only interesting because it isn't supposed to be here. Had it been a life bird I'd be reluctant to list it (though I probably still would have), or even had it been a state bird, or even a county bird, but it wasn't and so it's on the list for the year. 

For the day we had 59 species, not terrible, not great. Not a single warbler did we find and not an Osprey in sight. 

Our list:

Canada Goose  60
Mute Swan  35
Wood Duck  30
Northern Shoveler  50     50+
Mallard  40
American Black Duck  10
Green-winged Teal  40
Ruddy Duck  4     Dogleg and NW pool. 4+
Clapper Rail  2
American Avocet  5     Exact count
Black-bellied Plover  1
Semipalmated Plover  5
Lesser Yellowlegs  10
Greater Yellowlegs  5
Curlew Sandpiper  1     
Dunlin  2
White-rumped Sandpiper  10
Least Sandpiper  2
Pectoral Sandpiper  3
Semipalmated Sandpiper  350
Laughing Gull  200
American Herring Gull  100
Caspian Tern  6
Forster's Tern  30
Eared Grebe  2     
Double-crested Cormorant  100
White Ibis  4     Immature
Glossy Ibis  4
Tricolored Heron  1
Snowy Egret  75
Great Egret  200
Great Blue Heron  7
Turkey Vulture  1
Northern Harrier  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2
Downy Woodpecker  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Blue Jay  8
American Crow  3
Common Raven  1     Croaking
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tufted Titmouse  3
Tree Swallow  250
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Marsh Wren  1
Carolina Wren  3
European Starling  4
Gray Catbird  4
American Robin  1
American Goldfinch  5
Chipping Sparrow  10
Seaside Sparrow  1
Saltmarsh Sparrow  1
Savannah Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  2
Bobolink  2
Red-winged Blackbird  10
Boat-tailed Grackle  5

Political Problem

When I first saw this sticker on the back window of a truck at Wells Mills Park, I chuckled. Then I felt uneasy because I couldn't tell whether it was ironic or sincere.

(For the uninitiated, a Piney is a resident of the Pine Barrens, sort of New Jersey's version of a hillbilly.)

Island Beach SP 9/20--Bay-breasted Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow (right) with White-throated Sparrow

Suddenly it was autumn this afternoon on Spizzle Creek.  Shari & I went on Scott's Island Beach SP field trip with mostly migrating warblers in mind and we did see some drab returnees, including my FOY Bay-breasted Warbler which somehow eluded me this spring (along with Cape May Warbler which I saw there by myself on Thursday), but on the Spizzle Creek entrance trail the birds had a distinct autumn tang--a couple of early White-throated Sparrows (still flagged as "rare"), a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and my first Lincoln's Sparrow in quite a while. 

I looked up my Lincoln's Sparrow sightings and most of the ones I've had in New Jersey have come on that same Spizzle Creek trail. I can't guess what attracts them to that little patch of the park--or maybe the trail is just wide enough to see them more easily than on the narrower trails at the Tidal Pond or Reed's Road. 

I'm stunned that snapping away under lowering skies I was able to get one half-way decent photo of the bird (next to a White-throated for comparison). The warblers, on the other hand, were much too active for me to even consider getting the camera off my shoulder. We were fortunate when one of the warblers would come out from behind a leaf or branch for more than a second. 

The autumnal equinox is at 2:19 PM on Monday. Fall means ducks. I like ducks. They're big.

My list is small in comparison to the group's--we left before making it down to the winter anchorage for shorebirds on sandbars and some of the more obscure sightings I didn't bother to record. 

39 species
Northern Pintail  8     High flyers
Mourning Dove  1
Black-bellied Plover  4
Laughing Gull  10
American Herring Gull  10
Double-crested Cormorant  5
Little Blue Heron  1
Tricolored Heron  5
Snowy Egret  1
Great Egret  11
Great Blue Heron  1
Brown Pelican  1
Osprey  2
Bald Eagle  1
Belted Kingfisher  2
Northern Flicker  4
Merlin  1
Carolina Chickadee  3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Marsh Wren  1     Heard kayak access
Carolina Wren  1
Gray Catbird  5
Brown Thrasher  2
American Robin  1
House Finch  2
White-throated Sparrow  2     
Song Sparrow  3
Lincoln's Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Bobolink  2     Plink
Common Yellowthroat  2
American Redstart  2
Cape May Warbler  2
Magnolia Warbler  2
Bay-breasted Warbler  1
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Black-throated Blue Warbler  1
Palm Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  4

Great Bay Blvd 9/15--King Eider

King Eider

Back in June there was a lot of winter waterfowl still lingering in the county and now that summer is almost over at least one sought after rarity has made an early appearance in an unlikely spot. I drove down to Great Bay Boulevard this morning, even though the hen King Eider that had been reported there on Saturday had not been seen yesterday. Not surprising, given the number of fishermen usually down on the beach and around the floating dock where it had been seen. 

White Ibises

This time of year can sometimes be good for rare sparrows and that was more what I had in mind. Of course, at the boat launch where I have spotted a good number of rare sparrows over the year there was only sand. I did have a good number of waders, including a huge flock of White Ibises, almost all of which were immature birds. I still cannot get over the change in this species' population--going from one at Ocean City to hundreds all over southern NJ and obviously becoming a breeding bird, all within less than 10 years. Still, my estimate of 80 birds did break the eBird filter.

When I finally made it down to the inlet I walked toward the Rutgers facility. I was flushing up sparrows out of the grass and I was hoping they were Nelson's Sparrow, but I decided to look first toward the Rutgers area with the scope. On the floating dock the eider was not there but scanning for a minute until I came to a nearby peninsula, I found the bird with its diagnostic smile. The smile of a King Eider hen (oxymoron alert) must be contagious, because I found myself grinning too as I took photos. This was much more satisfying than standing on the beach at Barnegat Light on a frigid morning, scanning big flocks of Common Eiders for the outlier bobbing in the surf a quarter mile out. 

I then devoted an inordinate amount of time--for me--in search for a Nelson's Sparrow. I had many candidates jump out of the marsh grass and flutter back down or else fly up and into a stand of reeds, but none of them were definitely identifiable in the harsh sunlight. They could just as easily have been Saltmarsh Sparrows (which were once lumped with Nelson's as Sharp-tailed Sparrow) or even Seaside Sparrows. I'm certain at least one of those little helicopters was a Nelson's but I couldn't tell which one. The one sparrow that stood still long enough for me figure out what it was turned out to be a Song Sparrow. Annoying, because the beach and marsh around the inlet are the best, maybe only, place to find Nelson's in the county, and if I don't get it there, I don't get it. 

Still, a King Eider on a warm day made for a worthwhile trip. 

33 species
King Eider  1     
Clapper Rail  3
American Oystercatcher  1
Black-bellied Plover  2
Semipalmated Plover  3
Short-billed Dowitcher  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1     Beach
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
Greater Yellowlegs  3
Least Sandpiper  2
Laughing Gull  100
American Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Forster's Tern  15
Common Loon  1
Double-crested Cormorant  20
White Ibis  80     
Yellow-crowned Night Heron  2
Black-crowned Night Heron  10
Snowy Egret  12
Great Egret  65
Great Blue Heron  15
Brown Pelican  4
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  2
Northern Harrier  1
Tree Swallow  1
European Starling  50
Gray Catbird  3
Song Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  1
Common Yellowthroat  2
Yellow Warbler  1

Reed's Sod Farm 9/9--Buff-breasted Sandpiper

 "Sod-farming" is not my favorite kind of birding. Standing on the verge of a busy road scoping dirt while tractor trailers zoom behind me--a guy could lose a tuchus searching for a grasspiper. But I was scouting today for American Golden-Plover, not for myself, but for a friend who is coming over from Brooklyn on Saturday. He is collecting "golden" birds for his 50th anniversary of birding, and Reed's Sod Farm on Old York Road is a very good place to look for them. On Sunday, during rainy weather, a small flock was found (nothing in comparison to the 43 that were Burlco--since gone--last week, but you only need one) and yesterday at least one was seen. 

This morning, I parked in the Union Transportation Trail lot, crossed Sharon Station Road, plunked my scope down in the wet grass, and looked at a big puddle that has formed in a low spot. Killdeer, of course, and a few peeps that I would have to get closer to if I wanted to identify them, and then, well I guess I better start a list because there's a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. I walked along the edge of Herbert Road to get closer to the pond, hoping that the other shorebirds in and near the water would turn out to be my target, but while there was a decent mix, the plover was not among them. I then started walking down Herbert Road toward Old York, past the house and over to the barren dirt field that had already had its sod harvest. Besides the big flock of starlings, I saw smaller birds in the dirt and kept walking. I got my scope on one and it turned out to be a Horned Lark--nice bird, but when you want something else, disappointing. The bird next to it was also a lark, as was the next bird, and the next bird and the next 41 birds--all Horned Larks, eating bugs or seeds. I spent an hour looking and only came away with a year bird. Doesn't mean that tomorrow or Saturday there won't be a golden plover there--especially since it may rain tonight--and if I had found one, it wouldn't have meant there would be one on Saturday. That's the problem with these oxymoronic common rarities--they're soooo unreliable. 

Only 12 species.

Canada Goose  20
Killdeer  5
Semipalmated Plover  1
Lesser Yellowlegs  2
Buff-breasted Sandpiper  1     
Least Sandpiper  3
Pectoral Sandpiper  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  3
Blue Jay  1
American Crow  2
Horned Lark  45
European Starling  200

Sandy Hook 9/5--Baird's Sandpiper, Say's Phoebe

Say's Phoebe

When I told Bob Auster a few days ago that I was going to sign up for Scott's Half-day Friday at Sandy Hook, he said that the winds didn't look favorable for migration. I told him that since I don't understand the winds, I don't worry about them and that I'd take what I could get.  What we could get (Bob signed up too) on a slow day at The Hook was a fairly rare sandpiper and a vagrant flycatcher far from its dry western habitat. 

We were going to poke around the officer's club area by Battery Potter when Scott got a text of the flycatcher at the end of the Fisherman's Trail. This required the dreaded death march through the sand, but the weather, at least, was fairly cool, and so with scopes shouldered, about 10 of us made the trek. I thought that a) chances were slim the bird would in sight and b) if it was, it would be lousy looks, but your chances are zero if you don't try. 

We trudged up to the stringed off area where the discoverer of the bird was maintaining a watch. As I feared, the bird had been seen in a far-off dune which wasn't promising for good looks, and hadn't been seen in a while, which was less promising. The group stood around for a while but, surprisingly, there were antsier people there than me, so, when Scott saw some shorebirds on a mud flat behind us, we left, hoping the bird wouldn't show up while we were gone. 

Almost immediately Scott found a Baird's Sandpiper on the mud flat. I too, almost immediately found it in my scope, after discarding a Semipalmated Plover just to its left. The whole group got on the bird, which scurried around from dry sand to mud and then we lost it somehow. In a bait and switch, a bird further down the flat looked like the Baird's but turned out to be a White-rumped Sandpiper. They look similar, but the Baird's was tawnier and flatter. We were hemming and hawing over where the Baird's might have gone--there's lots of wrack for it to disappear behind--when a late-comer to our group ran up to say that she'd seen the flycatcher--obviously, if you look at the header of this entry you know it was a Say's Phoebe--at the end of the Fisherman's Trail, just before you hit the beach. Baird's be damned, we all fast-walked back to the trail head and within a few minutes Bob said, "What's that bird on the sign? " It was, of course, the Say's and it put on quite show, affording beautiful looks through bins, scope, and naked eyes. It was especially amusing to watch it hawk flies that were buzzing around small dead fish that had died when puddles in a mud flat dried up. Driving up there this morning I was sort of hoping for a Baird's Sandpiper, since I knew they'd been seen the last couple of days, but Say's Phoebe certainly wasn't on my bingo card. Three tick marks: year bird, county bird, and most importantly, state bird. Who cares which way the wind blows when you can get a vagrant like that!

Not a prepossessing list, but quality over quantity.

34 species
Canada Goose  4
Mourning Dove  3
Black-bellied Plover  25
Killdeer  1
Semipalmated Plover  5
Willet  1
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Baird's Sandpiper  1     
White-rumped Sandpiper  1
Least Sandpiper  10
Semipalmated Sandpiper  5
Laughing Gull  25
American Herring Gull  35
Great Black-backed Gull  40
Least Tern  1
Forster's Tern  4
Royal Tern  10
Double-crested Cormorant  15
Snowy Egret  2
Osprey  6
Cooper's Hawk  1
Say's Phoebe  1    
Tree Swallow  500
Carolina Wren  1
European Starling  6
Gray Catbird  2
Northern Mockingbird  1
House Sparrow  2
House Finch  4
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  3
Eastern Towhee  1
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Common Yellowthroat  1