Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve | Sooy Place Road 4/26--Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-winged Warbler, Hooded Warbler

For no good reason I seem to reserve Sunday mornings for Burlco birding.  This morning I decided to seek out the warbler specialties beyond Prairie Warbler at the Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve. The hotspot of this hotspot begins about a half mile in at the bridge that runs across a little creek. Here, if you wait for a while, a Prothonotary Warbler will always show up. Today I didn't have to wait--a Prothonotary jumped up onto the railing of the bridge just as I got to it, show itself nicely, then dove down beneath the bridge where it may have a nest. Good to add to Jersey list, but I already had one down at Yaax Che in Mexico last week. 

Hooded Warbler

On the way to the bridge I'd already had the aforesaid Prairie Warbler, along with Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Pine Warbler, and lots of Ovenbirds. Beyond the bridge is a section I like to think of as Hooded Warbler Alley--it is a stretch of about 1000 feet that runs through thick woods and it is almost impossible not to hear the warbler's Wheaty-wheaty-wheaty-O song. Today, I was lucky enough to actually see one of the warblers--for a striking yellow bird with a black hood they can be difficult to get eyes on. Even more amazingly, I was actually able to get a photo of the bird after it hopped around from side of the trail to the other, giving me nice photos of typical pine barrens vegetation. Taking photos of warblers with a camera with a slow focus is a mug's game, but I try--sometimes. 

After you emerge from the alley, there is a little area just before the White trail intersects with the tick-infested Yellow trail that is often good for Blue-winged Warbler. They weren't present when I first went by, but on my return trip I heard the little buzzy song of one and was able to get eyes on it. There might have been two--you only need one. I walked about another mile and half along the white trail, past Gum Spring (where I saw a Merlin in a dead tree in the swamp, a patch bird for me), but the birding dies down pretty quickly there and it becomes more exercise than birding. But, aside from the Pine Warblers, I was able to get eyes on at least of each of the warblers I listed. 

23 species
Mourning Dove  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
Merlin  1
White-eyed Vireo  4
Blue Jay  3
Carolina Chickadee  4
Tufted Titmouse  4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  5
Field Sparrow  1
White-throated Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  10
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Ovenbird  10
Blue-winged Warbler  1     
Black-and-white Warbler  3
Prothonotary Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  5
Hooded Warbler  6
Pine Warbler  3
Prairie Warbler  5
Northern Cardinal  1

Prothonotary Warbler

When I was done at Huber, I drove about 3/4 of a mile down Sooy Place Road to where it crosses Burr's Mill Brook. The brook is very wide at this juncture, more a swamp than a stream with many dead trees and stumps sticking up out of the water. It was here that I heard my FOY Red-eyed Vireo, high in the canopy behind me where the brook is still a brook, and it was also here that I managed to get a very good look another Prothonotary Warbler and even get a photograph that is one step up from a doc shot. While I was standing on the bridge, a local came along and asked me, as they always do, if I had seen anything good. He was walking a heavyset, muscular dog. I asked him what kind it was and he told me it was Caen Corso--it looked like it would be very happy to bite off my kneecap, but he swore the dog was extremely friendly while also telling me that the Romans bred them as war dogs, it weighed 175 pounds, and that its jaw was twice a powerful as a pit bull's, equivalent to the chomping power of a lion. I took his word for the friendliness of the dog and inched my way back to the car.