Colliers Mills 5/21--Grasshopper Sparrow

Although they're not flagged as rare in Ocean County, there is not much appropriate habitat (grasslands) for Grasshopper Sparrows, making them really difficult to find.  They're reliable on the Lakehurst Base around the jump circle, but I don't have access to that site. 7 or 8 years ago, they were fairly easy to come upon if you walked the fields on Success Road at Colliers Mills, but then they pretty much disappeared. My theory was that all the hunting dogs running through their training in those fields made for unpleasant times for the sparrows and they stopped coming. (I don't begrudge the hunters and their dogs those fields--that's what the place is really for, and the hunters pay the tab for the WMA. We birders are the freeloaders.)

Yesterday, I went up to the Manasquan River WMA in Brick to see if I could locate the sparrow that was reported there, but I had no luck. I have had success (pun unintended) at Colliers if I go on a weekday morning, early, when there are no hunters and before the police start banging away at the firing range. That's what I did today, slowly walking along Success listening really hard. Grasshopper Sparrows, with their thin buzzy song, are pretty much out of my hearing range, so when Merlin picked one up, I had to take it on faith. Even playing back the recording, I couldn't hear the sparrow. Sometimes Merlin hallucinates (it once picked up a Prothonotary Warbler in our backyard and last week it heard an owl when two trees rubbed together in the wind), but I took a look and there, maybe 50 yards out, on a twig, was a sparrow that I was certain was a Grasshopper. Taking pictures kind of confirmed it--enlarging the photo in the viewfinder just up to the point where the image became pixelated showed me an eye ring. When the bird flew it flew like a little helicopter, as they do. I saw another sparrow closer to me, but I didn't know if it was another Grasshopper, or just a Field or Chipping Sparrow, both of which were around. I played the Grasshopper "song" by mistake (I meant to record) and suddenly, 10 feet in front of me, on another twig, was a singing Grasshopper Sparrow--at least its mouth was open, because I still couldn't hear the song. So perhaps there were two in the field.  You only need one. 

After that everything was gravy, but there were a few special birds along the long circuit around Turnmill and the Borden's Branch wetland--Acadian Flycatcher ("Pizza"), Worm-eating Warbler, 3 Hooded Warblers in the usual spot just off Hawkin Road, a couple of Scarlet Tanagers, and the Red-headed Woodpecker I heard giving the "queer" calls while I was walking through the field, creeping up on the Grasshopper Sparrow. 

In all 55 species for the day:

Canada Goose  6     Field
Mallard  2     Borden's Branch wetlands
Mourning Dove  1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  2
Killdeer  3     One by police range, two in wetland
Spotted Sandpiper  1     Turnmill
Green Heron  1     Turnmill
Great Blue Heron  1     Flyover Turnmill
Turkey Vulture  3     Roosting in field on Success
Red-tailed Hawk  1     Flyover Success
Red-headed Woodpecker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Hairy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  5
Acadian Flycatcher  1     Pizza!
Eastern Phoebe  1     By derelict house
Great Crested Flycatcher  7
Eastern Kingbird  3
White-eyed Vireo  2
Eastern Warbling Vireo  3
Red-eyed Vireo  6
Blue Jay  3
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tufted Titmouse  4
Tree Swallow  3
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  2     Borden’s Branch wetland
Barn Swallow  10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3
Gray Catbird  11
Brown Thrasher  2
Northern Mockingbird  3
Eastern Bluebird  1
Veery  1     Heard call
Wood Thrush  3
American Robin  12
House Finch  1
American Goldfinch  1
Grasshopper Sparrow  1
Chipping Sparrow  2
Field Sparrow  2
Eastern Towhee  9
Baltimore Oriole  1     Parking lot
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Ovenbird  10
Worm-eating Warbler  1
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  8
Hooded Warbler  3
American Redstart  1     Heard
Magnolia Warbler  1     Heard
Prairie Warbler  3
Scarlet Tanager  2
Northern Cardinal  1
Blue Grosbeak  1