Double Trouble SP 5/19--Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilts, Double Trouble

After spending the weekend walking back and forth, up and down a couple of migrant hot spots rubbing shoulders with many birders and photographers, a Garboesque feeling came over me on Monday--I want to be alone. The best idea I had for that notion yesterday was the Huber Preserve--another hot spot teeming with birders in pursuit of its warbler specialties, pretty much empty on a weekday. Besides, there were a few bird possibilities that I was hoping for. But hope is a thing without feathers. 

Prothonotary Warbler, Huber

I started off pretty well there with a very loud and insistent Yellow-throated Vireo singing. I eventually tracked it down to the very top of tree close to the entrance. Huber is a reliable spot for them and the entrance or Sooy Place Road is where you'll find them. But that was it for year birds there. Despite being assured that Barred Owl starts hooting around the bridge area mid-morning, there were no hoots for me. And Summer Tanager, a long-shot I know, but last year I had two birds in the area, was also a no-show. Still, a morning with Prothonotary, Hooded, and Blue-winged Warblers is not a bust.  

As I've mentioned before, I have found that if I don't feel like going to a certain spot, it's usually a good idea to override that feeling and go. Yesterday, after I'd done my walk at Huber I was considering driving down the road about 3/4 of a mile to where Burrs Mill Brook goes under Sooy Place Road and opens up to a swamp. Nah, I'm tired. Yeah, go, it's only 3 minutes away and there's no more walking involved. 

Red-headed Woodpecker,
Sooy Place Rd.

As I got out of the car, I was glad the positive birding angel on my shoulder was persuasive, because immediately I heard the loud, very loud, "Queer!" calls of a Red-headed Woodpecker. I can find Red-headed Woodpeckers anytime I want at Colliers Mills, but in Burlco, despite there being more places they frequent than in Ocean County, they are flagged as rare. Despite sounding like the bird was right on top of me, it took me a while before I located it high up the trunk of a very dead tree, banging away and then screaming. 

This morning, despite the BirdCast count of close to a million birds flying across Ocean County during the night, I was not tempted to go to Reed's Road or Cedar Bonnet Island. Instead, a long walk around Double Trouble SP suited my mood. As I almost always do, I started the walk from the parking lot west to Mill Pond. I was thinking that I have found some weird birds for the area there--Black Skimmer and Caspian Term immediately come to mind--and when I saw mud flats instead of open water I thought the potential for an oddity was high. As soon as I approached the spillway I saw 3 or 4 shorebirds in the back. "I don't know, those don't look like yellowlegs," I said to myself and putting up my binoculars it was obvious that I'd stumbled upon 4 Black-necked Stilts, rare for the area, rare for New Jersey, and just weird so far inland. They were half-way across the pond but I was able to get documentary photos. I texted the one person who I know birds Double Trouble as much as I do and lives nearby, but she couldn't get there this morning. I told her that they might hang around and no sooner had I sent the text than the birds upped and flew--perhaps to the back of the pond, perhaps to some inaccessible marsh. Talk about your lifeline intersecting with a bird's lifeline!

Today is our anniversary (19 blissful years) and we often go to Delaware to celebrate. We didn't this year, but Black-necked Stilts (one of the few shorebirds we target when we're there) are an appropriate find for the day. 

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Double Trouble

Walking around back to the Sweetwater Bogs, I was happy to see another oddity, though this one has been there at least a week--a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in the middle bog. Yellow-crowned Night-Herons had not been reported in the park until last week, but with the stilts today, that means it has had its bird list up by two in the last week or so. 

For my walk around Double Trouble, alone, I had 41 species.

Mallard  4
Mourning Dove  1
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1
Black-necked Stilt  4     
Killdeer  1     Mill Pond
Greater Yellowlegs  1     Mill Pond
Least Sandpiper  3     Mill Pond
Laughing Gull  2
Glossy Ibis  3
Yellow-crowned Night Heron  1
Great Egret  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  2
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Great Crested Flycatcher  3
Eastern Kingbird  2
White-eyed Vireo  1
Red-eyed Vireo  2
Blue Jay  2
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3
Gray Catbird  10
Veery  1
American Robin  2
Cedar Waxwing  1
American Goldfinch  2
Chipping Sparrow  1
Field Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  2
Eastern Towhee  5
Red-winged Blackbird  12
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Common Grackle  1
Ovenbird  12
Black-and-white Warbler  4
Common Yellowthroat  5
Pine Warbler  5
Prairie Warbler  9