Reed Sod Farm 9/24--Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Pectoral Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

For the second time this month I drove up to the Reed Sod farm on Herbert Road, even though I knew the conditions regarding traffic both getting there and along the road were not as pleasant as on a Sunday morning. But it was the only spot on my weather apps that appeared to be out of the winds have already begun as a precursor to this weekends supposed nor'easter. Over the weekend I had seen good reports from there, so despite my misgivings I went, taking the long detour around the horse farms where Rt 539 is closed. 

Horned Lark,
juvenile

I parked, as I usually do, in the Union Transportation Trail lot on Sharon Station Road. Parking is usually almost impossible on Herbert Road and now that the county is putting in new sewer grates, absolutely impossible. I was gladdened to see that the field that earlier in the month was four feet high in weeds had been chopped down and that the field was now barren. I saw a few birds flying low in there and when I scoped them, found that they were Horned Larks, flitting among the clods of mud and clay. That seemed fitting--Horned Larks love the crappiest ground around. While the larks weren't year birds, or even county birds, I'm always happy to see them. 

Then I started to walk along Herbert, stepping up onto the grass whenever there was an oncoming car and truck--considering the time of day, not that many, really. But by the time I got the house/office I could see trucks and machinery moving around. They were harvesting sod (shocker!) and that made me pessimistic about finding any grasspipers. But I shouldered on...literally with the scope on my shoulder until I got to the little psuedo-parking pull-out, now blocked by traffic cones.

Harvesting sod

I scoped past where they were stripping the sod off the ground to the bare earth and saw quite a few Killdeers there. That made me hopeful. What made me more hopeful were a couple of fleeting glimpses of birds that obviously were not Killdeers, but I needed a better angle. So I continued on until I was 3/4 of the way to Old York Road and plunked down the scope again. The first non-Killdeer I spotted was a Pectoral Sandpiper (new for the year). I often dither over whether a shorebird is a Pectoral or just a Least Sandpiper that looks big, but this one was a no-doubter--the bird was facing me, and the "vest" was prominent, dark and coming down to a sharp edge just below the breast.

And then I saw what I had really come for--a Buff-breasted Sandpiper mixed in with the Killdeers. Like all the other birds, it was beyond the sod on the harvested area. I was able to use pallets and folded sod piles as landmarks in order to aim my camera to get the poor photos it was able to take at such a distance. I was thinking that the buffie was moving around pretty well until I realized that there were actually two. 

Even in Upper Freehold the wind was blowing pretty well--I'd hate to think what it was like on the shore, so scoping eventually became tiresome as the lens shook. I had what I'd hoped for. Apparently, the shorebirds don't care about the machinery running back and forth or else they're farther away from the activity than it appears in the foreshortening scope. I turned back, put the scope in the car and took a walk on the UTT, where I saw and heard nothing I wouldn't expect. Still, two year birds at this late date is an accomplishment for me.  

Island Beach SP 9/19--Philadelphia Vireo, Lark Sparrow

I went to Island Beach on Wednesday to start a completely (in the spirit of the times) unscientific experiment: I wanted to compare my birding results on my own compared to the list I'd compile when Shari & I went on Scott's NJ Audubon trip today. Of course, this disregards weather, winds, different habitats, and time spent birding, but I just wanted to see.  On Wednesday I did piss poor--the only two interesting birds I saw were my FOS Red-breasted Nuthatch in the parking lot of Swimming Beach 1 and my FOY Marbled Godwit on a sand bar at the Winter Anchorage. I barely broke 30 species for the 3 plus hours I spent there. 

Today started out slow; our first stop, the Tidal Pond Trail, yielded very few birds, and half of those I missed. It confirmed what I already know--I pass by a lot of birds that someone with quicker eyes and ears can pick up. We looked at the beach from the Swimming Lot 1 but there was zilch there--which sort of made me feel better, since I a) hate standing in one spot looking at a blank ocean and b) the last time I did it on my own, the ocean was equally blank so it's not just me. 

However, during a walk around the edges of the parking lots I garnered my accomplishment for the day. In a thicket of bushes there were 3 birds. Two of them were House Finches, and not even good-looking males, but either drab juveniles or females. The third bird and couple of us were looking at was more problematic. It was hard to get a decent look at the bird through the leaves and twigs, but I was able to put it together in parts--building a bird, as a friend once described it. It had an eye ring, then I saw brown feathers on the back, and after another little hop, I saw yellow on the breast--Dickcissel. Not a year bird, but a county bird and a rarity in Ocean County. Unfortunately, not too many others got on the bird though I think everyone heard its flatulent call which confirmed the sighting.

Warblers were at a premium today--something about the winds being northeast, and of the warblers being called out, I probably missed half of them.  I did manage parula, Palm Warbler, yellow warbler, and redstart, but missed a lot of others--at least Shari also got Black-and-white Warbler and Magnolia Warbler on her list.  

One of the most entertaining moments came on the kayak access trail at A15. One of our number spotted a Baltimore Oriole and Rose-breasted Grosbeak right next to each other in the same dead tree. They moved around but kept to the dead branches of trees so all could see them, joined eventually by yet another oriole. I said that in all my time birding, this was the first time I'd ever seen an oriole and grosbeak in the same tree--my friend Bob scoffed but hey, I have a hard enough time seeing either of those species, never mind them associating. 

For some odd reason, we when go to the Visitor's Center to have lunch, the parking lot there usually yields up an interesting bird--once, on a trip I didn't attend, an Ash-throated Flycatcher was found, and they couldn't text me fast enough to gloat. Today, however, it was just a Philadelphia Vireo that popped up in a tree. I suspect that every Philadelphia Vireo I've seen in Ocean County has been at Island Beach. (I just checked: true.) 

We took a walk on the Johnnie Allen Cove trail, across the road from the Visitor's Center and again, the warblers and were darting in and out of the reeds and groundsel. The bay itself was empty, but on our way back Scott spotted by far the best bird of the trip--a Lark Sparrow smack dab in the middle of the trail. The problem with a trail like Johnnie Allen is that it is too narrow for everyone to line up abreast, so people have to work their way to the front and those who have seen the bird have to yield their spot. It can be frustrating if you're lagging behind in the back. Fortunately, both Shari & I were near the front and got good looks at the bird. I was particularly happy, because this is one of the few birds I actually chased this year (down at Brig) and failed to find.

We made the obligatory stop at Spizzle Creek and found most of our egrets and herons for the day. The final stop (for Shar & me at least) was the Winter Anchorage, where we scoped the sand bars, or what there was of them. If anyone can figure out the tides at Island Beach, there is a prize from the Oceanographic Society--it was supposed to be low tide by then but sure didn't seem like it. I set up our scope and immediately called out to Shari--"I've got oystercatchers." Oystercatchers are, as we all know, Shari's favorite bird. She was looking through the scope when one of the newer birders on the trip turned to me and said, "How do you know they're not clamming?" I didn't understand what he meant. "Say again." "How do you know they're not clamming?" and he pointed to some distant people out on the edge of the Sedge Islands. I was still perplexed but then suddenly the penny dropped--"An oystercatcher is a bird," I told him. He'd never seen one, so Shari put them in the scope and he looked. If you haven't seen one before, it seems like an unlikely bird. 

That concluded the entertainment portion of our program. 

For the day I managed 43 species-- better than Wednesday but not nearly as many as I have in the past on these trips, but everyone seems to agree that the pickings are slim of late. Still, two year birds and a county bird made it a good trip. 

44 species
Blue-winged Teal  2     Spizzle
Green-winged Teal  9     Johnnie Allen
Mourning Dove  3
American Oystercatcher  30
Black-bellied Plover  50
Semipalmated Plover  2
Short-billed Dowitcher  1     Winter anchorage
Greater Yellowlegs  1     Winter anchorage
Laughing Gull  75
American Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  4
Lesser Black-backed Gull  1     Swim beach 1
Black Skimmer  100     Winter anchorage
Caspian Tern  2
Forster's Tern  1
Royal Tern  100
Double-crested Cormorant  5
Tricolored Heron  4
Snowy Egret  1
Great Egret  4
Great Blue Heron  11
Osprey  6
Northern Flicker  3
Merlin  4
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Eastern Phoebe  1
Philadelphia Vireo  1    
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Common Raven  2     Spizzle lot
Carolina Chickadee  2
Tree Swallow  2
Gray Catbird  2
Cedar Waxwing  1
House Sparrow  8
House Finch  7
Lark Sparrow  1     
Song Sparrow  2
Baltimore Oriole  2
American Redstart  3
Northern Parula  1
Northern Yellow Warbler  1     Johnnie Allen
Palm Warbler  5
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1
Dickcissel  1    

Reed Sod Farm 9/6--American Golden-Plover

A quiet Sunday morning seemed the perfect time to check out one of the sod farms in Monmouth County. I gravitate to the Reed property on Old York Road because it is adjacent to the Union Transportation Trail and it has the best viewing of any of the other sod farms in the area in terms of not getting your ass swiped off by a passing truck. And since I have spent more time there than any of the other farms, I have had more luck there than any of the other farms. 

But I was dismayed when I pulled into the UTT parking lot across the road from the farm and saw that the field was 5 feet high in weeds--no sod, no dirt. This didn't look promising, so instead of taking my scope, I just walked down Herbert Road, past the house, toward Old York Road. There, I could see, was sod and some harvested areas. But it wasn't until I got to the pull out about a quarter of a mile down the road that I saw any bird activity. 

Most of the activity, I was certain, was from Killdeers--because most of the birds there are always Killdeers and I could hear their little Penny Henny yips--but one bird, more of a moving lump from the distance it was from me, was intriguing--I could see more black on it than anything else. I turned around, went back to the car, drove to the pull out, plunked down the scope and scanned. After a while, besides the dozen or so Killdeers and a few Least Sandpipers, I found what I was looking for--the black on the moving lump was the behind of an American Golden-Plover--the black extends all the way up to the vent (nice euphemism) on this species. The pictures I was able to take from two football fields away are barely doc shots, but they'll do. I thought the bird would be flagged "rare," and I was thinking how I would describe the field marks, but at this time of year the species is no longer considered rare in Monmouth County. 

I walked closer to Old York Road, hoping for something else rare, but the only activity was in that one spot. Returning, I scoped again and was surprised to find the bird immediately. Then I found another. Then, scanning a bit more the east, another. Having seen 43 Golden-Plovers last year on a sod farm in Burlington, I didn't think much of this count until a count of "3" broke the eBird filter. I put down my snotty "exact count" (it's even snottier when the count is "2") to explain how I had arrived at such an outlandish number and let it go at that. 

After that I walked on the Union Transportation Trail for a couple of miles--nothing new, and the only really noteworthy bird was a very late Veery calling in the woods north of Assunpink Creek. 

Colliers Mills 9/4--Least Flycatcher

Coyote (also known as American Jackal)

Yesterday, despite having what my mother would have called "a touch of the flu," (caught from Shari, who had the full nelson version), I took my usual walk around Colliers Mills. After going to the woods north of Success Road to check off my Red-headed Woodpecker for the month, I started to walk around the field on the south side of the road. Before I got 20 feet in on the mowed path, I saw, amazingly, my first Least Flycatcher of the year, a returning bird no doubt on its way back south.  It sat on a twig right in front of me for a few seconds, hopped to another, and was gone before any photos were able to be taken. Ah well, powering through the flu was worth it. 

What was especially noteworthy to me though was an animal without feathers. I was in the back of the wetlands south of Turnmill Pond when I saw standing in the middle of the mud and water lilies, a coyote. At first, I took it for a fox, which you might expect there, but it obviously wasn't that. As soon as I said to myself, "Well, that explains why there's no birds here," 5 Wood Ducks flew up and out of the reeds. The coyote, once it caught a look at me, also ran off, happily in the opposite direction of where I was headed. 

I've seen a coyote around here before--one ran past me at Whitesbog while I was in my car a few years ago and I got a distant pic, and my informant has shown me coyote scat on the trails there, but this is the first good long look I've gotten of one.  I'm going to go on the assumption that they're more scared of people than people are scared of them--otherwise, it puts a severe crimp in my route there. 

The woods and fields were fairly quiet there yesterday; only 22 species for slightly under 3 hours of birding (and coughing). 

Wood Duck  5
Mourning Dove  1
Solitary Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  2
Least Sandpiper  15
Great Blue Heron  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Hairy Woodpecker  1     Heard
Eastern Wood-Pewee  2
Least Flycatcher  1     
White-eyed Vireo  3
Blue Jay  1
Carolina Chickadee  4
Tufted Titmouse  2
Eastern Bluebird  5
American Robin  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Baltimore Oriole  1     Hawkin Road
Common Yellowthroat  1
Pine Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1