South Park Road | Juliustown-Georgetown Road 6/14--Summer Tanager, Dickcissel

Summer Tanager

 As I often do, another Sunday morning in Burlco. Since Reeves Bog has now become impassable in three spots due to flooding and breaches, I went a little farther and walked along South Park Road in Tabernacle. This late in the season, I didn't expect much. It's usually a reliable spot for Red-headed Woodpecker, but today I couldn't find any--it didn't bother me since I've seen them any number of times this year. South Park runs along a field that once was a farm and bisects a typical Pine Barrens woods, both owned by a private hunting club, so you have to stick to the gravel road itself. I was hearing more birds than I was seeing when I came to the right turn in the road where I had decided to turn around. I heard a call that didn't sound like the usual warblers or vireos that would be in that habitat, so I turned on Merlin and Summer Tanager immediately popped up. I was a little skeptical until I looked up and right in front of me in an oak was the tanager. All red, no black wings, eliminating Scarlet Tanager (which I had seen back by the old farm), and a hefty beak. I got my bins on it for a little big and then it flew off to be replaced by a female--drab yellow, same beak. I was trying to get a picture of the female, which I couldn't, when the male came back and I switched my attentions to him. Finally, I was able to get decent pictures for eBird documentation, along with a recording of the calls. If both male and female were there, could they be nesting? There are records of Summer Tanager nesting in the Pine Barrens, so it is possible. 

Unfortunately for my year list, Summer Tanager wasn't a new addition--I'd heard one last month at the Manasquan River WMA, but seeing one is so much better. But for my next year bird, I did have to settle for "heard only." After stopping at the Thompson-Wright Preserve, which lately has been incorporated as part of the Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve, and walking back to the sand quarry to visit the nesting Bank Swallows, I was of a mind to try find some of the many Dickcissels that have shown up in the county. I knew that they had been heard in fields of Pemberton MUA but having already walked 5 miles, the idea of trudging around fields wasn't all that attractive. I checked the rare bird alerts and saw that a couple had been heard along a road in Columbus, which was only about 20 minutes from where I was at Burrs Mills Brook. They have been singing in the field for a week. I figured if they were there for a week, and had been heard 90 minutes before, there was a decent chance I could get them too. I was half right. After driving along a lot of hyphenated roads and making a left onto Odd Fellows Road, I finally ended up at the pin on Juliustown-Georgetown Road. And there was even a place to pull off the road. Immediately I heard a buzzy call, but it didn't sound like a Dickcissel as I remembered them. Granted, it has been a while since I saw one so I pulled out my semi-trusty Merlin and it instantly returned Dickcissel. The bird was very loud and sound close by across the road. Of course, after standing there for twenty minutes, I still couldn't put eyes on the bird and since the field is private property, I couldn't walk through it to the little stand of trees where the bird sounded like it was singing. I only heard one bird, not the two that had been listed, but that was probably because I was stationery and not traveling up the road listening every quarter mile. I know one Burlco birder had 6 Dickcissels last week along one of the hyphenated roads, but I'm not going for the record, and you only need 1 (Laws of Birding #6).

For the 3 sites, 41 species:

Species            First Sighting
Wild Turkey    South Park Road
Mourning Dove    South Park Road
Turkey Vulture    South Park Road
Red-bellied Woodpecker    South Park Road
Hairy Woodpecker    South Park Road
Northern Flicker    South Park Road
Eastern Wood-Pewee    South Park Road
Eastern Phoebe    South Park Road
Great Crested Flycatcher    South Park Road
Eastern Kingbird    South Park Road
White-eyed Vireo    South Park Road
Eastern Warbling Vireo    Juliustown-Georgetown Road
Red-eyed Vireo    South Park Road
Blue Jay    South Park Road
Carolina Chickadee    Thompson-Wright Preserve
Tufted Titmouse    South Park Road
Bank Swallow    Thompson-Wright Preserve
Tree Swallow    Juliustown-Georgetown Road
White-breasted Nuthatch    South Park Road
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher    South Park Road
Carolina Wren    Thompson-Wright Preserve
Gray Catbird    South Park Road
Northern Mockingbird    South Park Road
Wood Thrush    Thompson-Wright Preserve
American Robin    South Park Road
House Finch    South Park Road
Chipping Sparrow    South Park Road
Field Sparrow    South Park Road
Song Sparrow    Juliustown-Georgetown Road
Eastern Towhee    South Park Road
Baltimore Oriole    South Park Road
Red-winged Blackbird    Thompson-Wright Preserve
Ovenbird    South Park Road
Common Yellowthroat    South Park Road
Pine Warbler    South Park Road
Prairie Warbler    South Park Road
Summer Tanager    South Park Road
Scarlet Tanager    South Park Road
Northern Cardinal    South Park Road
Blue Grosbeak    South Park Road
Dickcissel    Juliustown-Georgetown Road

Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve | Burrs Mill Brook 5/18--Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Acadian Flycatcher, Bank Swallow, Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

I scouted the Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve this morning, because I have an old friend coming down next week leading a trip for the Brooklyn Bird Club and they want to see Prothonotary Warbler. As the Huber Preserve is the best and easiest place to search for one, I suggested we meet there. My records show that I've had PROW there multiple times in late May, and in April I had a couple, but you never know. 

I arrived at 6:06 and before I swung my feet out of the car I heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, so I was off to a good start. Walking up the entrance trail I also heard my first Scarlet Tanager of the year, but I couldn't find that one. Along the way all the usual warblers were singing: Hooded, Black-and-white, Prairie (natch), yellowthroats, Ovenbirds...The good news is that the Prothonotary Warblers are still there. They nest in the bushes along the stream. The bad news is that it took some work to get one to come out. 

Red-headed Woodpecker

I met again a birder I know from Whitesbog and he told me that the dreaded Yellow Trail, where I once picked up 28 ticks on my shoes, had been cleared and widened, so after we split up, I took a walk on it and came out apparently unscathed and with an Acadian Flycatcher added to the year list. The Yellow Trail is an horseshoe that begins and ends on the White Trail. It dumps you out just before Gum Spring which flows over the White Trail. Before turning back to the entrance, I figured I might as well look in the swamp that the spring flows into. Immediately I heard a Red-headed Woodpecker and with some patience was able to get one to fly toward me and land on a dead tree. Red-headed Woodpeckers are flagged as rare in Burlco, though I can think of more places there to find one than I can in Ocean County where they are "expected." Another RHWO was calling, and it too soon flew in. Since this is one of the few woodpeckers that is not sexually dimorphic, I don't know if it was a pair or a couple of males vying for territory. As a bonus, as I was leaving the swamp, I heard and finally saw a Scarlet Tanager. For a big, bright, red bird, they can be very difficult to see, high up and hiding in the foliage. Hence the rather unsatisfactory photo at top. 

Summer Tanager

Just before I reached the parking area, I heard a call that was new to me. I opened up Merlin and returned Summer Tanager. Not a completely outlandish identification (I've actually had them there before), but you have to be Reaganesque with Merlin: Trust But Verify. I walked off the path a few feet and happily, this section of the woods hadn't completely leafed out, so I was able to see a pale-yellow bird with a heavy beak flying around. It was a female Summer Tanager and very active. Hence, more unsatisfactory photos. 

As it was still early, I decided to drive back a few miles to Burrs Mill Brook, where I go once a year to find the Bank Swallows that nest in a sand quarry about a mile in from Burrs Mill Road. As I was walking the trail along the brook I heard a tanager-like song that didn't sound like a Scarlet. I saw the bird fly by for a second and once again, Merlin returned Summer Tanager! This one was a singing male. I thought that was pretty amazing to find two Summer Tanagers in the same day, but looking at eBird, I see lots of sightings today and yesterday all over Burlington County. Either there is an influx of this species, or it isn't really rare. 

Bank Swallow flying along the sand quarry cliff

I was wondering if it was too early for the Bank Swallows, since I didn't see any flying over the open parts of the brook, and when I got to the edge of the quarry (I stand just outside the property line), I at first didn't see any activity. But a little persistence (like 3 minutes) yielded first one, then four, then six, then eight Bank Swallows flying along the far face of the quarry, going in and out of holes. 

That made 5 year birds for the day and that was enough for me. 

The Huber List--Bank Swallows and a couple of Baltimore Orioles were the only birds I saw at Burrs Mill that I didn't see at the Prairie Warbler Preserve. 

41 species
Canada Goose  2
Mourning Dove  2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Laughing Gull  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  2     
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Eastern Wood-Pewee  3
Acadian Flycatcher  1
Eastern Phoebe  2     Bridge
Great Crested Flycatcher  6
White-eyed Vireo  4
Red-eyed Vireo  2
Blue Jay  1
Common Raven  2     Croaking corvids
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tufted Titmouse  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3
Carolina Wren  1
Gray Catbird  2
Wood Thrush  3
American Goldfinch  1
Field Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  6
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Ovenbird  15
Blue-winged Warbler  1
Black-and-white Warbler  2
Prothonotary Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  2
Hooded Warbler  9     9+
American Redstart  2
Magnolia Warbler  1
Yellow Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  3
Prairie Warbler  15
Summer Tanager  1     
Scarlet Tanager  4
Northern Cardinal  2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Burrs Mill Brook 5/26--Bank Swallow

I took a walk along Burrs Mill Brook this morning, a spot I found a few years ago while looking at Google Maps. It's preserved land in Burlco, a sand trail that seems to be part of the fire lane system in the woods there. The brook itself has some broken down sluice gates, so it must have had some commercial history in the past, but I have no idea what it was or who Burr was and where his mill was located.  I go there once a year in the spring or summer to supplement a walk I've taken elsewhere. The first time I went there I followed the trail along the brook then went right, crossed over a culvert and walked up into the woods where I found myself at the edge of one of the many sand quarries that are dotted all over the Pine Barrens. To my surprise (as I wrote yesterday in birding, surprise is my goal), I found a flock of Bank Swallows and their nests in the sandy sides of the quarry. Now, on my annual visit, I hike over there, stand just outside the property edge so I'm not trespassing, and find the swallows swirling around, their nests in a different area each year. Today, their nests were in the near bank, so I wasn't able to see them without standing on the edge of the quarry, but from watching their flight as they flew directly at the bank, they were obviously going in and out of the holes or else they were kamikaze swallows. Hard to count the rapidly shifting flock, but I figured there were at least 15 of them, plus a few I saw flying over the brook itself. 

I've been told that the quarrymen have instructions not to dig sand out of the area where the swallows are nesting and leave those areas untouched until the swallows depart in late summer. It's a story I'd like to believe. 

35 species

Wood Duck  2
Mourning Dove  4
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  3
Killdeer  1
Laughing Gull  2
Turkey Vulture  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  4
Northern Flicker  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  3
Eastern Phoebe  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  5
Eastern Kingbird  2
White-eyed Vireo  2
Blue Jay  1
Fish Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  2
Bank Swallow  15     
Carolina Wren  3
Gray Catbird  5
American Robin  1
Cedar Waxwing  2
Eastern Towhee  1
Baltimore Oriole  1
Red-winged Blackbird  5
Brown-headed Cowbird  1
Ovenbird  4
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  5
Pine Warbler  4
Prairie Warbler  5
Northern Cardinal  1
Blue Grosbeak  1
Indigo Bunting  2