Island Beach SP 9/19--Philadelphia Vireo, Swainson's Thrush, Purple Finch, Northern Waterthrush, Nashville Warbler, Connecticut Warbler

Connecticut Warbler

When I got out of the car at the Island Beach Marina with the wind whipping around, it did not look like promising conditions for my first NJ Audubon field trip since the pandemic began. But I did hear a Red-breasted Nuthatch there, so that was a hint that there might be birds around. I was really early for Scott's & Linda's trip, so I drove back to the parking area just outside the gate and walked on a trail that runs between the backs of houses and the park itself. It was pretty muddy in there, as if a big mower had just run through, but it was full of birds to my delight. I got my FOY Northern Waterthrush, a Cape May Warbler, a Blackpoll Warbler, and 3 or 4 Black-throated Green Warblers. The warblers must have been young because they showed no apprehension of me as I lumbered by. They stayed in the puddles created by the tractor, picking at who knows what. One BT Green kept inching toward me until it was literally poking at the mud just underneath my boot.  

Black-throated Green Warbler

I was about 2/3 of the way down the trail when I had to turn back to meet the group. I told Scott there were a lot of birds in there so that was our first stop. I figured that of course all the birds would disappear and I'd have wasted the group's time but no indeed, they were abundant--warblers, phoebes, hummingbirds, and other birds, feeding everywhere. 

Normally, our next stop would be Reed's Road in the park proper, but since the pandemic affects where the restrooms are open, we found ourselves down a couple of miles, across from the smaller, less-birded, Tidal Pond Trail. It was surprisingly birdy in there with all kinds of warblers again. Just as we were about leave Scott found a Connecticut Warbler--county lifer for me--and it was surprisingly cooperative giving the group eventual good looks as it skulked in the grass.  As we were going to leave again, in the same place as the Connecticut but about 20 feet higher, Scott came up with a Philadelphia Vireo. It has been 363 days since I've seen a Philadelphia Vireo, the last one being the 21st of September last year when Scott found one on Reed's Road. Then it was a three tick bird (year, county, county lifer), this year just a two tick bird. We also saw a Tennessee Warbler. Last week, I'd never seen one in the county. This week: two. 

We poked around the dump area that has enough weeds and scrub to attract birds and Purple Finch and White-throated Sparrows (rare now, common next week) were among our finds. Then we made our way down to this little trail that runs to the bay. In there we had a female Indigo Bunting, more vireos, more warblers, and my first Swainson's Thrush of the year along with a returning Brown Creeper also rare for the moment. 

Making our way south, we next walked the Johnny Allen Cove Trail and what did Scott find almost immediately?--another Connecticut Warbler. For a rare bird there were at least 6 found today at the park and if 6 were discovered, there were probably a few more than that escaping observation. I managed to get an identifiable picture of this one--the first time I ever saw a COWA long enough to manage a photograph. 

Fall is coming early this year it seems because not only are there a lot of Red-breasted Nuthatches around, and not only are the White-throated Sparrows popping up all over, but that quintessential winter sparrow, the Dark-eyed Junco was on the Spizzle Creek Trail. It took us a while to convince ourselves we were seeing them (because of the light, not our birding skills), but there were two and we kept pushing them up the trail and we walked along. 

There were a few herons and egrets in the marsh, but the most interesting bird was one that has to go under the old name of Traill's Flycatcher which was used to be before it was split into Alder and Willow. Without calling, it is just a guess what bird it truly is.

Willow/Alder Flycatcher (Traill's)

The only real disappointment of the day was scoping down at the Winter Anchorage. We were hoping for a much lower tide to expose the sand bars around the sedge islands, but there was very little exposed and the only birds I added for the day were a couple of Willets. 

With that, after close to 9 hrs of birding, we wrapped it up. I haven't had a day like that, in terms of my list, since pre-Covid. I put 6 more birds on to the year list, 10 on to the county list, and one more for the county life list. Not that I'm keeping score this year. For the day: 69 species + the "sp." 

Pied-billed Grebe  1    Johnny Allen Cove Trail

Mourning Dove  1

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2

American Oystercatcher  25

Willet  2

Laughing Gull  10

Herring Gull  6

Great Black-backed Gull  20

Royal Tern  1

Common Loon  1    Flyover

Double-crested Cormorant  15

Great Blue Heron  2

Great Egret  4

Snowy Egret  1

Little Blue Heron  1

Tricolored Heron  2

Osprey  1

Belted Kingfisher  2

Northern Flicker  10

Merlin  5

Eastern Wood-Pewee  3

Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's Flycatcher)  1    Spizzle Creek Blind Trail. 

Eastern Phoebe  11

Eastern Kingbird  1    Flyover Swimming Lot 1

White-eyed Vireo  1

Philadelphia Vireo  1    Tidal Pond Trail

Red-eyed Vireo  8

Carolina Chickadee  1

Tree Swallow  1000

Golden-crowned Kinglet  1    Heard zeezeet on Spizzle Creek Trail

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  2    Tidal Pond Trail

Red-breasted Nuthatch  6    Easily

Brown Creeper  1    Small brown little football of a bird with a pointy bill creeping up tree 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1    Spizzle

House Wren  2

Carolina Wren  3

Gray Catbird  7

Brown Thrasher  1    Heard

Northern Mockingbird  1

Veery  2

Swainson's Thrush  1

American Robin  2

Cedar Waxwing  5

House Sparrow  3

House Finch  1

Purple Finch  2

American Goldfinch  1    Heard Flyover

Chipping Sparrow  4

Dark-eyed Junco  2    Black sparrows with white bellies and white outer tail feathers

White-throated Sparrow  9    Yellow lores white throat

Song Sparrow  3

Eastern Towhee  1    Heard Spizzle

Red-winged Blackbird  4

Boat-tailed Grackle  1    Spizzle

Northern Waterthrush  4

Black-and-white Warbler  1

Tennessee Warbler  1

Nashville Warbler  1

Connecticut Warbler  2  Greenish back with eye ring.

American Redstart  4

Cape May Warbler  2

Northern Parula  4

Bay-breasted Warbler  2

Chestnut-sided Warbler  1

Blackpoll Warbler  1

Black-throated Blue Warbler  2

Palm Warbler  2

Black-throated Green Warbler  5

Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1    Female Tidal Pond Trail

Indigo Bunting  1    Female Johnny Allen Cove Trail

A much better picture of the Connecticut Warbler ©️ Pam Hines

Brig 9/8--Little Stint

Luck was with me today. Over the weekend, at Brig, it was discovered that the odd sandpiper photographed by one persistent birder who, admirably, is always looking for what shouldn't be there was, actually, a mega-rarity. On Sunday the Bird Jam began, with hundreds of birders flocking (pun intended) to the area between markers 3 & 4. I was texted by Mike while I was at Palmyra, but I had no intention of getting involved with that craziness. Just the images of 40 or 50 cars "parked" haphazardly, with a hundred thousand dollars worth of scopes lined up along the dike made me light-headed. The crowds continued on Labor Day. I abstained. 

I wasn't really that interested in the bird. I had to remind myself while I was mentally sneering, that for most of those birders, a Little Stint (for that indeed was what the odd sandpiper turned out to be) was a life bird, a rare wanderer from the Eastern Hemisphere. However, I'd already had Little Stint a couple of times in South Africa and, compared to the other shorebirds I was seeing at St Lucia and Muzi Pan (African Jacana, Blacksmith Lapwing, Crowned Lapwing, Kittlitz's Plover, White-fronted Plover, Three-banded Plover), the stint was just another sandpiper. It would be great to have it on my ABA list, my Jersey list, and so forth, but not at the price of my nerves. (Not to mention the possibility that it could become the first birding super-spreader event, though, to their credit, almost everyone today was wearing a mask and I hear it was similar behavior the previous two days.)

So this morning, hoping that most people who wanted it would have seen it already, and hoping that it would stay, I drove down there without any real enthusiasm. It felt like something I should do and I hate being told what I should do, even if I'm the one telling myself. 

2/3 of a Little Stint

My plan was to try to get some walking in by leaving the car in the lot and hoofing it down to the area on the south dike, but when I saw an email that the bird was present, I figured, let's just get this bird and drove over to marker 3 where 5 or 6 birders were congregated. It was then, while getting my bins out of my backpack, that I discovered that I'd left the camera at home. I shouldered my scope, walked up to the first guy I saw, asked about the stint. He had his iPhone attached to his scope and showed me the bird on the screen. I was then able, after a minute or so, to find the bird on my own (ain't an official sighting until I see it in my scope) and got most of the field marks--spindly legs, pale head, mottled appearance, hint of rufous on the body. I couldn't really see the "braces" on its back because of the angle I was at. The bird moved around a lot, playing 3 card monte with some other peeps, but I was able to track it pretty well. The only digiscope photo I was able to take is horrible--through the vegetation, if you look hard, you can see about 2/3 of a Little Stint. 

Then a Peregrine Falcon came along and buzzed the birds which all took off. This has been going on, I understand, since the bird was originally rediscovered. I drove down the dike a bit but the bird was not to be found until a few hours later. But I only need to see it once. And I only saw it once because I nixed the walking idea--luck. 

Brown Pelican with Laughing Gull

Frankly, the more interesting birds to me were the two Brown Pelicans I found on the north dike, just before the dogleg. I've seen white pelicans at Brig numerous times, but these were the first brown one I'd ever encountered. They are "infrequent" according to eBird. And, I found them. 

All in all the day exceeded my expectations, which were admittedly low. Because there has been some speculation that this stint is the same stint that summered on a beach in Rhode Island, I had the notion that it might stick around. But I was almost positive I'd need help getting on the bird. As someone said today, "If that bird had landed on the hood of my car, I wouldn't have known it was a stint." So all praise to the birder who originally found it, a great guy, who studies every peep as if he's never seen one before. That's birding.

For the loop and Gull Pond, I managed 57 species. I probably could have done a little better walking on Jen's Trail, but the mosquitoes were awful. 

Canada Goose  110

Mute Swan  39

Wood Duck  1    Gull Pond.

Blue-winged Teal  6    Gull Pond

Mallard  35

American Black Duck  1

Mourning Dove  1    Atop Visitor's Ctr

Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1    Gull Pond Road

Clapper Rail  2

American Avocet  11    Exact count

American Oystercatcher  1    NE Corner

Black-bellied Plover  18

Semipalmated Plover  8

Little Stint  1    MEGA 

Least Sandpiper  50

White-rumped Sandpiper  1

Semipalmated Sandpiper  25

Western Sandpiper  1

Greater Yellowlegs  1    Heard flyover

Lesser Yellowlegs  2

Laughing Gull  300

Herring Gull  100

Great Black-backed Gull  2

Caspian Tern  29

Common Tern  1

Forster's Tern  65

Royal Tern  4

Black Skimmer  30

Double-crested Cormorant  320

Brown Pelican  2    

Great Blue Heron  8

Great Egret  85

Snowy Egret  28

Little Blue Heron  5

Black-crowned Night-Heron  1    Roosting in tree along road to Gull Pond

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  4

Turkey Vulture  4

Osprey  10

Northern Harrier  1

Bald Eagle  1

Northern Flicker  1

Peregrine Falcon  2

White-eyed Vireo  1    Heard Jen’s Trail

Blue Jay  3    Heard

American Crow  4

Carolina Chickadee  3    Heard

Tufted Titmouse  2

Tree Swallow  100

Marsh Wren  1

Carolina Wren  2

European Starling  150

Gray Catbird  2    Heard Gull Pond Road

American Goldfinch  2

Song Sparrow  2

Red-winged Blackbird  75

Ovenbird  1    Jen’s Trail

Black-and-white Warbler  1

Brown Pelicans with Herring Gull, Double-crested Cormorant, and Great Egret

Laurel Run Park 6/12--Grasshopper Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow

I had a choice this morning, as I saw it. I could, for the third time, go to Stafford Preserve, which is an ugly housing development set next to a vast sandy wasteland with an acre or so of scrubby fields that no one has had the chance to build on yet and frustrate myself by being someplace I don't like looking for a certain bird or I could go to Laurel Run Park in Burlco, which is part of a preserved farm with a mile long loop around grasslands, hard by Rancocas Creek and be pretty certain of finally finding Grasshopper Sparrow. I chose the latter. 

I was hoping that maybe a Dickcissel would also appear, as Laurel Run has hosted that species a couple of times, but I settled for the "gropper." I made two loops around and found 2, perhaps 3--one flew and landed a little too fast for me to get my bins on it. It was a pleasant morning, but not much else was showing itself. Goldfinches were attracted to the huge purple thistle plants. Interestingly, on my 2nd trip around, all the Grasshopper Sparrows disappeared. Strange how that can happen. Is it unintentional inattentiveness on my part? 

About a mile away from Laurel Run is another park--Boundary Creek Natural Resource Area which has boardwalks and observation platforms overlooking the Rancocas. The idea of the Rancocas being a "creek" seems pretty peculiar when you see a barge drifting along it and know that up until the 1920's there were ferries and tugboats running up and down it as it was the best way to get to Philadelphia from that area. 

I hadn't been to the park in at least a year, maybe two. I remembered it being larger but I was able to cover all the trails, essentially a figure 8, twice, pretty quickly.  I found a few birds I like, including a pair of Orchard Orioles but by far the most interesting sighting was of a Yellow Warbler nest hanging over the main viewing platform. The warblers were going back and forth with food, so I assumed there were nestlings inside, but, as I was taking pictures of the nest while they were out gathering more food, I couldn't figure out what the red triangle sticking up was. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the photos that I realized it was the open mouth of begging baby. 

 

The park had prominent Covid-19 signs posted, stating that masks were required. I'm very cautious, but I doubt the necessity for masks walking trails, but I put mine on and  I'm happy to say that at least in Burlington County, the residents take the rules seriously, since almost everyone I passed, including little kids, had their face coverings in place.