Whitesbog (Ocean County) 2/20--Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes on Upper Reservoir with Tundra Swans

I finally tracked them down. And on the "right" side of the line. And in the last spot I'd expect to find them. "They," of course, are the Sandhill Cranes that I initially saw on February 7th flying out of Ditch Meadow on the Burlco side of Whitesbog, and again in flight on February 14th. On Monday I searched for them in Ditch Meadow without luck and looked for them in what I thought would be the most likely site on the Ocean County side in the grasslands of Otter Pond--if that sounds oxymoronic, it is--Otter Pond was drained of most of its water around 8 years ago when the Upper Reservoir breached and something like 17 million gallons of water tore through the old bogs and ponds that border Fort Dix. In fact, it was on the ice of the Upper Reservoir where I unexpectedly found them today, standing among a small flock of Tundra Swans. 

As has been usual of late, Whitesbog was pretty quiet today with all the water frozen. A lone Tundra Swan on the ice around the dog leg calling pathetically for company was the most interesting bird I saw until the cranes. I had walked back to the Antrim Bogs, where a few days ago I had seen swans, geese, and ducks in some open water, but they also were frozen. So, since I've never seen cranes standing on ice, I had given up on them when I was counting the swans on the Upper Reservoir which means the Second Law of birding had been invoked and of course, there they were at the left-hand side of the flock. Happily, that means I don't have to go searching for them in the smelly pastures of New Egypt this spring, where they used to be easy to find and now, not so much.

January Summary

Red-headed Woodpecker, Colliers Mills

It has to be pretty cold in the morning for me not to go out birding. This month there were five days in a row when hypothermia was a potential problem, so I did a lot of feederwatching those days.  And the days when the weather was bearable, I felt I had to walk around, so I didn't spend any time watching the ocean for alcids which appear to have been abundant up by Manasquan Inlet. 

Some of my other notable sightings not previously narrated here were tracking down the Red-headed Woodpecker(s) at Colliers Mills, one time in a grove where I hadn't seen them before; finding a few Savannah Sparrows of the Ipswich persuasion at Barnegat Light yesterday; having 16 turkeys visit us this morning; and finally, perhaps most surprising, was glancing out the window to see a V of Snow Geese fly overhead. Snow Geese have become harder to find in county recently. Time was you could go out to New Egypt and always come across a big flock of them but not no more. So to have them as a backyard bird was a coup for the month. 

A visit to our backyard.

For the month I only managed 105 species. That's what happens when you stay away from the Ocean in Ocean County. But I don't have frost bite either.

Species    First Sighting
Snow Goose    35 Sunset Rd
Brant    Sandy Hook
Canada Goose    35 Sunset Rd
Mute Swan    Manahawkin Lake
Tundra Swan    Whitesbog
Northern Shoveler    Marshall's Pond
Gadwall    Ocean Acres Pond
American Wigeon    Marshall's Pond
Mallard    Whitesbog
American Black Duck    Sandy Hook
Green-winged Teal    Ocean Acres Pond
Canvasback    Riverfront Landing
Redhead    Lake Carasaljo
Ring-necked Duck    Butterfly Bogs WMA
Greater Scaup    Sandy Hook
Common Eider    Sandy Hook
Harlequin Duck    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Surf Scoter    Sandy Hook
White-winged Scoter    Sandy Hook
Black Scoter    Sandy Hook
Long-tailed Duck    Sandy Hook
Bufflehead    Sandy Hook
Common Goldeneye    Harvey Cedars
Hooded Merganser    Bunker Hill Bogs
Common Merganser    Pemberton Lake WMA
Red-breasted Merganser    Sandy Hook
Ruddy Duck    Stafford Township
Wild Turkey    35 Sunset Rd
Rock Pigeon    Manahawkin Lake
Mourning Dove    35 Sunset Rd
Killdeer    Manahawkin Lake
Greater Yellowlegs    Bridge to Nowhere
Sanderling    Sandy Hook
Purple Sandpiper    Barnegat Lighthouse SP
Ring-billed Gull    Bunker Hill Bogs
American Herring Gull    Sandy Hook
Great Black-backed Gull    Sandy Hook
Horned Grebe    Sandy Hook
Red-throated Loon    Sandy Hook
Common Loon    Sandy Hook
Northern Gannet    Sandy Hook
Great Cormorant    Sandy Hook
Double-crested Cormorant    Sandy Hook
American Bittern    Manahawkin WMA
Great Egret    Island Beach SP
Great Blue Heron    Sandy Hook
Black Vulture    New Egypt
Turkey Vulture    Sandy Hook
Sharp-shinned Hawk    Whitesbog
Cooper's Hawk    35 Sunset Rd
Northern Harrier    Sandy Hook
Bald Eagle    Sandy Hook
Red-shouldered Hawk    Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk    Forest Resource Education Center
Eastern Screech-Owl    Stafford Avenue
Great Horned Owl    Beach Ave
Long-eared Owl    Redacted
Belted Kingfisher    Manahawkin WMA
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker    Bridge to Nowhere
Red-headed Woodpecker    Colliers Mills WMA
Red-bellied Woodpecker    Whitesbog
Downy Woodpecker    Sandy Hook
Hairy Woodpecker    Whitesbog
Northern Flicker    BC Fairgrounds
Eastern Phoebe    Whitesbog
Blue Jay    Forest Resource Education Center
American Crow    35 Sunset Rd
Common Raven    Sandy Hook
Carolina Chickadee    35 Sunset Rd
Tufted Titmouse    35 Sunset Rd
Golden-crowned Kinglet    Whitesbog
White-breasted Nuthatch    35 Sunset Rd
Red-breasted Nuthatch    35 Sunset Rd
Brown Creeper    Colliers Mills WMA
Winter Wren    Whitesbog
Carolina Wren    35 Sunset Rd
European Starling    BC Fairgrounds
Gray Catbird    Manahawkin WMA
Northern Mockingbird    35 Sunset Rd
Eastern Bluebird    Whitesbog
Hermit Thrush    Whitesbog
American Robin    35 Sunset Rd
Cedar Waxwing    Island Beach SP
House Sparrow    35 Sunset Rd
House Finch    Sandy Hook
American Goldfinch    Sandy Hook
Snow Bunting    Sandy Hook
Chipping Sparrow    Forest Resource Education Center
Field Sparrow    New Egypt
American Tree Sparrow    Whitesbog
Fox Sparrow    Beach Ave
Dark-eyed Junco    35 Sunset Rd
White-crowned Sparrow    New Egypt
White-throated Sparrow    Forest Resource Education Center
Savannah Sparrow    Ephraim P. Emson Preserve
Song Sparrow    35 Sunset Rd
Swamp Sparrow    Cranberry Bogs
Red-winged Blackbird    Bridge to Nowhere
Brown-headed Cowbird    New Egypt
Common Grackle    BC Fairgrounds
Boat-tailed Grackle    Bridge to Nowhere
Pine Warbler    35 Sunset Rd
Yellow-rumped Warbler    Sandy Hook
Western Tanager    Sandy Hook
Northern Cardinal    Whitesbog

Ring-necked Duck, Colliers Mills

New Egypt 2/24--White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow, New Egypt

I returned to Jumping Brook Preserve this morning for the first time since my unfortunate episode in September when, while I was considering whether I could step over a breach in the path between two bogs, I lost my footing as the edge gave way and slipped waist deep into the water, losing my phone which somehow inexplicably managed to slide out of my pocket and sink into the muck. Apparently, iPhones don't float.

The last time I was there, what must have been an army of beavers had managed to create so many dams, that the bogs were overflowing and the paths, for a hundred yards at a stretch, were not just underwater, but flowing streams. I was happy to see today, that whoever the caretaker of the property is was taking care of the property, because the front bog had obviously been drained, drawing off all the water on the paths, and the other reservoirs were very low. Only one Killdeer in all that mud, but the robins, bluebirds, and blackbirds were all happily foraging. The evidence of the beaver brigade was everywhere--formidable trees gnawed down, pointed stumps every few feet, wood chips scattered all around. But I could walk instead of slosh. 

Unfortunately, even in the reservoirs that were full, there wasn't much waterfowl to find--14 black ducks were the largest number of ducks or geese that I could find. A few Ring-necked Ducks, a pair of Hooded Mergansers and only 4 geese were the best I could do. There were a couple of spots I didn't try since I'm still a bit leery of the more out of the way areas, but the big reservoir at the back, where I would expect to find a big flock of ring-necks, had only 2 geese floating on it. The best birds I had all morning there were on the way out--I heard, as I often do there, a Red-shouldered Hawk crying "Keer, keer, keer" and I found a Brown Creeper spiraling up a tree then down to the next one. Brown Creeper is a patch bird there for me. 

I'd been walking in a light, but steady rain almost the entire three hours I was at Jumping Brook. Of course, as soon as I got to my car, it had stopped. I had been considering going over to the longhorn cattle "pastures" not too far away, even though that spot, which once was the place for Sandhill Cranes in the county and was where Shari spotted Northern Lapwings (that year's celebrity species), hasn't been very interesting of late. I used to stop at a fence line on Brynmore Road and check out the sparrow flock, but nothing the last few times I've been there has turned up. I went anyway, and it was the same thing today, nothing there but a Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, and a House Sparrow. There was some entertainment when I was held up by the farmer's pet Swan Goose which would not let my car get by on Inman--I had to stop, get out of the car, and let the bird attack my ankles before it would move away--even then it walked along the side of my car screeching into the window as I drove carefully away, trying not to kill it. 

I scanned the fields for shorebirds but found only a flocks of robins and starlings. I parked and walked to the treeline that is beyond the pastures--there is a scraggly tree there that often has a flock of mixed sparrows in it. Today was one of those days--besides the predictable House Sparrows, I found another Song Sparrow, a couple of Savannah Sparrows, a couple of Chipping Sparrows, and then one sparrow that obviously wasn't a House Sparrow but, finally, the bird I always look for on Brynmore, a White-crowned Sparrow. Sans white-crown, which is why I didn't recognize it at first--the first winter birds have brown caps--but the conical shape of the big, shape of the head, the long tail, all gave me the field marks I need. So, the trip was worth it. Pickup truck guys: I saw an eagle, beautiful adult perched in a tree. 

I might even have seen two. There was a hawk very far away across the pasture that, with the overcast lighting and with its back to me, I couldn't make out very well--I assumed it was an immature eagle but it looked too light on its back for me to definitely say. I don't think it was anything exotic, but I took a digiscope of it and put it on my eBird list anyway. If anyone wants to take a guess, have at it.

Cranberry Bogs 3/6--Eastern Phoebe, Tree Swallow

Eastern Phoebe

Precursor of spring: The Eastern Phoebe? 

I looked up the dictionary definition of "precursor" to see if the modifier "early" was redundant. It isn't, though "late" would be nonsensical. The usage example cited was "The first robin is a precursor of spring." Of course, it isn't, but accuracy isn't necessary when showing usage. Maybe in Maine it's true. 

Phoebes aren't all that unusual in winter either--I remember that the January day after Shari & I found the lapwings in New Egypt, I had a phoebe at Double Trouble. There's been one at Wells Mills Park this year reported off and on all winter. I didn't bother to go there; I figured I'd get a phoebe this year or else I had much bigger problems. But the cranberry bogs (the undeveloped section of Double Trouble, I'd like to know the history, whether it was part of the original Double Trouble cranberry operation or a separate entity) are only about 15 minutes away from here, so I've been traipsing around there a lot this season. 

Sunrise this morning was 6:23 and that is the precise time that my eBird list starts. It was very spring-like in terms of bird song. It seemed like everybody was singing at the proverbial crack of dawn. As soon as I got over the entrance hump, I could hear, among the cacophony of birds calling, the aggressive FEEBEE! from which the bird takes its name. The bird, however, was a good distance away, over by the buildings (a barracks, a storage shed, some kind of the cinderblock construction) and I walked over there to look for it. Normally, I wouldn't bother, but since this was FOY, I wanted to actually see it, and if possible, get some kind of photo to document it, as it is still flagged as "rare" for this time of year. 

I could hear the bird as if it was on top of me, standing by the barracks, but I have hard time locating birds by sound. They always seem like they're behind me, no matter what direction I'm facing. Of course, as soon as I finally found the bird, it flew off toward one of the bogs. I kept following it, as it moved from tree to tree, getting lots of crummy photos, until it relented and flew to the top of a tree where I was able to take a mediocre photo. More effort than I would normally put into a bird, but it was early. 

Tree Swallow

I then decided to walk back towards the big reservoir, which meant wading through a flooded path that seems to be getting deeper and longer each time I go there, which is why I always put on my muck boots there. There were lots of ducks along the way, mostly Ring-necked Ducks, and the blackbirds were singing, establishing territory. I don't think I've seen a female yet this season. When I got to the reservoir, I checked out the ancient swallow box that is stuck in the middle of the water--sometimes it is still used, but not today. Then I heard twittering. (Ever notice that Twitter's logo is a stylized swallow?) Looking up I saw 3 or 4 Tree Swallows swooping around. For me, this is pretty late in the year to get Tree Swallow--one or two are usually around one of the beaches I go to, living on bayberry fruit until the bugs come out, but until today, they managed to avoid me this year. 

After about an hour, the singing died down (except for the blackbirds). When I got back to the buildings, on my way out, I could still hear the phoebe's raspy "song," and I saw a Cooper's Hawk and a Hairy Woodpecker in the same area. For the morning, I tallied 26 species

Canada Goose  6     6+
American Black Duck  35     Flushed big flock from shallow bog
Ring-necked Duck  41
Bufflehead  2
Hooded Merganser  11
Mourning Dove  2
Herring Gull  2
Cooper's Hawk  1     
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1     
Northern Flicker  1     Heard
Eastern Phoebe  1     
Blue Jay  1     Heard
American Crow  5
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tree Swallow  4     
Golden-crowned Kinglet  3
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1     Heard near big pit
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
Field Sparrow  2
Dark-eyed Junco  3
White-throated Sparrow  5
Song Sparrow  15
Red-winged Blackbird  30
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  2

Hancock Field 2/23--Harris's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow (digiscope)

I usually feel that looking for a little bird in a big field is a mug's game, so I wasn't too eager to go up into Mercer County to chase the reported Harris's Sparrow. But, when I read the descriptions, they all said it was feeding with a flock of White-crowned Sparrows. Since I haven't been able to find White-crowns in my two spots--a driveway outside of Assunpink and strip of hedges in New Egypt, I figured they would be my consolation prize when I probably didn't find the rarity.

I drove up to East Windsor to the newly named hotspot of Hancock Field (Please stay on the road), missing the turn onto the gravel road in the murk of the morning. When I got there, I parked my car near the brush pile landmark, and immediately 20 juncos flew out of it. Not what I wanted. I plunked down my scope and soon a few White-crowned Sparrows emerged from the brush, feeding probably not more than 5 feet away from it. I like White-crowns and I scanned around from adult to immature birds. Then, because I wasn't expecting it, the Harris's Sparrow popped up in my eyepiece. I had a choice: watch the bird or try to take a picture of the bird--distant and enshrouded in fog. I watched the bird, getting all the field marks for a first year bird--it looked fine in my scope, invisible in my binoculars. One other guy was there, scoping from a 90 degree from where I stood. He walked over and we compared notes. 

Some other birders started coming up, but from what I can tell from the rare bird alerts, the bird didn't reappear until late this afternoon. This is only my second Harris's Sparrow. (By the way, I hate the orthography of "Harris's." I prefer the ownership apostrophe on the terminal "s" in these cases.) The first one (which I saw 3 times) was a few years ago, also in Mercer County, just a tad inland from where Washington crossed the Delaware. It was just this time of year, too. I remember seeing the original report during the Great Backyard Bird Count, so dismissed it, as birds are routinely misidentified during that 4 day period--"Brewer's Blackbird is common at my feeder," "We have Common Ground Dove year round." That sort of thing, but in this case, the stopped clock was right and the bird hung around for more than a week on a residential street. 

When the HASP disappeared (presumably back into the brush), I started fooling around with digiscoping with my phone. I did surprisingly well with the White-crowned Sparrows, which were aesthetically much more pleasing than the blotchy Harris's Sparrow. 

Home | New Egypt 2/1--Pine Warbler & Priming

Two semi-interesting events this first of the month. Second one first: I looked out at one of our suet feeders and saw my first Pine Warbler of the year.  There have been winters when I could not not see a Pine Warbler on the feeder, to the point where I had to tell the eBird reviewer that I was tired of documenting this supposedly rare bird, but this has not been one of those winters. Still, it is no longer listed as "rare" in Ocean County during the cold months. 

The first one was while I was driving around New Egypt, looking for kestrels on the wires along the roads, as I often do in the winter. There's no good reason to do this, since I'm going to see a kestrel eventually in the county, more than likely at Colliers Mills, but I do it anyway. And thus, I was able to demonstrate the psychological concept of "priming." Since I was looking for kestrels, when I saw a bird land atop a pole on Long Swamp Road that wasn't a crow, I pulled off to the shoulder, shot a few pictures through the side window and figured I had my county kestrel. I couldn't really stay there and study the bird in that precarious position, but I was primed for kestrel. It wasn't until I got home and looked at my photographs, that I realized it wasn't a kestrel at all, but a Merlin, which is actually more infrequent in that area than kestrel. If I hadn't been looking for kestrel, I probably would have known immediately that the bird on the pole was a Merlin, but too often we see what we want to see. In this case, inconsequential. But too often, of late, not. 

Assunpink 1/8--Trumpeter Swan

Trumpeter Swans (left), Tundra Swan (right)

If there is such an oxymoron as a "Common Rarity" then the Trumpeter Swans, that have been wintering at Assunpink for about the last 10 years, qualify. Where they come from is a mystery, and why only Assunpink, in the entire state, the only place to find them is also unknown. The only question is just where they'll--west end of the lake, east end of the lake, or Stone Tavern Lake (which is part of Assunpink.) 

Today I started on the west end of Assunpink Lake, which I imagine as shaped like an asymmetrical dumb bell, the wider part on the west, then a long handle that connect to a smaller cove in the east. I'd heard that the swans had been seen behind the island on the main part of the lake, so I walked over there, but they weren't around. Not much was around, in fact. 30 Ruddy Ducks when there are usually hundreds, a few Buffleheads, 3 hen Hooded Mergansers...not much at all. 

I started walking the dirt road towards the east end, stopping at all the cuts to view the lake. It wasn't until I got to the last one, on the east side that I finally found them, at the extreme east end, sleeping, naturally, with a smaller swan. I texted Bob Auster, who got there a little after me, that I'd found them, but a scope would be helpful. Fortunately, he was on his way, and was carrying his scope. The only way I could identify them as Trumpeters from that distance and in that posture was by looking at their butts, which weren't pointy, as Mute Swans would be. I met Bob on the road, and we walked down the trail where he set up his scope. A few times one or the other of the swans would lift its head so that we could see the black (not orange) bill and confirm the distant id. The 3rd bird Bob determined was a Tundra Swan, also rare, if you're in Monmouth County. I probably would have skipped that bird if it wasn't for Bob; it was smaller than the other two, and a Tundra Swan had been reported in company with the Trumpeters, and it wasn't the first time I'd had both species on that lake, so I took the check mark. Meanwhile, I was thinking, "Another year of lousy looks." 

Red-shouldered Hawk

With that tiny achievement on our record, Bob & I birded our way back to the main part of the lake and then around to the north side. We spotted a few interesting birds like Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Hermit Thrush and spotted the Red-shouldered Hawk that was incessantly calling as we walked the road. It was loud. We could hear it still when we were about 1/2 mile away on the berm of the lake. 

While I was happy to get the Trumpeter Swans "out of the way," the most satisfying sighting of the day was the "stumble-upon" flock of Snow Geese that I found on the way up there, on Rt 539 in New Egypt. They were in a corn stubble field. Of the literally hundreds of times that I have passed that field going to Assunpink or Colliers Mills, this was only the second time I have seen Snow Geese there. 

When I passed by later in the day, they were still there, in almost a perfect square in the middle of the field. 

Jumping Brook Preserve 4/7--Sandhill Crane

On a day so dreary and thick with mist that it felt like walking in an aquarium, I drove out to New Egypt to look around before the really bad weather hit. I figured I'd worked Colliers Mills to avian exhaustion of late, so instead I started at the longhorn farm on Brynmore Road. I thought perhaps with all the recent rain, the muddy fields might have an early, interesting sandpiper, but they had only the usual flocks of blackbirds, starlings, and, of course, cowbirds, along with, by my count, 42 Black Vultures, mostly standing like sentries among the cattle. 

My next idea was to go over to Jumping Brook Preserve, only 5 minutes away, but little known and thus, underbirded. This is probably because it is hard to find, accessible by an easement that runs along the lawn of a large house, and the easement sign is barely visible in the bushes. Jumping Brook is on Cranberry Canners Road, which, as the name indicates, used to have a cranberry cannery, the ruins of which are across from the easement. There is a sign at the Emson Preserve detailing the history of the canned cranberry which was, like many inventions (the telephone, calculus) hit upon almost simultaneously, the New Jersey woman developing her recipe at more or less the same time as a man in Massachusetts did. Eventually, this all became Ocean Spray. Her, as the signs says, "extensive holdings" from what I can garner, included the abandoned bogs now called Jumping Brook, which is hard up against the boundary of Ft. Dix, though around here, what isn't hard up the boundary of Joint Base MDL? 

The property has an on again off again history of maintenance--I've been there when the beavers have made the trails almost impassable--but right now the NJCF seems to be doing a good job of keeping the trails around the bogs mowed. I even noticed, today, that some of the dams along the drained bogs toward the back are walkable. Those drained bogs were my target, with sandpipers in mind again, and while I didn't find anything new, I did find at least 5 Wilson's Snipe flying around along with a Killdeer and a Greater Yellowlegs. I was hoping for Blue-winged Teal but didn't come up with any--the only waterfowl being geese, Mallards, and Wood Ducks. There's often a large contingent of Ring-necked Ducks in a back reservoir, but they seem to have left. 

But the most notable sight came when I was three-quarters of the way around the "main" bogs. I saw a huge bird flying toward me and knew immediately by size and flight style that it wasn't a Great Blue Heron. Putting up my binoculars I was able to follow its flight for enough time to note it's overall gray color and long, extended neck with a relatively small head, all of which builds a Sandhill Crane. That makes up for the one I missed last month at Whitesbog, which was also flying toward Ft. Dix, so, note to Joint Base birders (and there are a lot of them), there are cranes somewhere near you. 

Of course, Sandhill Crane is flagged as "rare", but it is also flagged "infrequent." Gone are the days when they were somewhat easy to find in the corn stubble next to the longhorn fields. They seem to hopscotch between the counties, sometimes showing up at the Pemberton MUA fields, sometimes reported flying over New Egypt. Their mysterious disappearance may be because they are in a restricted access area. 

I got out of there just before the weather went from drizzle to big fat raindrops.

22 species
Canada Goose  4
Wood Duck  4
Mallard  5
Sandhill Crane  1     
Killdeer  1
Wilson's Snipe  5
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Black Vulture  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
Eastern Phoebe  2
Blue Jay  3
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tree Swallow  50
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1
White-throated Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  3
Red-winged Blackbird  15
Common Grackle  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1     

🠜Chimney of old cannery.

I think Black Vultures nest there.

Colliers Mills 3/5--Eastern Phoebe

After a couple of semi-productive stops in New Egypt (Jumping Brook Preserve & the Brynmore Road "pastures"), I intended only a quick walk at Colliers Mills. Mostly, I was hoping to find a kestrel on the power lines along Success Road. But what always happens is this: As long as I'm all the way up here on Success, I may as well cut over to the woods east of the police range and look again for a Red-headed Woodpecker. Well, as long as I'm in the woods, I may as well walk a little bit more see what ducks are on Turnmill Pond. Well, as long as I'm here counting a huge flock of Ring-necked Ducks, I may as well walk along the berm...and I reached the end of the berm and it appears I'm circling the pond and it has become a 2-mile hike. 

And I'm glad I did because I got a little surprise on Hawkin Road. Besides the juncos, the Brown Creeper, the Hermit Thrush, and the Fox Sparrow that were all along the edge of the road, suddenly a gray flycatcher with a brown head appeared at the top of a leafless bush--my first Eastern Phoebe of the year. 

I was surprised to find it flagged as "rare" on eBird. Phoebes do overwinter occasionally in Ocean County--I remember seeing one at Double Trouble in January the day after Shari & I discovered the lapwings at the aforementioned Brynmore Road "pastures"--but this one must be early, because I have walked that stretch of Hawkin Road at least 10 times this year and never saw a phoebe until yesterday. Today, I notice, there are a couple of more reports from other parts of the county, so one more sliver of evidence that migration is beginning earlier and earlier each year. 

No bird photos, but assuming you're not eating while reading this, here is a photo from the "pasture" I've titled "Hmm Hmmm Hm, Good Eatin'!" 

My Colliers Mills list for yesterday:

Colliers Mills WMA, Ocean, New Jersey, US
Mar 5, 2022 10:07 AM - 12:09 PM
Protocol: Traveling
2.0 mile(s)
30 species
Canada Goose  41
Ring-necked Duck  118     Not unusual to have large flocks on Turnmill Pond in late winter
Lesser Scaup  1     With RNDU
Hooded Merganser  3     Colliers Mills Lake
Mourning Dove  4
Turkey Vulture  4
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  2     Heard
Northern Flicker  1
Eastern Phoebe  1     
Blue Jay  2
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard
Tufted Titmouse  4     Heard
Golden-crowned Kinglet  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Brown Creeper  1     Off Hawkin Road
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
Northern Mockingbird  1
Eastern Bluebird  2
Hermit Thrush  1     Hawkin Road
American Robin  100
Field Sparrow  1     Success Road
Fox Sparrow  3     Success Road & Hawkin Road & burnt area behind parking lot
Dark-eyed Junco  10
White-throated Sparrow  15
Song Sparrow  12
Red-winged Blackbird  12
Brown-headed Cowbird  40
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1     Berm
Northern Cardinal  1     Burnt area behind parking lot

New Egypt 1/19--Pileated Woodpecker

I'll have to find a new nemesis bird for Ocean County, because this morning, after innumerable trips to the environs of New Egypt over the last couple of years, I finally tracked down a Pileated Woodpecker. I'd already gone to the Plumsted Recreational Park (New Egypt is part of Plumsted) a few times this year where the woodpeckers had been seen in the past, but this year I noticed that one birder was posting them as being in "North New Egypt." 

A little investigation with Google Street View showed that his location was actually on the Ocean County extension of the Union Transportation Trail which follows a power line cut laid down on the old right of way of the milk train that used to run from New Egypt to Cream Ridge. I took a chance and parked in a lot behind an Ace Hardware store, next to some charity bins. I didn't see any signs that said, "No Parking." This section, like the section a little farther north, is not finished with gravel like the Monmouth County section, but rather is just a mowed strip between bushes and tangles on one side and woods on the other. After passing through a short alley of abandoned truck trailers, I started up the trail, where a gigantic flock of Common Grackles were kretzing in the treetops. A little farther on a flock of White-throated Sparrows scared up from the bushes, and then I saw a big woodpecker fly across the trail, landing somewhere in the woods. I was pretty certain that was my bird, but the first two woodpeckers on tree trunks that I glassed were just a Red-bellied Woodpecker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. But then, raising my binoculars to the height of the flight, there atop the bare tree was the huge black and white woodpecker with a red crest. Success at last! I moved up, hoping to get a better angle on the bird and maybe even a photo op, but, as so often happens, changing position lost me the bird. Still, I saw it, big as life. 

Pileated Woodpecker is rarely rare in NJ counties, but here in Ocean only the northern part of the county has suitable habitat. I guess they don't like pines. I've seen them all around Ocean: Burlco, Mercer, Monmouth, Middlesex, up norther in Warren & Somerset, down south in Cape May, but finding one here was starting to seem like my life's work. Lucky is that birder who made a video of one in his backyard in New Egypt. 

The rest of the morning was spent walking around Colliers Mills, which was full of sparrows and not much else. No good pictures today except for these two birds I can't count. I'm wondering what kind of pet an ostrich makes and why you'd want two.

Across from Colliers Mills on Hawkin Road. 

March--A Wide-ranging Month

Wood Ducks, Ditch Meadow, Whitesbog

I ended the month at Raritan Bay Waterfront Park in Middlesex County, another place I haven't visited since pre-pandemic, in this case just about two years, because that's when Scott runs a few trips there and I try to get up there in hopes that his expertise will pull out a white-winged gull from the flocks of usual gulls. It took a bit of doing but he got the group on an Iceland Gull flying out over the bay. Not the field guide looks you'd like but obvious enough.  Also new for me was Laughing Gull, though I wasn't too concerned about getting that species for the year. 

Being in Middlesex today made it the seventh New Jersey county I've birded this month, which is another thing I can say I haven't done since the pandemic started. Why that's one third of the counties in the state. But in Delaware we birded two thirds of the counties in the state. Impressive if you don't know there are only three in the state. 

Sandhill Cranes, New Egypt

On Sunday, Scott found a quartet of Sandhill Cranes in the storied corn field on Brynmore Road in New Egypt. They are off and on again habitués of that field over the years. Unfortunately, this is where my eschewing of social media and the GroupMe alerts bit me on the ass, because I didn't find out about it until late in the afternoon on Sunday. Monday & Tuesday we were in Delaware. Today, just as I was about to leave South Amboy and was checking eBird to see if anyone had seen the cranes today, Mike texted me that he had them again in the field. There's no good way to get there from South Amboy but I took the least bad way and made it there in a little over an hour. As always seems to be case with this species in NJ, they were hard to see in the corn stubble unless they stood straight up. Luckily, when I got there a couple were. Not a year bird; hell, not even a month bird since I saw pair fly over at the end of Scott's trip to Salem County early in the month which bled over into Gloucester County when we stopped at Pedricktown Marsh. 

I did one trip to Brig this month where I got the surprise of the King Rail and a long recording of it. The Delaware trip is documented above. Mostly, of course, I was in Ocean and Burlington Counties. I had a few great moments at Whitesbog this month like when I found the woodcocks in the triangle field pre-dawn, or came up the Wood Ducks above in Ditch Meadow. And here's a peculiarity: I now hold the Ocean County record for most Ring-necked Ducks seen in one place--665 at Colliers Mills, the vast majority of them staging the south end of Turnmill Pond. That was a memorable sight. And finding the Red-headed Woodpecker (twice) at Colliers Mills always seems like an accomplishment to me. 

It was a good month with 134 species listed of which 24 were year birds. April begins the craziness of warblers and shorebirds. I already have anticipation anxiety. 

Counties birded:
Delware: Kent, Sussex

New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Gloucester, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Salem

Species               First Sighting

Snow Goose   Pemberton Lake WMA

Brant   MacLearie Park

Canada Goose   Deal Lake

Mute Swan   Silver Lake

Tundra Swan   Whitesbog

Wood Duck   Whitesbog

Blue-winged Teal   Bombay Hook

Northern Shoveler   Silver Lake

Gadwall   Holly Lake

Eurasian Wigeon   MacLearie Park

American Wigeon   MacLearie Park

Mallard   Deal Lake

American Black Duck   Whitesbog

Northern Pintail   Salem River WMA

Green-winged Teal   Whitesbog

Redhead   Whitesbog

Ring-necked Duck   Whitesbog

Greater Scaup   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Lesser Scaup   Silver Lake

King Eider   Manasquan Inlet

Common Eider   Manasquan Inlet

Harlequin Duck   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Black Scoter   Spring Lake

Long-tailed Duck   Manasquan Inlet

Bufflehead   MacLearie Park

Common Goldeneye   LBI Bayside

Hooded Merganser   Manahawkin WMA

Common Merganser   Pemberton Lake WMA

Red-breasted Merganser   Deal Lake

Ruddy Duck   Silver Lake

Wild Turkey   Wranglebrook Rd

Pied-billed Grebe   Bamber Lake

Horned Grebe   MacLearie Park

Rock Pigeon   Pilesgrove

Mourning Dove   35 Sunset Rd

King Rail   Brig

Clapper Rail   Prime Hook

American Coot   Lake of the Lilies

Sandhill Crane   Pedricktown Marsh

American Avocet   Bombay Hook

American Oystercatcher   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Black-bellied Plover   Bombay Hook

Killdeer   Compromise Rd.

Ruddy Turnstone   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Dunlin   Manasquan Inlet

Purple Sandpiper   Manasquan Inlet

American Woodcock   Crestwood Community Gardens

Wilson's Snipe   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Greater Yellowlegs   Eno's Pond

Lesser Yellowlegs   Eno's Pond

Bonaparte's Gull   Shark River

Laughing Gull   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Ring-billed Gull   Manahawkin WMA

Herring Gull   Deal Lake

Iceland Gull   Raritan Bay Waterfront Park

Lesser Black-backed Gull   Wreck Pond

Great Black-backed Gull   Deal Lake

Forster's Tern   Bombay Hook

Red-throated Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Common Loon   Manasquan Inlet

Northern Gannet   Island Beach SP

Great Cormorant   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Double-crested Cormorant   Deal Lake

American Bittern   Island Beach SP

Great Blue Heron   Pemberton Lake WMA

Great Egret   Manahawkin WMA

Snowy Egret   Bombay Hook

Little Blue Heron   DuPont Nature Center

Black Vulture   Plumsted Recreation Park

Turkey Vulture   1398 State Highway 35

Osprey   Pedricktown Marsh

Northern Harrier   Manahawkin WMA

Cooper's Hawk   CVS parking lot Schoolhouse Rd.

Bald Eagle   Pemberton Lake WMA

Red-tailed Hawk   Whitesbog

Rough-legged Hawk   Featherbed Lane WMA

Short-eared Owl   Brig

Belted Kingfisher   Manahawkin WMA

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Red-headed Woodpecker   Colliers Mills WMA

Red-bellied Woodpecker   Whitesbog

Downy Woodpecker   35 Sunset Rd

Hairy Woodpecker   Whitesbog

Northern Flicker   Manahawkin WMA

American Kestrel   Colliers Mills WMA

Merlin   Mannington Marsh

Peregrine Falcon   Cedar Bonnet Island

Eastern Phoebe   Colliers Mills WMA

Blue Jay   35 Sunset Rd

American Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Fish Crow   35 Sunset Rd

Common Raven   Lake of the Lilies

Carolina Chickadee   35 Sunset Rd

Tufted Titmouse   35 Sunset Rd

Horned Lark   Sunset Park

Purple Martin   Bombay Hook

Tree Swallow   Reeves Bogs

Golden-crowned Kinglet   Whitesbog

Red-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

White-breasted Nuthatch   35 Sunset Rd

Brown Creeper   35 Sunset Rd

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher   Forest Resource Education Center

Marsh Wren   Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Carolina Wren   1398 State Highway 35

European Starling   35 Sunset Rd

Brown Thrasher   Manahawkin WMA

Northern Mockingbird   New Egypt

Eastern Bluebird   Colliers Mills WMA

Wood Thrush   Manahawkin WMA

American Robin   Silver Lake

House Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

House Finch   35 Sunset Rd

Purple Finch   Island Beach SP

Pine Siskin   35 Sunset Rd

American Goldfinch   35 Sunset Rd

Chipping Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA

Field Sparrow   Colliers Mills WMA

American Tree Sparrow   Island Beach SP

Fox Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Dark-eyed Junco   35 Sunset Rd

White-throated Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Savannah Sparrow   Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Song Sparrow   35 Sunset Rd

Swamp Sparrow   Meadowview Lane

Eastern Towhee   Bombay Hook

Red-winged Blackbird   Whitesbog

Brown-headed Cowbird   Whitesbog

Rusty Blackbird   Reeves Bogs

Common Grackle   Plumsted Recreation Park

Boat-tailed Grackle   Manahawkin WMA

Pine Warbler   Cloverdale Farm

Yellow-rumped Warbler   Island Beach SP

Yellow-throated Warbler   Prime Hook

Northern Cardinal   35 Sunset Rd