Backyard 2 AM--Eastern Screech Owl

With it cool enough to sleep with the air conditioning off and the windows open, I awoke this morning at around 2 AM to the whinnying call of an Eastern Screech Owl from the woods in the back of the house.

EASO

I knew which owl it was immediately because I've heard birders who can reproduce the call and use it as a way of calling in birds. I guess the birds gather to mob the owl that's threatening them.

Checking my records, I was surprised to see that this is only the second time I've listed screech owl and the first time I've ever heard one. The only other record I have is from Texas, at Bentsen State Park, where we saw one sitting in a tree hole, almost completely camouflaged except for its eyes.  When the eyes were closed, the owl was virtually invisible.

Eastern Screech Owl in Bentsen State Park, Texas
Photo: Shari Zirlin

Delaware 8/17-8/19: Least Bittern, American Golden-Plover, Hudsonian Godwit, Pectoral Sandpiper, Red-eyed Vireo, Bank Swallow

A long birding weekend in Delaware--2 days with a NJ Audubon sponsored trip and one day on our own in Sussex County--yielded 6 FOY with an excitability range from "Oh, that's good," to "Holy mackerel, look at that!"

The trip centered around  Bombay Hook, which has nothing to do with Bombay and is not a hook; rather it is an Englishing of the Dutch "Boompjes Hoeck," meaning "little-tree point." Before we met the group, Shari & I drove down Raymond Neck Road to the back of Finis Pond, looking for whatever passerines we might find, since most of the day we'd be concentrating on shorebirding. Leaders of the trip Scott Barnes, Linda Mack and Carol Hughes had the same idea so for a few minutes we all walked down the path and I heard, because Carol pointed it out, a Red-eyed Vireo. Not much else turned up, save for 2 Green Herons flying out of the pond and over the road. 

The holy mackerel bird of the weekend was Least Bittern. On Friday one flew over the road from behind us and dived into the reeds of Shearness Pond. I saw it for approximately .5 seconds. I haven't seen one of those birds in years, the only time being once from a bridge over Lemon Creek on Staten Island when one posed on a piling. I didn't like settling for just a glimpse of the bittern and next day the bird became "official" in my mind when a LEBI rose from the reeds of Shearness and flew out over the marsh, giving all of us great good looks as Scott excitedly called out its flight. 

Other FOY shorebirds Scott got us on were Pectoral Sandpiper (always a hard one for me), a sleeping Hudsonian Godwit, and 3 American Golden-Plovers that flew in on and settled down with their cousins, Black-belled Plovers. 

The final FOY was Bank Swallow, a bird I was happy to add and usually would have by this time of the year, since they are reliable at Great Kills Park on Staten Island in the summer. But we don't go to SI much anymore. 

Other hot spots we checked out were the potato fields on the way in to Bombay Hook where we found Horned Lark, as we usually do and Port Mahon a little farther south where every piling that didn't have a Great Black-backed Gull on it, had a Royal Tern, each one displaying its bad winter haircut. 

Sunday, on Linda's recommendation, we stopped, on our way to Prime Hook, at the DuPont Nature Center on the Mispillion River, site of an historic lighthouse. There we were able to add Shari's favorite, American Oystercatcher, to the weekend list. 

Fowler Beach was loaded with birds, particularly Black Skimmers, and the Prime Hook trails around the Visitor's Center had plenty egrets along with a couple of Green Herons. In all I had 88 birds for the weekend and I think Shari may have had a couple more since she saw a bluebird at Prime Hook and a gnatcatcher at Bombay Hook--both times I think I had my nose in a bird list. 

Here's what I saw:

Species             Count      First Sighting

Canada Goose      20      Bombay Hook NWR

Wood Duck      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Gadwall      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Mallard      20      Bombay Hook NWR

Blue-winged Teal      4      Bombay Hook NWR

Northern Shoveler      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Pied-billed Grebe      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Double-crested Cormorant      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Least Bittern      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Great Blue Heron      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Great Egret      25      Bombay Hook NWR

Snowy Egret      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Tricolored Heron      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Green Heron      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Black-crowned Night-Heron      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Glossy Ibis      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Black Vulture      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Turkey Vulture      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Osprey      4      Bombay Hook NWR

Cooper's Hawk      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Bald Eagle      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Clapper Rail      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Black-bellied Plover      3      Bombay Hook NWR

American Golden-Plover      3      Bombay Hook NWR

Semipalmated Plover      1000      Bombay Hook NWR

American Oystercatcher      2      DuPont Nature Center (Mispillion)

Black-necked Stilt      4      Bombay Hook NWR

American Avocet      400      Bombay Hook NWR

Spotted Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Greater Yellowlegs      50      Bombay Hook NWR

Lesser Yellowlegs      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Hudsonian Godwit      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Ruddy Turnstone      5      Port Mahon

Sanderling      2      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Semipalmated Sandpiper      1000      Bombay Hook NWR

Western Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Least Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR

White-rumped Sandpiper      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Pectoral Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Stilt Sandpiper      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Short-billed Dowitcher      100      Bombay Hook NWR

Long-billed Dowitcher      4      Bombay Hook NWR

Bonaparte's Gull      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Laughing Gull      25      Bombay Hook NWR

Ring-billed Gull      2      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Herring Gull      2      Port Mahon

Great Black-backed Gull      180      Port Mahon

Gull-billed Tern      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Caspian Tern      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Common Tern      20      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Forster's Tern      50      Bombay Hook NWR

Royal Tern      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Black Skimmer      50      Prime Hook NWR--Fowler Beach Rd.

Mourning Dove      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Barred Owl      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Chimney Swift      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Ruby-throated Hummingbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Belted Kingfisher      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Peregrine Falcon      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Eastern Wood-Pewee      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Eastern Kingbird      5      Bombay Hook NWR

Red-eyed Vireo      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Blue Jay      1      Bombay Hook NWR

American Crow      1      Prime Hook NWR

Fish Crow      3      Dover

Horned Lark      10      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic

Purple Martin      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Tree Swallow      2      Bombay Hook NWR

Bank Swallow      10      Bombay Hook NWR

Barn Swallow      2      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic

Carolina Chickadee      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Carolina Wren      2      Prime Hook NWR

Gray Catbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Northern Mockingbird      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Brown Thrasher      1      Prime Hook NWR

European Starling      5      Dover

Chipping Sparrow      1      Prime Hook NWR

Field Sparrow      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Northern Cardinal      1      Whitehall Crossroads - Leipsic

Blue Grosbeak      3      Bombay Hook NWR

Red-winged Blackbird      3      Bombay Hook NWR

Common Grackle      1      Bombay Hook NWR

Brown-headed Cowbird      9      Bombay Hook NWR

Baltimore Oriole      1      Prime Hook NWR

House Finch      2      Bombay Hook NWR

American Goldfinch      1      Bombay Hook NWR

House Sparrow      4      Dover

Maurice River 8/11--100,000 Purple Martins

Try counting the stars.

Now try counting the stars as they whirl around the sky in ever morphing clouds that settle to earth while more stars flow in from every direction creating another shape-shifting cloud. And another.

Other analogies: Imagine counting pepper flakes in the sky. Look up "Brownian motion." Think smoke.

That's what it was like at the Maurice River Bridge in Cumberland County last evening where we, with about 100 others, watched thousands and thousands of Purple Martins fly into to roost in the phragmites of the marsh the river meanders through. It is a spectacle of nature that every birder should experience. (It is also the exception to my rule that "I only have to see one.") A few drivers slowed down on the bridge to ask what was going on (fireworks, perhaps?) and drove away perplexed with the answer, "Purple Martins, thousands."

As the martins begin to stage for their migration down to South America they fly in to this roost from  50 or 75 miles away. The staging goes on anywhere from a couple of weeks to more than a month as some leave and others arrive in great flocks. I heard one estimate yesterday that altogether there might be a half a million birds coming through the area. I heard one estimate last night that there were 200,000 birds we saw coming in to roost. My guess, which kept increasing started at 40,000, went to 60,000 to finally 100,000, which seemed like a nice round number. How the experts can estimate numbers is beyond me and I know all about partitioning the sky into sections, taking an estimate, then extrapolating. The swirling flocks are too dynamic, I think, to do that.

We arrived around 5 o'clock and after a few minutes I saw one martin. The "show" doesn't really begin until dusk, around 7:30. At first, you see 10 or 12 martins flying overhead. Then the flocks get a little larger until suddenly, like a big bang, half the sky in a 180 degree pan is dark with birds. You can hear them chattering in the distance. By 8:30 they settled down for the night. It occurred to me that early morning, when the martins rise up out of the marsh, must be just as spectacular, yet no one that I know has mentioned going there to watch that scene.

While waiting on the observation platform that Citizens United to Save the Maurice River and Its Tributaries has put in place, we saw a number of the usual birds you'd find in that environment, the 2 most interesting being a Clapper Rail heard in the marsh and a Bald Eagle that landed briefly on a telephone pole.

There's one!
Photo: Shari Zirlin

18 species
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Snowy Egret  1
Osprey  5
Bald Eagle  1
Clapper Rail  1    Heard
Laughing Gull  50
Herring Gull  1
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Forster's Tern  2
Mourning Dove  4
Eastern Kingbird  1
Fish Crow  1
Purple Martin  100,000    
Tree Swallow  100
Barn Swallow  20
European Starling  200
Red-winged Blackbird  2

Double Trouble 8/9--Blue-winged Warbler

A patchy fog hung over the Double Trouble bogs this morning. I thought I'd  have to do most of my birding by ear, but I was lucky and found a few active pockets of birds. The highlight find this morning was at the very beginning of my walk along the trail called Gowdy Road. There, in an oak with a couple of Chipping Sparrows, a catbird, and juvenile Pine Warbler, I saw my first Blue-winged Warbler of the year. This is a pretty good sighting for me; I don't see them that often and it was the first time I'd seen one in NJ.

Either I was lucky or the warblers are starting to move, because, besides the resident Pine Warblers and Common Yellowthroats, I also found 3 Prairie Warblers along a path I'd never walked on before, which led, to my surprise, to a private graveyard where members of the Crabbe family, who operated Double Trouble when it was a working cranberry and blueberry operation, are buried. Walk around enough in Pine Barrens and something new, which is old, will always turn up.

Only 19 species today, but the warblers made it a satisfactory walk.
Great Egret  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Eastern Wood-Pewee  2
Eastern Kingbird  4
Blue Jay  1    Heard
Barn Swallow  13
Carolina Chickadee  8
Tufted Titmouse  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard
Gray Catbird  2
Blue-winged Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  4
Pine Warbler  5
Prairie Warbler  3
Eastern Towhee  5
Chipping Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  1
Northern Cardinal  1    Heard
American Goldfinch  5    Heard

Department of Redundancy Department Section

University of Maryland University College
                                            --as advertised on television.

Brigantine 8/5--No FOY

Any day you can see, in NJ, a Black-bellied Whistling Duck and an American White Pelican in the same place, in practically the same scope view, along with 14 species of shorebirds ought to be considered a great day of birding. And it was. But.

But: There were Pectoral Sandpipers at Brigantine and we didn't see them, or if we did see them, we didn't know we were looking at them and I suspect that's the case, plus there were a couple of Black Terns flying around the Southwest Pool that we missed. Both would have been first of year. I don't mind  missing the terns, too much, because they're hard to spot on the wing, but identifying shorebirds can be so frustrating, especially when you know the species is around but you can't find it due a combination of lack of skills, lack of patience, and irritation due to the wind which was one of the reasons, other than a personality flaw, that I had no patience. However, the pat ourselves on the back category, we were able to sort out some Western Sandpipers from the horde of semis, we were able to find a couple of Stilt Sandpipers, and there were a few Long-billed Dowitchers that we saw as pretty obvious.

The Black-bellied Duck gave us great views this week--it was in plain view on a large mud flat in the Northwest Pool, and the pelican was easy to see naked eye. The bird is so big that, next to the gulls and terns around it, it looks more like a cargo plane that landed in the impoundment than a bird.

Despite making the scope wobble, the wind has distinct advantages mid-summer at Brig.
1) Despite the 90 degree temperature and lack of shade, it kept us fairly cool.
2) Very few greenhead flies to torment us.

So, I'll count it a successful day with a Heinz 57 varieties of birds:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck  1    NW Pool
Snow Goose  1    continuing bird, SW Pool
Canada Goose  115
Mute Swan  6
American Black Duck  17
Mallard  12
Double-crested Cormorant  30
American White Pelican  1    NW pool
Great Blue Heron  3
Great Egret  70
Snowy Egret  70
Glossy Ibis  50
Osprey  16
Northern Harrier  1
Peregrine Falcon  1
Black-bellied Plover  21
Semipalmated Plover  35
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Willet  3
Lesser Yellowlegs  2
Whimbrel  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  600
Western Sandpiper  5
Least Sandpiper  1
White-rumped Sandpiper  2
Dunlin  1
Stilt Sandpiper  2
Short-billed Dowitcher  200
Long-billed Dowitcher  3
Laughing Gull  205
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  200
Great Black-backed Gull  50
Least Tern  4
Gull-billed Tern  6
Caspian Tern  5
Common Tern  1
Forster's Tern  200
Royal Tern  1
Black Skimmer  26
Mourning Dove  2
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1    On No Fishing sign, exit pond
Eastern Kingbird  2
Blue Jay  1    Heard
American Crow  2
Fish Crow  3
Purple Martin  1    Gull Pond
Tree Swallow  60
Barn Swallow  5
House Wren  2    Picnic tables
Gray Catbird  1    Heard near HQ
European Starling  70
Common Yellowthroat  1    Heard, Gull Pond
Chipping Sparrow  1    Heard, picnic tables
Seaside Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  10
American Goldfinch  2    Heard

Great Bay Blvd 8/1--Brown Pelican, Saltmarsh Sparrow

Since I haven't found anything new and exciting in the WMA since the Solitary Sandpiper, I thought I'd start the month off by driving down to Tuckerton and bird Great Bay Boulevard. "Boulevard" is a grandiose joke. Great Bay Broken-up Asphalt Road would be a more appropriate name. This is a road that runs, for no good reason that I can see, through the marshes that separate Great Bay from Tuckerton Bay. Its informal name is Seven Bridges Road. There are five bridges on it.

The two stars of the day were the Brown Pelican I saw looking very much like one of the army cargo planes that fly ponderously overhead around here and a Saltmarsh Sparrow I found on the beach. I was happy that it stood still on some sea wrack long enough for me to scope it, since I haven't seen one of these birds in years--I think only at Jamaica Bay so long ago that back then it was called a Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow.

Other notable encounters were with a Tricolored Heron that flew into a bare tree across the road from me, which is as close as I've been to one and good side by side view of a Western Sandpiper next to a Semipalmated Sandpiper. While I was sitting at the beach, picking deer ticks off my pants and shirt, I saw a Belted Kingfisher fly over the water, think better of it, then turn around. I never noticed before, but kingfishers in silhouette look like miniature pelicans. Big heads, big beaks, relatively squat bodies.

37 species along the Boulevard of Birds:
Double-crested Cormorant  4    On fish factory ruins
Brown Pelican  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  50
Snowy Egret  50
Little Blue Heron  1    Immature, gray-blue bill, different shape than SNEG
Tricolored Heron  2
Black-crowned Night-Heron  2
Glossy Ibis  13
Osprey  10
Black-bellied Plover  1
Semipalmated Plover  7
Spotted Sandpiper  1    Inlet beach
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Ruddy Turnstone  1
Semipalmated Sandpiper  25
Western Sandpiper  1    Good comparison next to SESA, larger, thicker bill.
Least Sandpiper  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  6
Laughing Gull  200
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Least Tern  1
Forster's Tern  25
Mourning Dove  5
Belted Kingfisher  1
Fish Crow  2
Tree Swallow  500
Barn Swallow  15
Carolina Chickadee  1    Heard
Gray Catbird  2    Heard
European Starling  50
Common Yellowthroat  1
Saltmarsh Sparrow  1    Inlet beach
Song Sparrow  3
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Boat-tailed Grackle  10