A Couple of Howlers

It's been a while since I posted any inanities that I come across in my daily reading, but today's blunders, being on consecutive pages of the Defenders of Wildlife Magazine that I receive, just could not go unremarked:

Here is an example of a phrase that the writer has only heard and never seen in print. It is like "for all intensive purposes." Of course, a moment of thought would show the writer that the phrase makes no sense, but a moment of thought is usually asking a lot. That's why there used to be proofreaders and copy editors.

That Vladimir Nabokov was an amazing guy. Not only did he discover a new species of butterfly 37 years before he was born, he was able to do it 14 years before even his mother was born.

I think I'm only donating my money to organizations that can pass a literacy test from now on.

Negri-Nepote Grasslands 7/13--Dickcissel

It looked for a while that today's target bird wasn't going to make its annual appearance at Negri-Nepote Grasslands this year, but finally, about a week ago, a female Dickcissel was found to be feeding a couple of juveniles. Where the male is or was and the sudden appearance of the nest remain a mystery. A female DICK isn't as satisfying as a singing male, but it is a rarity, so it seemed worth trying for.

I drove up there this morning with no great hopes of finding the bird, but, if you don't look, you definitely won't find it. I was happy to run into my friends Joe & Elizabeth who had an odd bird in their scope. We were trying to turn it into a juvenile Dickcissel when a local birder came by and told us we had a juvenile cowbird. I was a little dubious about that, not seeing any striping on the bird, but we knew we didn't have the Dickcissel. A few minutes later, the same birder called out "There it is," and a few feet before us, perched on the top of very small tree, was the female DICK, with all the appropriate field marks. Great. "Now," I said, "I can do some birding."

Except I couldn't because, as we were walking to the little pond on the property to see if any shorebirds were around, the overcast sky became more threatening and then rain began, so, after a cursory look at the pond, and finding nothing but some Tree Swallows swooping over the surface, we headed back to the parking lot. So I got my target bird and pretty much nothing else.

Brigantine 7/12--Long-billed Dowitcher

It is interesting to watch the shorebird numbers build up at Brig. Last week, Shari & I had lots of Willets, a few oystercatchers, some Lesser Yellowlegs and some SB Dowitchers. Today, on the trip with Pete & Mike, the diversity was much higher. Nothing extraordinary (we'll have to wait until August for the really exciting shorebirds to be a possibility) but very good looks at Long-billed Dowitchers (though I'm only listing the one I was able to view carefully, there was a small flock of them) was a highlight. The Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher complex is always one of great controversy, especially this time of year when the LBs are listed as "rare," but today's birds had all the field marks, not just the rather subjective hump.

Other birds I was happy to see were Blue Grosbeaks (M&F), Indigo Bunting, and a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, a bird that seems to be exceedingly hard to find this year in NJ.

A bird I am not so happy to have seen, in retrospect, was a Great Horned Owl.

We pulled into the parking lot of the Experimental Pool and heard Pete calling out a bird, but didn't know what it was. Mike positioned his vehicle in an odd way and then they both urged the rest of the group either not to get out of their cars, or else to stand behind theirs, using it as a blind. They had found the owl on the path that leads to the observation deck of the pool. I was only able to get photos of its back.

Seeing an owl midday is strange. Seeing an owl midday on the ground, stranger still. I didn't have a good feeling about this bird. Some speculated that it had pounced on some prey and was waiting for us to go away before flying off with it, but that didn't seem right to me--they're nocturnal hunters after all.

We revisited the site on our second loop around the impoundments and the owl was gone. Later, in the visitor's parking lot as we were all saying our goodbyes, one of the volunteers came up to us and asked if we'd taken pictures of the bird. Of course we had. "Well, those are the last pictures of that bird, because about 2 hours ago someone reported it dead. I went out there and picked it up." He said the bird will be tested for West Nile Disease. Of course, the bird could just have been old and died. Knowing what we know now, it appears a bit unseemly for us to all have been gawking at the bird in its last moments.

For the day I managed 71 species, only 16 less than the group's total. My list herewith:
Canada Goose  50
Mute Swan  16
Wood Duck  2
American Black Duck  6
Mallard  7
Double-crested Cormorant  10
Great Blue Heron  2
Great Egret  50
Snowy Egret  10
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1     SE Pool
Glossy Ibis  25
Turkey Vulture  5
Osprey  15     Most on nests
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Clapper Rail  2     Heard
American Oystercatcher  10
Black-bellied Plover  9
Killdeer  1     Heard
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  10
Willet  15
Lesser Yellowlegs  1
Whimbrel  6
Least Sandpiper  2
Semipalmated Sandpiper  50
Short-billed Dowitcher  10
Long-billed Dowitcher  1     
Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher  5
Laughing Gull  50
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  50
Great Black-backed Gull  25
Least Tern  5
Gull-billed Tern  4
Forster's Tern  100
Black Skimmer  25
Mourning Dove  1     Heard
Great Horned Owl  1     
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  2     Picnic tables & exit
Downy Woodpecker  1     Heard upland area
Northern Flicker  1     Experimental Pool
Peregrine Falcon  2
Great Crested Flycatcher  1
Eastern Kingbird  4
White-eyed Vireo  1     Heard upland area
Blue Jay  1
Fish Crow  1     Heard, picnic tables
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Purple Martin  25
Tree Swallow  20
Barn Swallow  3
Carolina Chickadee  1     Heard, upland area
Tufted Titmouse  1     Heard, upland area
Marsh Wren  5
Carolina Wren  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2
American Robin  2
Gray Catbird  5
European Starling  50
Common Yellowthroat  5     Heard
Eastern Towhee  1     Heard, near Jen's Trail
Chipping Sparrow  1     Heard, upland area
Field Sparrow  1     Heard, upland area
Seaside Sparrow  5
Song Sparrow  4
Blue Grosbeak  2     Female at beginning of drive, male at dogleg
Indigo Bunting  2
Red-winged Blackbird  50
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
Brown-headed Cowbird  1     Heard, parking lot
American Goldfinch  2

Sandy Hook 7/10--Bank Swallow & a Couple of Out of Season Species

I spent about 4 hours birding Sandy Hook today, starting at the northern tip and working my way down to Plum Island on the bay side, just before the exit. It was there that I found my FOY Bank Swallows (finally) mixed in with Barn Swallows, but they were not nearly as interesting to me as a number of other birds I found today. Just at Plum Island I came across a Whimbrel, which was a surprise, along with a Clapper Rail and its chick. I was able to view the rail for an extended period, which almost never happens, and a Clapper Rail chick is a lifer for me--a little black fuzz ball on the beach. A nesting Willet there was not happy with my presence and made

Whimbrel

several attempts to take my hat (head) off.

Up at the northern tip of the hook (the "False Hook") I found plenty of Common Terns, quite a few American Oystercatchers, 3 Piping Plovers (most of the beach is cordoned off to protect these endangered birds), a Short-billed Dowitcher and two Dunlins in breeding plumage, rare for this time of year.

Dunlins

Walking the 1/2 mile or so through deep sand back & forth to the tip wasn't enough exercise for me, so I drove down to the Fort Hancock parking lot and walked the bike path, Road to Nowhere, and Randolph Road down to Horseshoe Cove. Along the way I found 8 American Redstarts, none of them red, being either juveniles or females.

Horseshoe Cove didn't look promising, especially by mid-morning with beach goers, dogwalkers, fishermen, and a class of kids either seining for sea life or skipping stones, but I saw one weird looking duck way out by the ruins of the fortifications (Hazardous Conditions), so I walked out as far as I could go and saw what struck me as an eider. Eiders are winter ducks. So I dismissed that idea and figured that it might be some sort of scoter. Black Scoters do hang around, sometimes, in the summer. I took some digiscoped pictures that barely approached mediocre. I couldn't find any field marks for scoter, but eider? Nah.

It's an eider, a Common Eider hen. I posted links to the pictures on Jerseybirds and the responses came in immediately all agreeing that my first reaction was correct. There are no Common Eider July records in eBird for Monmouth County--until now. I'm doing pretty well finding out of season waterfowl this year.

My full list:
Brant  1
Common Eider  1     
Double-crested Cormorant  16
Great Egret  1
Snowy Egret  2
Osprey  7     Most on nests
Clapper Rail  2     Plum Island
American Oystercatcher  25
Piping Plover  3     False Hook
Killdeer  1
Willet  1     Plum Island
Whimbrel  1
Dunlin  2     
Semipalmated Sandpiper  3
Short-billed Dowitcher  2
Laughing Gull  100
Herring Gull (American)  50
Great Black-backed Gull  70
Least Tern  10
Common Tern  50
Mourning Dove  3
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1     Heard, Randolph Rd
Chimney Swift  1
White-eyed Vireo  3     Heard
American Crow  1     Heard
Fish Crow  1     Heard
Bank Swallow  2
Barn Swallow  20
Carolina Wren  1     Heard
American Robin  10
Gray Catbird  15
Northern Mockingbird  3     One attacking Osprey nest at Horseshoe Cove
European Starling  5
Cedar Waxwing  2
Common Yellowthroat  4
American Redstart  8     
Eastern Towhee  2     Heard
Field Sparrow  1     Heard, Fisherman's Trail
Song Sparrow  4     Heard
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Common Grackle  2
House Finch  4
American Goldfinch  2
House Sparrow  2

The last bird I saw seemed to be an escapee from a wedding:

Barnegat Light SP 7/9--Royal Tern

Piping Plover fledgling

For the first couple of hours at Barnegat Light this morning it looked like a continuation of the summer doldrums. It has been a dull month so far. A low fog hanging over the ocean wasn't helping matters. I walked up and down the beach a couple of times, looking for an unusual tern, hoping that perhaps a pelican would emerge from the mists but all I got were gulls, gulls, gulls and a few terns that where hard to i.d. in the murk.

The most interesting bird I'd seen on the way out to the beach was the fledgling Piping Plover standing in the middle of the stringed off area. I was just casually scanning the broken shell landscape when I saw it standing there with its back to me. It moved off and eventually hunkered down in a little depression. A monitor from NJ Fish & Wildlife who was looking for the plovers told me that today was "fledgling day." Supposedly, they're on their own today after hatching on Father's Day.

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Anyway, I'd given up on the day after waiting for the fog to lift as long as my patience would hold out. I was heading back up the beach to the parking lot, looking at the tidal pools that form along the jetty when I saw a Black-crowned Night-Heron skulking among the rocks. That was at least interesting. Night-Herons are much more likely to be found in marshes, not picking at rocks, so I was doubly surprised to find a second heron close by.

While pondering whether these were the first Night-Herons I'd ever seen on a beach, I was distracted by two large terns with white foreheads and bad haircuts--finally, a new species for the year--Royal Terns.

American Oystercatchers

Then I heard "peep-low, peep-low," the cry of the Piping Plover and saw an adult scampering from one side of the protected area to the other where the tidal pools are. The plover was ushering 3 juveniles and acting very protective still, so I don't know if fledgling day was slightly postponed. The birding definitely picked up after I gave up. Another Night-Heron flew low along the jetty, making 3 where I'd never seen any and then a couple of American Oystercatchers started to make a racket near one of the grazing Night-Herons.  In all, I saw 9 oystercatchers either in flight or feeding in 3 different parts of the park.

For the day I had 23 species. I'm still looking for the elusive Brown Pelican.

Double-crested Cormorant  3
Black-crowned Night-Heron  3     
American Oystercatcher  9
Piping Plover  4     
Least Sandpiper  1
Laughing Gull  100
Herring Gull  150
Great Black-backed Gull  100
Common Tern  10
Forster's Tern  3
Royal Tern  2
Mourning Dove  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  1
American Crow  1     Heard
Barn Swallow  10
Gray Catbird  1
Northern Mockingbird  1
Common Yellowthroat  3     Heard
Song Sparrow  4     Heard
Northern Cardinal  2
Red-winged Blackbird  5
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
House Sparrow  5                                                                                                                                                    

June Birds

Black-crowned Night-Heron, Great Bay Blvd WMA

NJ Counties Birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean Warren

Species                First Sighting

Canada Goose     Wells Mills Park

Mute Swan     Cattus Island County Park

Wood Duck     Colliers Mills WMA

American Black Duck     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Mallard     Wells Mills Park

Bufflehead     Brigantine NWR

Wild Turkey     35 Sunset Rd

Red-necked Grebe     Ocean County Parks Offices

Double-crested Cormorant     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Great Blue Heron     Lakehurst NAES

Great Egret     Cattus Island County Park

Snowy Egret     Cattus Island County Park

Little Blue Heron     Cattus Island County Park

Tricolored Heron     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Green Heron     Whitesbog

Black-crowned Night-Heron     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Glossy Ibis     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Turkey Vulture     Bear Swamp IBA

Osprey     Cattus Island County Park

Cooper's Hawk     Colliers Mills WMA

Bald Eagle     Brigantine NWR

Broad-winged Hawk     Old Mine Road IBA

Red-tailed Hawk     Toms River

Clapper Rail     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

American Oystercatcher     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Black-bellied Plover     Brigantine NWR

Piping Plover     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Killdeer     Colliers Mills WMA

Spotted Sandpiper     Brigantine NWR

Greater Yellowlegs     Brigantine NWR

Willet     Cattus Island County Park

Lesser Yellowlegs     Brigantine NWR

Upland Sandpiper     Lakehurst NAES

Whimbrel     Brigantine NWR

Dunlin     Brigantine NWR

Semipalmated Sandpiper     Brigantine NWR

Short-billed Dowitcher     Brigantine NWR

Laughing Gull     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Ring-billed Gull     Brigantine NWR

Herring Gull     Cattus Island County Park

Glaucous Gull     Brigantine NWR

Great Black-backed Gull     Cattus Island County Park

Least Tern     Brigantine NWR

Gull-billed Tern     Brigantine NWR

Caspian Tern     Brigantine NWR

Common Tern     Barnegat Lighthouse SP

Forster's Tern     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Black Skimmer     Brigantine NWR

Mourning Dove      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Yellow-billed Cuckoo      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Black-billed Cuckoo     Brigantine NWR

Common Nighthawk     Lakehurst NAES

Chuck-will's-widow     Collinstown Rd

Eastern Whip-poor-will     35 Sunset Rd

Chimney Swift     Union Transportation Trail

Ruby-throated Hummingbird     35 Sunset Rd

Belted Kingfisher     Cattus Island County Park

Red-bellied Woodpecker     Bear Swamp IBA

Downy Woodpecker      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Hairy Woodpecker     Lakehurst NAES

Northern Flicker      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

American Kestrel     Lakehurst NAES

Peregrine Falcon     Brigantine NWR

Eastern Wood-Pewee      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Acadian Flycatcher     Double Trouble State Park

Willow Flycatcher     Cattus Island County Park

Least Flycatcher     Old Mine Road IBA

Eastern Phoebe     Wells Mills Park

Great Crested Flycatcher      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Eastern Kingbird     Cattus Island County Park

White-eyed Vireo      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Yellow-throated Vireo     Allaire State Park

Warbling Vireo     Rancocas Nature Center

Red-eyed Vireo      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Blue Jay     Colliers Mills WMA

American Crow     Lakehurst NAES

Fish Crow      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Common Raven     Lakehurst NAES

Horned Lark     Lakehurst NAES

Northern Rough-winged Swallow     Ocean County Parks Offices

Purple Martin     Brigantine NWR

Tree Swallow     Rancocas Nature Center

Barn Swallow     Cattus Island County Park

Carolina Chickadee     Rancocas Nature Center

Tufted Titmouse     Bear Swamp IBA

White-breasted Nuthatch     Wells Mills Park

House Wren     Cattus Island County Park

Marsh Wren     Cattus Island County Park

Carolina Wren      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Eastern Bluebird     Colliers Mills WMA

Veery     Rancocas Nature Center

Swainson's Thrush     Wells Mills Park

Wood Thrush      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

American Robin     Bear Swamp IBA

Gray Catbird     Wells Mills Park

Brown Thrasher     Colliers Mills WMA

Northern Mockingbird     Wells Mills Park

European Starling     Wells Mills Park

Cedar Waxwing     Rancocas Nature Center

Ovenbird      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Worm-eating Warbler     Old Mine Road IBA

Louisiana Waterthrush     Old Mine Road IBA

Blue-winged Warbler     Allaire State Park

Black-and-white Warbler      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Prothonotary Warbler      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Common Yellowthroat     Bear Swamp IBA

Hooded Warbler      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

American Redstart     Old Mine Road IBA

Cerulean Warbler     Old Mine Road IBA

Northern Parula     Old Mine Road IBA

Yellow Warbler     Cattus Island County Park

Pine Warbler      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Prairie Warbler     Bear Swamp IBA

Yellow-breasted Chat     Assunpink WMA

Eastern Towhee      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Chipping Sparrow     Wells Mills Park

Field Sparrow     Rancocas Nature Center

Grasshopper Sparrow     Colliers Mills WMA

Saltmarsh Sparrow     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Seaside Sparrow     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Song Sparrow     Cattus Island County Park

Northern Cardinal      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Blue Grosbeak     Colliers Mills WMA

Indigo Bunting     Rancocas Nature Center

Red-winged Blackbird     Rancocas Nature Center

Eastern Meadowlark     Lakehurst NAES

Common Grackle      Evert Memorial Nature Trail

Boat-tailed Grackle     Great Bay Bvld. WMA

Brown-headed Cowbird     Wells Mills Park

Orchard Oriole     Brigantine NWR

Baltimore Oriole     Rancocas Nature Center

House Finch     Wells Mills Park

American Goldfinch     Cattus Island County Park

House Sparrow     Toms River