Tip Seaman CP | Great Bay Blvd 4/26--Green Heron, Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting, through windshield, flying away

Rain and stuff to do kept Mike and me off the birding circuit until mid-morning. As Mike pointed out the other day, this is the season when it pays to hit the same spots multiple times, since stuff is always arriving (and, alas, departing). So we made three stops, the first one to no avail, looking for a Caspian Tern at Manahawkin Lake, the next two much more productive.

We were only at Tip Seaman Park for about 20 minutes, but in that time we racked up over 30 species, including our first Green Heron of the year, on the far shore of the lake. That's an unusual place to see one, but I guess, if you examine the habitat over there with its low water and snags to hunt from, it isn't a bad place for one to make a living.

Then we took another drive down Great Bay Blvd--third day in a row for Mike, I think. We were looking for Whimbrels. There is a brief window when you can find these big shorebirds in the county and we felt we were running out of time. And luck, as it seemed, because in the two big marshes where you usually can find them, they were absent. However, at the decrepit dock just north of the second wooden bridge, which is really the hot spot of this hot spot, I spotted a few big shorebirds on the far shore of an island in the channel. Scopes proved them to be the desired birds.

We also saw 5 Black-crowned Night-Herons flush from their usual roost in the trees that run up to the bridge. We didn't flush them on purpose but sometimes any activity can get them going. "Using the facilities" may be one of those activities.

Black-crowned Night-Herons with Boat-tailed Grackle in foreground

There were a lot of shorebirds in the salt pans on both sides of the road. The tide was high yet again, so the shallow areas that exist closer to the road at low tide weren't there. Fortunately, Black-bellied Plovers, Dunlins, and Short-billed Dowitchers are easy to pick out at distance. If there were any golden plovers or Long-billed Dowitchers among them, they were not easy to pick out at a distance.

The Cape May Warbler at the end of the road seems to definitely have departed (but who knows, it may be lurking out of the wind still) and there was nothing on the beach save for more Brant. On the way back out, the hot spot continued to produce. Just north of the ever-beeping monitoring station we saw a few new sparrows for the day (White-throated and Chipping) and in the grass I spotted an all blue bird which I at first took for an Indigo Bunting. It was "only" "the" male Blue Grosbeak that has been in the vicinity this week. Too bad. We lost the bird in the bushes, then thought we saw him again up the road. Nope. That bird was the Indigo Bunting. I snapped one shot through the windshield before it flew away.

The Birding Boulevardiers spent 2 hours and 15 minutes on Great Bay, then, seeing the radar, beat it back north.

49 species

Brant  250

Canada Goose  5

Mute Swan  5    Holly Lake

Mallard  3

Greater Scaup  1    bay, first bridge

Mourning Dove  3

Clapper Rail  5    Heard

Black-bellied Plover  80

Whimbrel  6

Dunlin  160

Short-billed Dowitcher  6

Greater Yellowlegs  10

Willet  25

Laughing Gull  2

Herring Gull  100

Great Black-backed Gull  3

Forster's Tern  60

Common Loon  2

Double-crested Cormorant  100

Great Egret  40

Snowy Egret  18

Tricolored Heron  2

Black-crowned Night-Heron  5  

Turkey Vulture  3

Osprey  10    nesting

Cooper's Hawk  1

Bald Eagle  1    Near destroyed nest at the end of the road

Belted Kingfisher  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard

Northern Flicker  1    Heard

Blue Jay  1    Heard

Fish Crow  3

Tree Swallow  3

Barn Swallow  20

American Robin  4

Northern Mockingbird  2

House Finch  1    Heard, Holly Lake

White-throated Sparrow  2

Seaside Sparrow  10    Heard

Song Sparrow  15

Red-winged Blackbird  50

Common Grackle  4

Boat-tailed Grackle  40

Common Yellowthroat  8

Yellow Warbler  1    Heard

Northern Cardinal  3

Blue Grosbeak  1    North  of fenced in monitoring area

Indigo Bunting  1    On road, just north of fenced in monitoring area

House Sparrow  5    Around Holly Lake

Central Park | Cedar Bonnet Island 4/25--Northern Parula, Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager, immature? male, Cedar Bonnet Island

Central Park was not where I wanted to start the day, but an appointment in the city made it unavoidable. I figured The Ramble would be most diverting. I was right but I'd forgotten just how overrun the park gets in the spring--not just with joggers, dog-walkers, and tourists, but with birders. Just as I entered The Ramble I saw a large group of birders staring up into a tree. I walked over, put up my bins and immediately saw what interested them--a Blue-winged Warbler, a very nice bird anywhere. (As it happens, the first one I've ever seen in Central Park.) But the leader of the group was pretty loud and was carrying a large recording device with which he seemed determined to play every possible bird song and call for any conceivable species in the area. He started out with Red-bellied Woodpecker. I beat a retreat from him and group, thinking that in New Jersey he'd be strung up by the thumbs for playing bird calls in breeding season. He looked at me sheepishly for a second, said, "I'm not killing birds," and led the group to the next spot. I hadn't said anything, and I don't think my face displayed any disdain, but somehow he must have known that I didn't take kindly to this kind of mass birding.

I moved along, wandering not aimlessly (my aim was to find the boathouse and get some coffee in me), but inefficiently toward my goal. Once I overspent on the coffee I walked back to one of the few places I can find easily in The Ramble, The Oven, and sat down hoping birds would come to me. They did, but they weren't interesting. While White-throated Sparrows have become sparse down here, they are numerous and singing up there, along with the ubiquitous House Sparrows and Blue Jays.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Central Park

I decided to walk the path on the other side of The Oven (I don't know what it's called) and it was there that I finally started to pick up a few interesting species like Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatch, a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers (which I, unfortunately had to inform another birder were not Magnolia Warblers--yes they look very different than they do in the winter) and even a year bird when I saw a Northern Parula hanging from a twig in front of me. But I really didn't want to be there, especially when the rare bird alert buzzed on my phone.

And kept buzzing, as what is usually the case, more birders kept confirming the sighting of a Summer Tanager at Cedar Bonnet Island. Summer Tanager is a tough bird for the county and me 100 miles away.

However, I got to thinking that since it was being seen throughout the day, there was a good chance it would hang around. My appointment didn't take long (one of the reasons I go to Central Park is that I think I should be in the city at least as long as the round trip takes), so I decided to drive down there from the Toms River bus station when I got back. My resolved was reinforced when, alighting from the bus, I saw the Mike was down there and had seen the bird. I texted him that I was a half hour away and he said he'd wait for me. I made it down there in less than a half hour (25 miles, 25 minutes, ahem) and found Mike on the trail, not looking happy. He hadn't been able to find the bird again and we were just about to start walking around when a red bird flew past my shoulder and into the trees in front of us. I wasn't there two minutes and I had the bird.

But it wasn't "the" bird, it was "a" bird, one of two, Mike had determined, because he'd seen and photographed both the bird pictured above and another bird that was much redder than the one we had just seen. Two Summer Tanagers in the same spot seemed unlikely but there wasn't too much doubt comparing the photographs, both his and others. Mike, having handed off the bird to me, left for Tuckerton, and I decided to walk around to see what else was there. About 300 feet down the trail I saw a red bird that wasn't a cardinal and texted him that I indeed had seen the second bird. My photographs of it were obscured by branches however.

I was walking back on the trail that leads to the East Pavilion when I saw a couple of photographers. I was going to tell them that they were looking for the bird in the wrong place, but kept my mouth shut. Glad I did, because on my way out, just before the exit, I ran into another photographer who told me that his friends had just alerted him that they had "a" Summer Tanager. I told him I'd seen two and walked back with him, curious to see which one was now in sight. It turned out to be the prettier, redder bird and I'd walked past the spot where it was putting on a show only about 15 minutes before. I took some photos and you can see, even from a distance, that this bird is a full adult compared to the bird above which is blotchier. (It is even blotchier in the photographs I submitted to eBird which are not "enhanced" by Photoshop.)

Summer Tanager, adult male

Cedar Bonnet Island (another parcel of Forsythe NWR) has only been officially open since July of last year, but in that time it has become one of the more interesting hot spots in the county. I can't wait to see what kind of warblers it attracts this spring.

28 species

Brant  40

Mallard  1    flyby

Bufflehead  11

Mourning Dove  2

Killdeer  1

Greater Yellowlegs  3

Willet  1

Herring Gull  10

Forster's Tern  3

Double-crested Cormorant  35

Great Egret  1

Snowy Egret  1

Glossy Ibis  14

Osprey  1    Heard

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard

Blue Jay  1    Heard

Barn Swallow  2

Carolina Wren  1    Heard

American Robin  1

European Starling  2

House Finch  1    beginning of trail

Chipping Sparrow  1    Heard

Song Sparrow  7

Red-winged Blackbird  50

Brown-headed Cowbird  2    one on top of West Pavilion, the other at beginning of trail

Boat-tailed Grackle  20

Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Summer Tanager  2    

Manasquan River WMA | Great Bay Blvd | Brig 4/24--Gull-billed Tern, Caspian Tern, Stilt Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Whimbrel, Great Crested Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, Blue-winged Warbler, Purple Finch, Blue Grosbeak

Cape May Warbler, Great Bay Blvd
Photo: Mike Mandracchia

A delayed reaction: I was surprised that only Mike, yesterday, went down to Great Bay Blvd to look for the Cape May Warbler I found on Sunday. He didn't have any luck with that bird, but he did come up with a lot of new birds for the year. This morning, he & I headed up to the Manasquan River WMA in search of newly arriving migrants. We did just okay there (33 species), hearing but not locating a Great Crested Flycatcher and coming across one of the specialties of the house up there, a Blue-winged Warbler. At first we heard a warbler but didn't quite recognize the call (out of practice) and then Mike saw the warbler briefly and thought it might be a Prothonotary, but the habitat (deciduous woods) was all wrong. "What other warbler is yellow with gray wings?" Mike wondered aloud.

"Blue-winged Warbler," sez I.

Ah-ha! That explained the buzzing little song we'd just heard. Just about then we saw a report that the Cape May Warbler had been refound in the same spot as Sunday. Surprised that it was still hanging around for a 4th day and since there were birds down there that we both still needed, we hied on down to the southern-most end of the county from the northern-most end. Ain't rare bird alerts grand?

We struck out on the Caspian Terns reported (though we later saw one down at Brig), but driving down Great Bay we started locating birds only one of us had seen so far--I got Blue Grosbeak (pictures so bad through the windshield I won't hurt your eyes with them), Short-billed Dowitcher, Stilt Sandpiper (rare and a tough one for me in the county [or anywhere] which I probably wouldn't have picked out on my own), and most surprising of all, a female Purple Finch at the southern end of the 2nd wooden bridge which is a nice migrant trap; while I found for Mike Black-crowned Night-Herons flying out of their usual roost at the north end of the 2nd wooden bridge (county bird only for him) and best of all, as we walked back and forth on the path in the grove at the end of the road, the Cape May Warbler popped out of seemingly nowhere, posed long enough for Mike to take a great photo, then disappeared back to nowhere.

Black-crowned Night-Herons

Gull-billed Terns, center
Photo: Mike Mandracchia

However, after my 2nd report of the bird to the Jersey Shore Alert, Cape May Warbler fever seemed to suddenly take hold and reports of the bird started to pour in for the remainder of the afternoon. By that time, though, we were making our way around the dikes of Brig.

Besides the Caspian Tern, we found a couple of Gull-billed Terns, early arrivals, thus "rare," about 7 Whimbrels, and finally heard a Marsh Wren. The Whimbrels were my 200th species of the year, all in NJ.

For our 3 hours at Brig we had 61 species, but I think the more interesting list comes from Great Bay Blvd even though it clocks in at a meager 50 species:

Brant  300

Canada Goose  1

Mute Swan  1

Greater Scaup  1

Mourning Dove  1

Black-bellied Plover  80

Stilt Sandpiper  1    

Dunlin  500

Short-billed Dowitcher  3

Greater Yellowlegs  8

Willet  15

Laughing Gull  12

Herring Gull  100

Great Black-backed Gull  4

Forster's Tern  25

Common Loon  1

Double-crested Cormorant  175

Great Egret  40

Snowy Egret  10

Black-crowned Night-Heron  5    

Osprey  6    nesting

Bald Eagle  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1

Northern Flicker  1

Blue Jay  2

Fish Crow  1

Tree Swallow  10

Barn Swallow  20

Tufted Titmouse  1

House Wren  1

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2

American Robin  1

Northern Mockingbird  4

European Starling  2

House Finch  1

Purple Finch  1   

American Goldfinch  1

White-throated Sparrow  1

Seaside Sparrow  3

Song Sparrow  6

Red-winged Blackbird  15

Common Grackle  2

Boat-tailed Grackle  100

Common Yellowthroat  10

Cape May Warbler  1    

Yellow Warbler  1

Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Northern Cardinal  1

Blue Grosbeak  1    

House Sparrow  1    Heard Holly Lake

Double Trouble SP | Great Bay Blvd 4/21--Eastern Kingbird, Cape May Warbler, Prairie Warbler

Eastern Kingbird, Great Bay Blvd

I started the day at Double Trouble SP with two warblers in mind. I was half successful. I walked the path to Ore Pond, which is usually one of the two best spots in the park for warblers and while I found a lots of Black-and-white Warblers and a couple of Pines, as well as hearing a cacophony of Common Yellowthroats and Ovenbirds, the one warbler that I have in the past found along the little canal that separates the to & fro paths eluded me.

In the past few years, just around this time either Greg or I have found Louisiana Waterthrush along the canal, but not today. I even had a visiting couple from Maryland ask me about the bird (because they were having a hard time finding one in Maryland!) and I told them where to look, though I warned them that, up until it started to appear in the park it was considered rare for the county.

Shrugging my shoulders, I continued on my 3 mile walk around the bogs. It wasn't until I was on the final stretch of Mud Dam Road that I finally heard my other warbler target when the ascending notes of the Prairie Warbler rang out. I actually heard two along that stretch, possibly three but I'm not counting the first one I thought I might have heard as it was only a partial song. Normally, I find my first Prairie Warblers on the north end of Turnmill Pond at Colliers Mills, but the last time I tried to go there all the roads were blocked for construction and I didn't want to take the chance again this morning. So the walk wasn't a complete bust.

Except: I passed a young birder I know casually while on Mud Dam. We nodded, but didn't compare notes. If we had, I might have known that his much younger ears had heard the Louie Waterthrush over by the restrooms. And I did stop in at the restrooms before I left and heard not peep. Add a dollop of aggravation to the walk.

32 species

Canada Goose  6

Wood Duck  1

Mallard  11

Ring-necked Duck  3

Great Egret  1

Turkey Vulture  2

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1    Heard 

Downy Woodpecker  1

Eastern Phoebe  3

White-eyed Vireo  1    Heard 

Blue Jay  3    Heard 

American Crow  2

Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1

Tree Swallow  5

Barn Swallow  30

Carolina Chickadee  5

Tufted Titmouse  3

Red-breasted Nuthatch  1

White-breasted Nuthatch  1    Heard 

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  8

American Robin  1    Heard 

American Goldfinch  1

Chipping Sparrow  7

Song Sparrow  2

Eastern Towhee  10

Red-winged Blackbird  6

Ovenbird  15    Heard 

Black-and-white Warbler  9

Common Yellowthroat  10    Heard 

Pine Warbler  2

Prairie Warbler  2    Heard 

Northern Cardinal  2

I hit Manahawkin WMA next and while the woods were busy (I saw my first White-eyed Vireo today), the water in the impoundments was high and there were no shorebirds, interesting or otherwise, to look through. 

I drove down to Great Bay Blvd in Tuckerton, even though I suspected the tide would be high. The tide was high and when I saw all the Sunday traffic roaring up and down the road I wondered what the hell was I thinking! In all the salt pans in the marsh I saw two Greater Yellowlegs. I saw lots of egrets, of the two most common variety and that was about it. But I should have remembered that 80% Great Bay Blvd is not particularly interesting and that the action starts at the north end of second wooden bridge.

It was there that I found my FOY Eastern Kingbird and it was there that I finally found a Black-crowned Night-Heron in Ocean County, right where it should have been, the cedar stand just before the bridge. I literally clapped my hands when I saw the night-heron, I was so happy. Of course, that didn't make the night-heron very happy and it flew off behind the trees into the marsh. 

The water was high along the last stretch of road and I had given up on seeing any shorebirds along there. I was hoping that the inlet might have some feeding on the higher mud but I assumed it would be full of fishermen which would scare off the birds. It turned out I was wrong on both counts but before I figured that out I found the best bird of the day. 

A guy and a gal and a pit bull were about to walk out onto the beach, but when they saw me with my scope they graciously let me go ahead. This might actually have worked to my disadvantage. I was about 25 feet onto the path in the little grove that separates the end of the road from the beach when I called out, "Holy Expletive!" 

"What's wrong?" the guy said.

"Nothing. That's a rare bird." It was a Cape May Warbler (orange ear patch, black stripes on yellow breast, dark back, yellow patch on the rump, all the field marks), and with them behind me and the scope on my shoulder and the bird flitting around, I had no hope of getting a picture of it. It was so close I didn't even need my binoculars. After a minute or so it disappeared, diving down, out of the wind. That is the first Cape May I've seen in the county. Gorgeous bird. 

I walked on the beach, which had nary a bird or person on it, then came back to the path and looked around both sides of the grove for a while. The bird popped up again. I put my scope back in the car but as soon as I swung my camera up, it disappeared again. But there was no doubting what I'd seen. Great bird and one I don't get every year. 

Surprise birds are always the best.

21 species

American Oystercatcher  2

Greater Yellowlegs  2

Herring Gull  100

Great Black-backed Gull  2

Forster's Tern  25

Double-crested Cormorant  12

Great Egret  30

Snowy Egret  25

Black-crowned Night-Heron  1

Osprey  6    on nests and hunting

Belted Kingfisher  1

Eastern Kingbird  1    

Fish Crow  4

Barn Swallow  5

Brown Thrasher  1

Northern Mockingbird  1

Song Sparrow  3

Red-winged Blackbird  10

Boat-tailed Grackle  15

Common Yellowthroat  2

Cape May Warbler  1  

Seven Presidents Park 4/20--Upland Sandpiper

The day started with teeming rain, so Mike's 3rd installment of The Birds of Jackson series was cancelled. I went back to bed and when I awoke, mid-morning, the skies had cleared but I didn't much feel like going out. I figured the birds would be quiet by that time of the day.

Around 2:30, as I was sitting on the couch in a near torpor, watching the Mets start to lose, Mike texted me and said he was considering trying for the Uppie at Seven Presidents Park. The thought had crossed my mind earlier, but I was feeling profoundly lazy. Somehow I roused myself and within a half hour we were on our way north.

This seemingly lost Upland Sandpiper has been sticking in the same grassy field at Seven Presidents since Wednesday. Usually, I get my Uppies at Lakehurst, in June, but there are no guarantees, so a potential bird in the scope was worth the try, especially given the binary conditions of the hunt--it would obviously be there or not. We were fairly confident of it being there since another birder posted a picture of it just before we left, but a lot can happen in 45 minutes.

When we got there, it looked, at first, like a lot happened, because as we scanned along the fence line where the bird had been seen and photographed, we saw only grackles, robins, and starlings. We heard a Killdeer. No Uppie.

We changed our angle of view, walking farther into the gravel parking lot and scanned again. Amazingly, I found the bird sitting in the grass, just a brown lump in the green lawn. It wasn't a very satisfying look, but then, obligingly, the bird stood up, looked around, opened its wings for a moment, and then just stood there, looking dazed. Mike theorized that the bird wasn't well. Don't know, but it was still there this afternoon when Shari went to look for it after work. Uppies breed in New Jersey in very select locations--in fact, at this point Lakehurst might be the only spot. This one doesn't look like it will be one of the breeders.

Barnegat | Manahawkin | Tuckerton 4/19--Willet, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Black-headed Gull, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, White-eyed Vireo, Ovenbird, Yellow Warbler, Seaside Sparrow

Willet, Great Bay Blvd

Mike and I ranged all over the southern section of the county today with two goals in mind: 1) lots of birds & 2) lots of new birds for the year. We accomplished both splendidly.

Starting off down on Collinstown Road in Barnegat, Mike, who'd been away for about 10 days, started to add birds to year list--"easy" ones like Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Common Yellowthroat. A stop at Meadowedge Park got him Glossy Ibis (which I missed for the day) and quick turn into Woodmansie Blvd yielded him the expected Purple Martins.

I didn't get into the year bird act until Barnegat Municipal Dock where we had a flyby "flock" of 4 Willets (new for me, county birds for Mike). A ride down the road brought us to the Forsythe impoundments where we had two Northern Pintails (late, for this time of year), as well as two species of peeps, early for this time of year: Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers.

We went inland and walked around Cloverdale Farm for a while which was the least birdy spot of the day but it did offer up, at the feeder near the visitor's center, our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird, supposedly rare for the time of year, but, if you look at eBird, they were everywhere in the county today. Time to fix those filters.

A quick lunch and then we spent the biggest chunk of the day at the Manahawkin WMA, first by driving down Stafford Avenue and then by going around and walking the wooded area off Hilliard. The biggest and best surprise of the day was while we were walking the path to the back impoundment from Stafford. We saw a gull overhead, which from size we took to be a Ring-bill but a quick look at proved otherwise. It didn't have a black hood like a Laugher, and it wasn't the right size or flight pattern for a Bonaparte's. The under wings had black edges but the entire wing wasn't black. So, I finally have my Ocean County Black-headed Gull. Too bad it wouldn't land so I could produce photographic evidence. In fact, photos were hard to come by today--either the birds were too far, too fast, or were just heard, like the Ovenbird we had along Stafford, or the White-eyed Vireos we heard around the first field. We walked just to the edge of the back impoundment and came upon a little flight of warblers--Pine, Yellow-rumped, and our first Yellow Warbler of the year.

I was finally able to take a photo of a year bird once we got down to Great Bay Blvd in Tuckerton (a stop at Tip Seaman Park, known to birders for its expansive restrooms got Mike two more swallow species: Barn and Northern Rough-winged). Egrets, great and snowy, were everywhere you looked, as were large flocks of cormorants. We had timed our visit for low tide, thinking shorebirds would be on the mud flats and salt pans, but we were disappointed--not much to see and nothing new. We were hoping for dowitchers. However, we did heard, right after Mike mentioned that they would soon be singing, 3 Seaside Sparrows. He promises to use this power only for good. On our way out we found a Willet in the marsh and it dawned on me that there, at least, was a bird big enough and still enough to get into my camera. The saddest sight of the day was at the end of the road where the big eagle's nest was mostly on the ground along with any eggs or chicks that had been in it. It probably was the victim of vicious winds we had earlier in the week.

For the day, counting the whip-poor-will I heard tonight, I had 87 species and Mike, who along with the ibises heard a Hermit Thrush and saw a Hairy Woodpecker on Stafford, had 89. A tremendous day. If we tried to repeat it in a couple of weeks we could probably push a 100 what with the expected influx of warblers and shorebirds. We'll see.

Double Trouble SP | Backyard 4/16--Eastern Whip-poor-will, Purple Martin, Black-and-white Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

A sad start to the day: Shari & I went to Pete's funeral mass in Toms River. Judging from the attendance, not a lot of birding was going on in Jersey this morning. Before we left the house, there were 3 Pine Siskins at our thistle feeder. We had none all winter, but now that migration is on a few each day are stopping by on their way north. A few years ago, when there was a siskin irruption, we had them every day in the winter through the spring, except for the day Pete came over to put them on his year list. That's what makes birding so interesting, if you consider "interesting" a euphemism for "aggravating."

Feeling morose after we got home, I figured the antidote would be a long walk to get the endorphins flowing. I drove over to Double Trouble because it's close even though I was not expecting much aside from steps since it was the middle of the afternoon with a stiff breeze blowing. The trail to Ore Pond had a few warblers going out but they were of the Palm and Pine variety. On the pond itself was a Mute Swan, which I didn't think much of, though it is "infrequent" according to eBird. Infrequent indeed--turns out to be the first one I've ever seen there in 7+ years. This year I've had my first Mute Swan at Colliers Mills and now Double Trouble. This is definitely not good news.

The trail back from the pond, on the other side of the canal was a little more rewarding. That's where I was able to take the photograph of the Black-and-white Warbler above. Not a rarity by any means, but not a bird to dismiss either.

I walked out to the back bogs and reservoir despite the wind. I was hoping for the kingbird Greg reported a couple of days ago but no luck there. One Tree Swallow over the reservoir on Sweetwater Lane and then, a few minutes later, a larger, much darker swallow that turned out to be my FOY Purple Martin. I wasn't expecting to find one there but was happy to take the sighting.

So, while my list is modest, considering the time of day and weather I think I did well to add two year birds.

19 species

Canada Goose  2

Mute Swan  1

Mallard  1    with RNDU

Ring-necked Duck  8    Back bog on Gowdy

Turkey Vulture  7

Downy Woodpecker  1

Fish Crow  1

Purple Martin  1

Tree Swallow  1

Carolina Chickadee  7

Tufted Titmouse  1

Carolina Wren  1    Heard packing house

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3

American Robin  2    Heard

Chipping Sparrow  1    Heard parking lot

Eastern Towhee  1    Heard "chwink"

Black-and-white Warbler  2    Trail to Ore Pond and behind sawmill

Palm Warbler  4

Pine Warbler  6

=====================================================================

We heard our first Eastern Whip-poor-will of the year tonight, finally. I was getting worried that, as Shari suggested, the big firebreak that was cut last year in the WMA behind the house had ruined their habitat, because usually we'd have heard one by now. Checking my records I found that the average date seemed to be April 14. However, standing on the back stoop just as it became completely dark I could hear the bird calling back in the woods. In the distance is how we normally hear our first one. Later in the season they seem to come closer to the house, but the first one is always a ways away.