Whitesbog 1/14--Eastern Phoebe

Sometimes, when the birding is going to be obviously slow, I take a perverse interest in how few birds I can find on a long walk.  Such was the case this morning at Whitesbog, where all the water is frozen, and a stiff wind was blowing. After walking about a hundred feet on the Ocean County side, I could tell it was game on.

By the time I reached the northern side of the Upper Reservoir after walking a circuitous mile and a half, I was doing pretty well (badly), having tallied three species--Carolina Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Dark-eyed Junco--four, if you want to count the sparrow spuh that could have been Song, Swamp, or Savannah. I saw the junco just as I was starting up the side of the reservoir. Normally, this is a good place to see sparrows as they feed on the dike and jump from the brush into the trees across the path, but birds are smarter than we are, and all the junco's friends were, I'm sure, hunkered down. Of course, there's always the hope that while you might not see a lot, you might find something "interesting." As that thought was forming, a bird flew to my right and landed in a dead shrubby tree on the bank of the reservoir. The Upper Reservoir is only about 2/3 filled after being drawn down for the cranberry harvest, so there is a lot of sand exposed. This bird flew onto the ground, then quickly back to the branch. It repeated this maneuver a number of times and when it stayed still on the sand long enough, I could see that it was an Eastern Phoebe, a winter rarity. The behavior is what first set the alarm bell off, then the darker head and the clear breast. It was too far, at that point for a photo, and by the time I reached the tree I lost it, probably, I thought, in the woods on the other side. 

I continued another mile up to Hanover Pond just at the edge of Fort Dix without seeing another bird, then turned around and took a newly re-opened path that was dug alongside a restored canal that leads to the back of the Reservoir. You can still just get by on the sand and walk back to the road. I was hoping that a different angle would get me another look at the phoebe, and, yes, there it was, just below the bank, jumping from stump to stump, bobbing its tail. What insects this flycatcher can possibly find I can't imagine. Some birds switch to waxy berries in the winter, but I don't know about phoebes. 

I made my way back to the car and added 3 more species--American Robin, Eastern Bluebird, Hairy Woodpecker--for a total of 7. If you can stay below double digits, you win.

Island Beach SP | Riverfront Landing 1/13--Canvasback, Great Egret, Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing, Spizzle Creek

 A couple of favorite birds for the first time this year. I went to Island Beach SP, where I haven't been all winter, this being a relatively calm and warm day. I walked the beach in a couple of places and came up with some of the usual waterfowl--Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Common Loon. I wasn't in the mood for a really long walk down to the jetty, so instead, I thought I'd take a look at Spizzle Creek on the bay side of the park. On my way in it was deadly silent and I was thinking this wasn't such a hot idea either. Toward the "T" I heard a robin. Oh boy. I turned to left and saw a few robins in a cedar. And few more. And a few more. And then a flock of probably a 100 flew overhead. I said to myself that Cedar Waxwings often associate with robins, so instead of just glancing at every cluster of robins, I stopped and scanned each one. And in not too long a time I did find one waxwing, and then a few more. Probably 6 in all, scattered in the cedars (where else?) with the very active robins. Cedar Waxwing being my all-time favorite bird made the trip worth it. I flushed up a couple of Great Blue Herons and then heard another squawk and a white heron flew up: Great Egret. Infrequent, but some do hang out all winter. (Another birder who was going in when I was going out, photographed Little Blue Heron and Tricolored Heron, but seemingly missed my two larger herons--it just shows how inherently frustrating birding can be.) Later, I saw another Great Egret fly overhead and land in the reeds where the first one had been. What I was really hoping for was to scare up a bittern along that path, as I have in the past, but not today. 

Canvasbacks, drakes & hens, Riverfront Landing

On my way home I stopped at Riverfront Landing in Toms River. This little park on the wide end of the river, just before it dumps into Barnegat Bay, is a great place to look for waterfowl, especially another charismatic duck, Canvasback. Why these big ducks return yearly to the marina next to the landing is an enduring mystery, but they always seem to be there in decent numbers: 16 today. Now, if I could get a Redhead mixed in with them...

In the marina

More Absurdities from Our Feeder-Cam

BLACK GUILLEMOT

 

CHRISTMAS SHEARWATER

BRANDT'S CORMORANT

RED-FACED CORMORANT

OMAO

HIMALAYAN SNOWCOCK

Note: As my friend Steve pointed out, perhaps the camera settings were for the wrong geographical area. Of course, this wouldn't explain why the "AI-enabled" software would "think" a shearwater or cormorant was at a feeder, but, as it happens, I checked the settings today and the "AI-enabled" software "knows" it is in the Eastern Time Zone of the United States. 

The Limits of AI

One of the toys we have in the backyard is a "feeder cam" hooked up to our wi-fi, which you can view remotely to see the birds attracted to it. It also takes a photo of every bird that lands in front of the camera, so you can, in a rather clunky interface, view all the birds you've had there on any particular day. It also has a feature that will identify the birds for you. This is handy for a beginning birder, I suppose, but I've never paid any attention to it until today, when, stuck inside the house for the 4th day due to high winds, I looked at some of the pictures it had taken. 

Boy, do we get some rarities in our backyard! 

THICK-BILLED MURRE

JAPANESE QUAIL

WESTERN JACKDAW

GREAT EGRET

I figured I'd better clean the schmutz off the lens. Didn't seem to make much difference:

SPOTTED RAIL

BLUE-AND-WHITE SWALLOW

JAVA SPARROW

NORTHERN GOSHAWK

This is the perfect accessory for the upcoming Great Backyard Bird Count. Guaranteed to drive the eBird reviewers into retirement. 

Barnegat CBC 1/5/2025--16 Year Birds

First bird, best bird. I met Mike yesterday morning at 5 A.M down on Beach Avenue in Manahawkin, where we have started our section of the Barnegat Christmas Bird Count ever since the days when Pete Bacinksi was still with us. Owling is the goal and we're happy if we hear a few Great Horned Owls or Eastern Screech-Owls. But nothing was calling down at the end of the road, so we drove about a quarter mile up the broken asphalt. As soon as we both got out of our cars we said, simultaneously, "Did you hear that?!"  What we had heard, as if it was right next to us, was a harsh hoot, which we were pretty certain was a Long-eared Owl. Playing the call on my phone confirmed it. We heard it again, but this time much farther away in the woods to the north. Still, Long-eared Owl, a "sensitive" species, is a great bird for the year. It is the second time I've heard one there. The first time was with the aforementioned Pete on the CBC of 2016.  

Mike heard a screech-owl on Beach, but I missed it, so it wasn't until we moved over to Stafford Avenue which runs between the state's Manahawkin WMA and Forsythe's Bridge to Nowhere section (which is crazy-making when you're trying to keep accurate lists), that I heard one, along with a couple of Great Horneds. 

As it was just about dawn, we moved down Stafford to its end where the actual Bridge to Nowhere sits. Once, on a previous CBC, Mike and I saw hundreds, if not a thousand, Boat-tailed Grackles levitate from the marsh at sun-up. We didn't get that show yesterday, but we did have a big flock fly across. Because all the water on either side of Stafford was stiff, ducks were at a premium, but we did have a few mergansers, both hooded and red-breasted. Mike spotted a Peregrine Falcon, and that, along with a Red-tailed Hawk I saw in Mud City, stands as the only two possible year-birds we both didn't see during the day. 

Our section includes a part of Barnegat Bay, but viewing it is a problem since our original lookout spot is now posted as private, with warnings about security cameras and dire consequences for trespassers. But, from a couple of spots we were able to see Ruddy Ducks, Buffleheads, a Greater Scaup, and the usual Mallards. However, we didn't find any cormorants sitting on a concrete structure in the bay, where they usually are. 

Because we were trying to hit as many spots as possible, and because the weather was impossibly cold and windy, we tended to do a lot of birding by car. The only real walking we did was in the Manahawkin WMA. There we found a Gray Catbird, one of those half-hearty species that sometimes winter in the area. Given the weather conditions, I'd say this bird was 3/4 hearty. Trying hard, we scanned a big flock of House Finches hoping for a Purple Finch, but they were all the same. Not even one we could ponder. 

Manahawkin Lake was surprisingly open and, as has been its history lately, unsurprisingly devoid of interesting birds. Gulls and geese were all we saw on the water, but, luckily, they have warm facilities, and as we about to make use of them I heard a Killdeer, and Mike found it, along with two others on the beach. Amusingly, we had just discussed how we used to see Killdeer there in the parking lot. We also padded our list with Rock Pigeons. 

Before lunch we stopped at a spot, Levi's Road, in Stafford, that is usually good for passerines, but it too was full of private property notices, so we didn't find much there aside from our first juncos of the day. 

After lunch we drove down Beach Avenue in the daylight and added Fox Sparrow and Eastern Bluebirds to the list. We then drove up 72 to the edge of our territory, a little pond behind a medical facility where there are always ducks. We were hoping the water wasn't frozen, and aside from the edges, it was open and there we added Green-winged Teal and Gadwall. I had an interesting looking duck that I thought might be a Eurasian Wigeon, but the light was horrible and then the flock it was in flew away to the far corner of the pond and I had to let it go. Mike was pretty sure that I was just seeing a teal in bad light. 

We returned for one more run down Stafford Avenue, checking both sides, but by then were getting diminishing returns. I was hoping for a Short-eared Owl early in the morning there, which we didn't see, and I wasn't inclined to hang out until dusk for a second chance. When I got home, I saw that on Beach Avenue at dawn, another birder, not part of the count, had heard a Sedge Wren in the spot we have had them in the past. That annoyed me, but, as the Firesign Theatre sang, "How can you be two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?"

For the day we listed 54 species for the Barnegat Count; I had 51. Surprisingly, I heard from the compiler, our Long-eared Owl was not the only one for the day. Someone else had one at a, naturally, undisclosed location. 

Species                First Sighting
Canada Goose   Mud City
Mute Swan   Manahawkin Lake
Gadwall   Ocean Acres Pond
Mallard   1355 E Bay Ave, Manahawkin
American Black Duck   Mud City
Green-winged Teal   Ocean Acres Pond
Greater Scaup   1355 E Bay Ave, Manahawkin
Bufflehead   1355 E Bay Ave, Manahawkin
Hooded Merganser   Bridge to Nowhere
Red-breasted Merganser   1355 E Bay Ave, Manahawkin
Ruddy Duck   East Bay Av, Stafford Township
Rock Pigeon   Manahawkin Lake
Mourning Dove   Bridge to Nowhere
Killdeer   Manahawkin Lake
Greater Yellowlegs   Bridge to Nowhere
Ring-billed Gull   Manahawkin Lake
American Herring Gull   Bridge to Nowhere
Great Blue Heron   Bridge to Nowhere
Turkey Vulture   Manahawkin Lake
Northern Harrier   Bridge to Nowhere
Bald Eagle   Manahawkin WMA
Red-tailed Hawk   Mud City
Eastern Screech-Owl   Stafford Avenue
Great Horned Owl   Beach Ave
Long-eared Owl   Beach Ave
Belted Kingfisher   Manahawkin WMA
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker   Bridge to Nowhere
Red-bellied Woodpecker   Manahawkin WMA
Downy Woodpecker   Bridge to Nowhere
Blue Jay   Bridge to Nowhere
American Crow   Manahawkin Lake
Carolina Chickadee   Bridge to Nowhere
Tufted Titmouse   Bridge to Nowhere
White-breasted Nuthatch   Bridge to Nowhere
Carolina Wren   Manahawkin WMA
European Starling   Manahawkin WMA
Gray Catbird   Manahawkin WMA
Northern Mockingbird   1355 E Bay Ave, Manahawkin
Eastern Bluebird   Beach Ave
Hermit Thrush   Manahawkin WMA
American Robin   Bridge to Nowhere
House Finch   Manahawkin WMA
American Goldfinch   Manahawkin WMA
Fox Sparrow   Beach Ave
Dark-eyed Junco   Levi's Rd--Stafford
White-throated Sparrow   Manahawkin WMA
Song Sparrow   Mud City
Red-winged Blackbird   Bridge to Nowhere
Boat-tailed Grackle   Bridge to Nowhere
Yellow-rumped Warbler   Manahawkin WMA
Northern Cardinal   Manahawkin WMA

Backyard 1/4--Pine Warbler

When I first started keeping backyard lists on eBird around 13 years ago, every time I listed Pine Warbler it would be flagged as "rare."  Dutifully, I would take a picture and embed the photo in my list. But because the bird was "rare," and I am borderline OCD, I felt compelled to take a picture and list it every time I saw a Pine Warbler in our backyard, and I saw a Pine Warbler in our backyard every day. Sometimes more than one; once, I saw seven hanging around the suet and in the cedars. Finally, it got to be too much even for me. I wrote to the eBird reviewer and told him that I had Pine Warblers in the backyard all the time, that they weren't really all that rare in the (who'da thunk it) Pine Barrens, and that as my late friend Pete Bacinksi use to explain, they were just overlooked because they were more or less silent. Something must have resonated, because now Pine Warbler is merely "infrequent" at least in the 20km x 20km square that eBird uses as measure in which our house sits. 

Today, looking out the window in the living room at our camera feeder I saw our first Pine Warbler of 2025. Naturally, I had to list that one. I checked the history on the camera feeder and saw that it has been snatching seeds all morning. The camera feeder takes pretty good pictures, so long as you remember to clean the lens every once in a while.

Whitesbog 1/2--Red-shouldered Hawks & Water Levels

Red-shouldered Hawks, roosting and flying to the left

There's a spot at Whitesbog, pretty well hidden, that only the cognoscenti know. It's in the section mysteriously called Ditch Meadow. At one time, Ditch Meadow was blueberry fields and reservoirs for the cranberry bogs, but now it is off the main water sources, so the ponds back there get filled through run-off and rain. While the main reservoirs that Cranberry Run feeds are coming back, thanks to the rain and a semi-successful fight with the beavers, the ponds of Ditch Meadow are still very dry from the summer's drought. 

Red-shouldered Hawk sitting above the water line, Ditch Meadow

Just how dry was brought home to me when I went back there today. When there is water in this pond it is always a good spot for Wood Ducks year-round and for Ring-neck Ducks in the winter. This winter you're more likely to find sparrows and robins feeding in the mud. This morning that was the case with a flock of juncos in the back, but then I saw a red patch in a tree which a close-up photograph showed to be a Red-shouldered Hawk. Actually two hawks, because the photo captured one bird flying to the left. I took a photo of that one too when it landed and while the photo of the hawk is mediocre, the picture of the trees it is sitting in is revealing. The bottoms of the trees are very dark, ending in a straight line about four feet above the muck--that's the waterline and shows how high the water was before the drought. That is a lot of water to lose through evaporation and seepage. 

But there is now enough water in Union Pond for the Tundra Swans to feed there, though you're just as likely to find them in Rome Pond as you're coming in, or even in the Fenwick Bogs which have been flooded for the winter. There has been a couple of big flocks of geese in all these spots, as well as large flocks of black ducks. I noted a few Buffleheads and Hooded Mergansers last week, but none on my first visit there this year. 

I got there just before dawn this morning, hoping to hear owls but none were calling in the usual spots. I did get a good look at a Sharp-shinned Hawk sitting on the wires along the entrance road just before sunrise. In all, I only had 20 species walking around the bogs and part of the village on this very cold morning with increasing winds:

Canada Goose  110
Tundra Swan  28
Mallard  1
American Black Duck  115     Rome & flyover flocks Union Pond & village
Turkey Vulture  2
Sharp-shinned Hawk  1     
Red-shouldered Hawk  2     
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
American Crow  3
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tufted Titmouse  2
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Winter Wren  1     Heard
Eastern Bluebird  7
Hermit Thrush  1
Dark-eyed Junco  40
Song Sparrow  3
Northern Cardinal  1