Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve | Burrs Mill Brook 5/18--Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Acadian Flycatcher, Bank Swallow, Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager

Scarlet Tanager

I scouted the Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve this morning, because I have an old friend coming down next week leading a trip for the Brooklyn Bird Club and they want to see Prothonotary Warbler. As the Huber Preserve is the best and easiest place to search for one, I suggested we meet there. My records show that I've had PROW there multiple times in late May, and in April I had a couple, but you never know. 

I arrived at 6:06 and before I swung my feet out of the car I heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, so I was off to a good start. Walking up the entrance trail I also heard my first Scarlet Tanager of the year, but I couldn't find that one. Along the way all the usual warblers were singing: Hooded, Black-and-white, Prairie (natch), yellowthroats, Ovenbirds...The good news is that the Prothonotary Warblers are still there. They nest in the bushes along the stream. The bad news is that it took some work to get one to come out. 

Red-headed Woodpecker

I met again a birder I know from Whitesbog and he told me that the dreaded Yellow Trail, where I once picked up 28 ticks on my shoes, had been cleared and widened, so after we split up, I took a walk on it and came out apparently unscathed and with an Acadian Flycatcher added to the year list. The Yellow Trail is an horseshoe that begins and ends on the White Trail. It dumps you out just before Gum Spring which flows over the White Trail. Before turning back to the entrance, I figured I might as well look in the swamp that the spring flows into. Immediately I heard a Red-headed Woodpecker and with some patience was able to get one to fly toward me and land on a dead tree. Red-headed Woodpeckers are flagged as rare in Burlco, though I can think of more places there to find one than I can in Ocean County where they are "expected." Another RHWO was calling, and it too soon flew in. Since this is one of the few woodpeckers that is not sexually dimorphic, I don't know if it was a pair or a couple of males vying for territory. As a bonus, as I was leaving the swamp, I heard and finally saw a Scarlet Tanager. For a big, bright, red bird, they can be very difficult to see, high up and hiding in the foliage. Hence the rather unsatisfactory photo at top. 

Summer Tanager

Just before I reached the parking area, I heard a call that was new to me. I opened up Merlin and returned Summer Tanager. Not a completely outlandish identification (I've actually had them there before), but you have to be Reaganesque with Merlin: Trust But Verify. I walked off the path a few feet and happily, this section of the woods hadn't completely leafed out, so I was able to see a pale-yellow bird with a heavy beak flying around. It was a female Summer Tanager and very active. Hence, more unsatisfactory photos. 

As it was still early, I decided to drive back a few miles to Burrs Mill Brook, where I go once a year to find the Bank Swallows that nest in a sand quarry about a mile in from Burrs Mill Road. As I was walking the trail along the brook I heard a tanager-like song that didn't sound like a Scarlet. I saw the bird fly by for a second and once again, Merlin returned Summer Tanager! This one was a singing male. I thought that was pretty amazing to find two Summer Tanagers in the same day, but looking at eBird, I see lots of sightings today and yesterday all over Burlington County. Either there is an influx of this species, or it isn't really rare. 

Bank Swallow flying along the sand quarry cliff

I was wondering if it was too early for the Bank Swallows, since I didn't see any flying over the open parts of the brook, and when I got to the edge of the quarry (I stand just outside the property line), I at first didn't see any activity. But a little persistence (like 3 minutes) yielded first one, then four, then six, then eight Bank Swallows flying along the far face of the quarry, going in and out of holes. 

That made 5 year birds for the day and that was enough for me. 

The Huber List--Bank Swallows and a couple of Baltimore Orioles were the only birds I saw at Burrs Mill that I didn't see at the Prairie Warbler Preserve. 

41 species
Canada Goose  2
Mourning Dove  2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  1
Laughing Gull  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  2     
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Eastern Wood-Pewee  3
Acadian Flycatcher  1
Eastern Phoebe  2     Bridge
Great Crested Flycatcher  6
White-eyed Vireo  4
Red-eyed Vireo  2
Blue Jay  1
Common Raven  2     Croaking corvids
Carolina Chickadee  5
Tufted Titmouse  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  3
Carolina Wren  1
Gray Catbird  2
Wood Thrush  3
American Goldfinch  1
Field Sparrow  1
Eastern Towhee  6
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Ovenbird  15
Blue-winged Warbler  1
Black-and-white Warbler  2
Prothonotary Warbler  1
Common Yellowthroat  2
Hooded Warbler  9     9+
American Redstart  2
Magnolia Warbler  1
Yellow Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  3
Prairie Warbler  15
Summer Tanager  1     
Scarlet Tanager  4
Northern Cardinal  2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Cedar Bonnet Island 5/17--Willow Flycatcher, Northern Waterthrush, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler

Willow Flycatcher

 According to BirdCast, 903,500 birds passed over Ocean County during the night, quite a contrast from the 500 it recorded the night before. Of course, this information doesn't relay how many birds actually landed in Ocean County, but it seemed a good bet that a decent number alighted in county, so just after sunrise I was at Cedar Bonnet Island, walking back and forth on the entrance trail which is an allée of oaks and evergreens. 

At first, I only found the most common of birds there--yellowthroats, Yellow Warblers, catbirds, blackbirds...once again I felt like a walking bird-freeze zone. There was one other birder there and I could tell from his body language that he wasn't finding much either but that was no consolation. Walking back to the start of the trail I started seeing activity. Two Chestnut-sided Warblers were chasing each other in an oak and then a couple of Magnolia Warblers were in the same tree, a little lower down. Another birder came up and she saw a Bay-breasted Warbler, but I couldn't find it. And thus started warbler frustration. As more people arrived with the cameras and conversation, I started getting antsy and decided to walk around the open areas of marsh and grass. I heard a sharp call that I had to stop and think about for a moment until I realized it was a Willow Flycatcher, a bird, with warblers on my mind, that I had forgotten about.  I was finally able to track it down and get a photo--I don't even try with the flitty flighty warblers. 

As I ran into more people I knew, I heard more reports of warblers I didn't see--Canada, Tennessee, Cape May--it was like a geography lesson. Going back to the entrance groves a third time I heard a bird I couldn't identify. Another birding acquaintance identified it as a Northern Waterthrush, a warbler I'd given up on this spring and one whose song is not in memory because I usually see them and because my memory is shot. By now, after 4 walks up and down the trail it was getting way too crowded for me--I don't enjoy being in a crowd of cross-talking birders all calling out birds they might be seeing or else talking about birds other birders have seen, so I took my four year birds and went to Manahawkin WMA. 

I didn't expect to see anything new, though I sort of hoped that the Ruff from last week was still around, or at least a Stilt Sandpiper. Instead, I found that the Black-necked Stilt population had tripled since my last visit. Coming up to the back impoundment with my scope, I immediately flushed one from the bank. I'd never heard one call before, and that shouldn't have given me a hint that it wasn't alone. Later, walking back after depositing my scope in the car, I found two in the same spot--I recalled that two had been reported last week. Then I looked to my left and found a third. One more stilt and I think that qualifies as a flock. All three seemed skittish as they flew to the middle of the impoundment next to where a large flock of Lesser Yellowlegs was feeding. Safety in numbers. It was there that I was able to get the doc shot of the trio. I believe that it the largest number of stilts I have seen in NJ. 

The other (ahem) interesting sight was of two Forster's Terns in the front impoundment. As far as I know, Forster's Terns don't nest in Ocean County, and certainly not in Manahawkin, but that didn't seem to stop one of the terns from standing on the back of the other (which had been calling that harsh rattling cry) and...ahem. 

My list for Cedar Bonnet Island. I actually had more birds at Manahawkin, but there was a lot of overlap as you would expect. 

41 species
Brant  1     Channel
Canada Goose  1
Mallard  2
Mourning Dove  9
Clapper Rail  3
Semipalmated Plover  1
Short-billed Dowitcher  30
Willet  2
Greater Yellowlegs  1
Least Sandpiper  4
Semipalmated Sandpiper  6
Laughing Gull  2
Forster's Tern  2
Glossy Ibis  6
Green Heron  2     Flyover channel
Osprey  2
Belted Kingfisher  1     Flyover
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Willow Flycatcher  2
Eastern Kingbird  2
Red-eyed Vireo  3
American Crow  1
Barn Swallow  1
Carolina Wren  1
Gray Catbird  3
American Robin  8
Cedar Waxwing  4
House Finch  4
Seaside Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  6
Red-winged Blackbird  20
Common Grackle  1
Boat-tailed Grackle  6
Northern Waterthrush  1     Heard
Common Yellowthroat  6
American Redstart  1
Magnolia Warbler  2
Yellow Warbler  4
Chestnut-sided Warbler  2     Entrance
Black-throated Green Warbler  2     Entrance
Northern Cardinal  4

Great Bird Names

One of the ancillary pleasures of birding is the common names of birds. I've spent hours scrolling through the species list on eBird, finding funny, weird names of birds. Some of them are highly, one might say, overly descriptive, some are opaque. Below is a list, in no special order (except for the cisticolas) of some of my favorites:

Perplexing Scrubwren
Mysterious Starling (Extinct)
Monotonous Lark
Elusive Antpitta
Inaccessible Island Finch
Inaccessible Island Rail (If the island is inaccessible, how do they know about the birds?)
Invisible Rail (sightings: 0)
 
Cisticolas: (Birds with check marks are one I have seen)

Bubbling

Chattering

Chirping

Churring

üCroaking   

Foxy

Piping

üRattling

Siffling

Singing

Tinkling

Trilling

Wailing

Whistling

Winding

üWing-snapping

üZitting

 
 
Happy Wren
Strange Weaver
Obscure Berrypecker
Twite (Banding code: TWIT)
Aberrant Bush-Warbler
Leaf-love
Melancholy Woodpecker
Monotonous Lark
Fearful Owl
Supertramp Fantail
Cinderella Waxbill
Exclamatory Paradise-Whydah
Vampire Ground-Finch 

Graveling Point | Great Bay Blvd 5/11--Red Knot, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Black Skimmer, Least Tern, Common Tern, Saltmarsh Sparrow

Saltmarsh Sparrow

I was in the mood for mud flats, so I headed down to Tuckerton. I thought I'd see what Graveling Point was like in warm weather--on the few occasions I've birded there, it has been mostly for ducks in the winter.  Graveling Point, at the end of Radio Road, is yet another piece of Forsythe NWR. During the winter, when the vegetation is brown, you can walk easily toward the middle of the peninsula or come around the back of the pond that is fed by a mosquito ditch, but today I was forced to walk the edges of the point, which was fine, because I was flushing up shorebirds at a rapid rate. Short-billed Dowitchers were the most common, but I kicked up at least 7 Spotted Sandpipers (according to eBird a new species for the site), along with a bunch of Least Sandpipers and Dunlins. I also had my first Least Tern of the year, a quick flyby, and most amusing to me, my first Green Heron in Ocean County this year. The pond was empty today except for a lone Mallard, or so it seemed, because when I got back to the parking lot, I thought, "Eh, let just look in here for a minute, and there, in the reeds, was the heron. All the usual places I've looked so far this year I couldn't find one, but here, where I wasn't looking for one, I of course find one. 

Green Heron, Graveling Point

I then drove up and around and got onto Great Bay Blvd. I wasn't going to stop at Tuckerton Cove but then I thought of finding the Green Heron in an unlikely spot and it occurred to me that when I've seen Black Skimmers in Tuckerton they've always been roosting in the northern parts of the WMA, so I pulled over, walked through the vegetal entanglements and had barely put up my binoculars when I had 5 skimmers loafing on a sandbar. They got up and flew and they were the only 5 I saw today. 

Red Knots

Ruddy Turnstone

Every stop I made today along the road I had big, mixed flocks of shorebirds, mostly dowitchers and Least Sandpipers. I kept scoping the flocks of leasts concentrating on their legs, but it wasn't until I was more than halfway down that I finally found a sandpiper with black legs that weren't just mud--bigger and grayer too--a single Semipalmated Sandpiper. I was disappointed that neither of the night-herons were roosting in the cedar stands or feeding in the marshes--in fact, the only waders I saw were both white egrets. I got down to the end of the road and went onto the mud flats of Great Bay. I was looking for Red Knots and after walking as far out on the mud flats as I've ever gone, I scoped two of them. Very unsatisfactory--I could list them but, as they're an endangered (sub)species, I'd prefer to get better views while I can. I turned around and walk to the other side of the flats, toward the Rutgers facility. On the pilings terns were roosting--a couple of Least Terns, and my first Common Terns of the year. I went about as far as I could on the mud flat without trespassing onto the Rutgers property. In a shallow there was a small flock of knots, along with more Dunlins and some Ruddy Turnstones. Now I had good looks at these robust sandpipers. 

Least Tern, Great Bay

I then turned my attention to the spartina grass behind me. I was seeing a lot of sparrows flying up and diving down into the grass, but every time I glassed them, they'd turn out to be Song Sparrows. I just knew that Saltmarsh Sparrow was there somewhere, but since its "song" is more of a buzzy whisper, I didn't have much chance of following the sound. So I cheated. I played a recording and bang! one came out to pose for me. In a few months I'll have to do the same thing for Nelson's Sparrow.  Since they stick close to the ground and run around like mice, whether it's better to try for them during high tide or low tide is a debate. Low tide and there is more area to search. High tide and there is less search area but you'll probably get your feet wet stepping into a mud puddle you didn't see while pursuing a fleeting bird. 

45 species on the day:

Brant
Canada Goose
Mallard
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Clapper Rail
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Short-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Greater Yellowlegs
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
American Herring Gull
Black Skimmer
Least Tern
Forster's Tern
Common Tern
Double-crested Cormorant

Black-crowned Night Heron
Snowy Egret
Green HeronGreat Egret
Osprey
Fish Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Northern House Wren
Marsh Wren
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
Seaside Sparrow
Saltmarsh Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Northern Cardinal

Northern House Wren, Great Bay Blvd

Cedar Bridge Tavern CP 5/7--American Redstart

American Redstart

Another warbler. I don't visit Cedar Bridge Tavern (which dates to Revolutionary War times) County Park very often, so I was pleased to see that since my last visit they have hacked out and completed a very good 3 1/2-mile trail through the pines that crosses and recrosses Old Cedar Bridge Road. I was also pleased to find so many warblers along the trail--10 different species including supposedly hard to find Hooded Warblers and Blue-winged Warblers  & my first American Redstart of the year. Finding it was similar to the Blackpoll Warbler yesterday at Whitesbog. When I em
erged onto the road, I thought perhaps I was hearing a distant Veery, so I opened up the Merlin app and let it listen. It never picked up the ethereal call of that thrush (which was one of my motives for going there) but it did list the redstart. I looked around and didn't see the bird at first and redstart is one of those "songs" that isn't emblazoned in my memory. So, I played back what Merlin had recorded, and when it highlighted American Redstart, I looked around again. Suddenly one flew in. Damn, maybe Merlin isn't as unreliable as I think it is. In the shadows of the trees I wasn't able to get much of a picture of the bird, but I was happy to find it. Redstart is one of those birds that I used to see a lot more when I lived in Brooklyn, an easy bird in Prospect Park or at Jamaica Bay. At Jamaica Bay they were so common that Shari & I used to refer to them as YAR--Yet Another Redstart. 

A decent morning with 35 species, but not the target bird. 

Canada Goose  9
Mourning Dove  2
Turkey Vulture  3
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  3
White-eyed Vireo  5
Red-eyed Vireo  1     Heard
American Crow  1
Carolina Chickadee  1
Tufted Titmouse  2
Tree Swallow  5
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  4
Carolina Wren  1
Gray Catbird  20
Eastern Bluebird  1
Wood Thrush  3
American Robin  4
House Finch  3
Chipping Sparrow  3
Eastern Towhee  5
Ovenbird  4
Blue-winged Warbler  2
Black-and-white Warbler  4
Common Yellowthroat  1
Hooded Warbler  3
American Redstart  1
Northern Parula  1
Yellow Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  4
Prairie Warbler  10
Northern Cardinal  2

Whitesbog 5/6--Green Heron, Blackpoll Warbler

Green Heron

 A late-night Mets game in Arizona and early morning rain combined for a delayed start this morning, and as the weather looked iffy along the coast, I just drove over to Whitesbog. This time of year, I usually park at the county line and then decide which way I want to go--this morning it into Burlco to start. Union Pond is low enough to have some mud and said along the edges and close to the road and while I was driving in I saw shorebirds flying about. Walking back to it, I saw 3 Least Sandpipers working the little bit of exposed mud. It's early for them at Whitesbog but I see them as a harbinger of summer if the bogs get drained. I also had a Killdeer fly over and saw at the back of the pond, a Spotted Sandpiper fly from one mud flat to the other. 

Then I went into Ditch Meadow, but unfortunately, the beavers have been at work and the trail requires high rubber boots. I walked around Union Pond to the other entrance to Ditch Meadow, and still didn't see much until I did--my first Green Heron of the year flew right in front of me and posed in a tree. I didn't feel like going into the village, so I stuck to the bogs, working my way back to the county line, and crossing over into Ocean County where I hoped I could find another Green Heron to add to my county list. I searched in most of the likely places without going back to the Antrim Bogs and didn't have any luck. But I did add one more bird to year list.

Normally, I use the Merlin app to confirm what I think I'm hearing because ever since the app "heard" a Prothonotary Warbler in my backyard, I haven't completely trusted its reliability. Today, on the cross dike, I thought I heard the high buzz of a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (amazingly, I can hear that bird) but only for a second, so I opened up Merlin and let it listen. It confirmed the gnatcatcher, and then a lot of easy birds started popping up--Common Yellowthroat, Red-winged Blackbird, Gray Catbird...Blackpoll Warbler! Whenever Merlin records a mimid, I tend to not take any of the birds it hears seriously--a couple of weeks ago on Island Beach it "heard" a Tufted Titmouse that a Brown Thrasher was doing an excellent imitation of and there are no titmice on Island Beach. I laugh and groan whenever I see someone's eBird list with the notation "Confirmed by Merlin." 

Not that Blackpoll Warbler is rare per se but since it is out of my hearing range, it a very difficult warbler for me to track down. I played the recording back and even when the sonogram indicated that it was playing the warbler's song, I couldn't hear it. So just as I was shrugging my shoulders, a bird flew into the top of a cedar. I got my bins on it and Holy Smokes it was a Blackpoll. Not the first one I've had there, but you can now count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've listed it at that patch. 

Still didn't get the Green Heron for the county though. 

For both sides of the line, 40 species:

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
American Black Duck
Mourning Dove
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Green Heron
Turkey Vulture
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
Fish Crow
Carolina Chickadee
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Carolina Wren
Gray Catbird
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Orchard Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Ovenbird
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Blackpoll Warbler
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Northern Cardinal

Pine Dust on Big Tank

Manahawkin WMA 5/4--White-faced Ibis

White-faced Ibis, fifth from left

 A hard bird to distinguish, I was lucky today to be with two good birders while surveying a flock of about 175 Glossy Ibis in the first impoundment at Manahawkin. The ibises were very skittish, flying in and out of the pool, going over the road to the Forsythe property where they would bury themselves in the reeds. Eventually though, and fairly close in, D. found a White-faced Ibis, one of the two that had been reported there yesterday. And unlike most White-faced Ibis, this one was obvious, with red legs, a big red eyeball, and significant white around the face. Last year, when there were four of these birds in the same impoundment, I spent a couple of hours with J. (who was also there), looking through the ibis flock up against the reeds on the opposite shore and finally was able to convince myself that one of them was a White-faced Ibis. Today I had no qualms. It is a pretty amazing turnabout that now, White-faced Ibis is rarer in New Jersey than White Ibis. Years ago, I found one White Ibis at Manahawkin and the birders came a-running. Today, they'd just shrug and say, "Yeah, I saw 15 of them at Spizzle Creek." 

Enlarged & cropped

It was a blustery March day on Star Wars Day (May the Fourth etc.), cloudy, windy, cold, and then, after I started to walk up to Hilliard, it started to rain, so I had to turn around before I could complete my route. Thus, a short list. But the "one cool bird a day" requirement was fulfilled. 

29 species
Mute Swan  2
Mallard  3
Green-winged Teal  2     Back impoundment
Solitary Sandpiper  2
Lesser Yellowlegs  30     Close estimate. Most in back impoundment
Willet  2
Greater Yellowlegs  5
Least Sandpiper  10
American Herring Gull  5
Forster's Tern  10
Glossy Ibis  175
White-faced Ibis  1     
Little Blue Heron  1
Tricolored Heron  4
Snowy Egret  5
Great Egret  10
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Eastern Kingbird  1
White-eyed Vireo  1
Gray Catbird  1
American Robin  1
Seaside Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  3
Orchard Oriole  2
Red-winged Blackbird  30
Common Yellowthroat  3

Yellow Warbler  2