Grass is Greener Dept: Tweets and mailing reports pour in: 140 species @ Sandy Hook; big fallout @ Allaire; Great @ Green-wood; Fantastic @ Prospect Park. Here--not so much.
I was tempted to get in the car early this morning and drive over to Double Trouble where a lot of warblers were reported yesterday, but instead I opted to see what the WMA had, starting @ 6:55 AM. I started out feeling like I was walking under water--a heavy mist kept beading up on my glasses and binoculars. Warblers, aside from a couple of Pine and a Yellowthroat that I heard, were not to be found. Admittedly, the Pine Barrens are not ideal habitat for most warblers, but still, by accident you'd think some would land here.
However, I did see a Merlin land briefly on a dead tree in the 2nd field, one of the bare trees in the lake had its branches filled with swallows--Tree, and rather surprisingly, Northern Rough-wing, and skulking under a bush near the lake shore I saw my first Wood Thrush of the year so the morning wasn't entirely a bust.
In the afternoon, my brother called just as I was returning from a trip to the dump--he'd decided to take the day off and go butterfly hunting down here and asked if I wanted to go along. I turned around and met him at our spot @ Wawa. He took me to a couple of good butterfly spots where he showed me Hessel's Hairstreak, Red Banded Hairstreak, and a lot of others that went by too fast for me to absorb. I'll have to start taking notes when I'm with him. Hessel's Hairstreak is associated with white cedars, which are abundant in the Pine Barrens but not globally, and they like to sip nectar from Sand Myrtle, an endemic plant of the PB. I saw lots of it today. Interesting to think that a plant I'd normally overlook is only found around here. Along the way I looked for birds, which were scarce by mid-afternoon as it had turned summer hot.
At Warren Grove, by the FAA tower, we walked a long path where he snatched up a little blue butterfly, the name of which I forget, but it is one that is a Pine Barrens specialty, recently split off from another species. Overhead I saw a kettle of vultures and was happy to find that two of them were Black Vultures.
When my brother writes his labels for the species he collects, he has always put down Ocean County. Today, as I was locating where we were on eBird's site, I found that the FAA tower is actually in Burlington County--the county line splits the road to the tower and only a tiny corner of the fenced in area is in Ocean County. So today, quite inadvertently, I added some birds to my Burlington County list.
Counting the House Sparrows I chased off our lawn and the Whip-poor-will relentlessly calling right now outside our window, I had 37 species for the day. Not great by any means, but did I think a year ago, that a Whip-poor-will would be a nightly presence?
Whiting WMA
Comments: incl 3/4 miles of Crossley Preserve
29 species
Mallard 11
Merlin 1
Mourning Dove 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 Crossley Preserve
Northern Flicker 1
Eastern Kingbird 2 One at WMA lake, other at Crossley Preserve pond
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Tree Swallow 15
Carolina Chickadee 20
Tufted Titmouse 10
Eastern Bluebird 2
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 15
Gray Catbird 5
Common Yellowthroat 1 heard
Pine Warbler 2
Eastern Towhee 20
Chipping Sparrow 20
Song Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 3
Red-winged Blackbird 1 Heard at Crossley Preserve
Common Grackle 15
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
House Finch 2 Heard
American Goldfinch 3
Warren Grove--FAA Tower
14 species
Canada Goose 1 Beaver Dam Road
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 10
Rock Pigeon 1 Simms Road
Mourning Dove 2 Beaver Dam Road
Eastern Phoebe 1 Simms Road
Carolina Chickadee 1
Gray Catbird 5
European Starling 1 Beaver Dam Road
Common Yellowthroat 1
Eastern Towhee 5
Chipping Sparrow 5
Common Grackle 1 Beaver Dam Road
American Goldfinch 1
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