Island Beach SP 10/12--Black-billed Cuckoo, Blue-headed Vireo, Blackpoll Warbler

After our visit to Island Beach on Monday, I signed up for a bird walk held this morning. I wanted to see what I was missing. It's always good to bird with someone intimate with the area. It's no secret that normally I don't like bird walks because it's hard to bird well with a lot of people, but I had the notion that not too many others would show up and I was right. The birding party consisted of me, the leader, Skyler Streich, and Bob from Somerset County, so it was just about perfect for me.

We walked Reed's Road trail, which was the first one Shari & I birded on Monday, and at first the birding was fairly slow with nothing outstanding. Upon reaching the bay side we headed a little north and into a patch of maritime forest protected from the wind off the bay. We hung around there for well over an hour and every few minutes another interesting species appeared.

The most amusing find, for me, was the Blue-headed Vireo Bob found. Amusing because yesterday,while I was out, Shari called me to boast that she'd seen a Blue-headed Vireo in our backyard and wasn't I annoyed that I wasn't there, ha ha ha. So quickly getting one today evened up the score.

The Black-billed Cuckoo was identified by shape, size and flight and the Blackpoll Warbler is one of the proverbial "confusing fall warblers" which would probably have stumped me if Skyler hadn't been there, if I was even lucky enough to see it on my own. It took me quite a while before I got on the bird--happily it was when it jumped out onto a bare branch and gave us good looks.

In all we found over 40 species (I found a couple of more sparrows on my own) including my 2 favorite passerines--Cedar Waxwing and Brown Creeper.  I also learned to identify a willow oak--with its long tear drop leaves I would never have thought it an oak, but I guess if it drops acorns it is an oak regardless of leaf shape.

47 species: Reed's Road and Parking Lot #1
Canada Goose  2    f/o
Wood Duck  4    f/o
Double-crested Cormorant  4    f/o
Osprey  1
Northern Harrier  1
Cooper's Hawk  1
Laughing Gull  2
Herring Gull  10
Great Black-backed Gull  5
Rock Pigeon  1
Mourning Dove  1
Black-billed Cuckoo  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  10
Merlin  1
Peregrine Falcon  1
Eastern Phoebe  3
Blue-headed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  3
Tree Swallow  100
Carolina Chickadee  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch  5
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Brown Creeper  2
Carolina Wren  2
Golden-crowned Kinglet  10
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
American Robin  2    f/o
Gray Catbird  4
Northern Mockingbird  3
Brown Thrasher  1    Heard, Reed's Road parking lot
Cedar Waxwing  1
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  2
Eastern Towhee  2    Heard
Chipping Sparrow  1    Dunes, parking lot #1
Song Sparrow  3    Parking lot #1
White-throated Sparrow  2    Reed's Road
White-crowned Sparrow  1   Immature, Parking lot #1
Northern Cardinal  1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1
Red-winged Blackbird  2    f/o
Pine Siskin  12    f/o
American Goldfinch  2    Heard flying over.