Double Trouble SP 4/18--Spotted Sandpiper

The spillway at Double Trouble

I went over to Double Trouble again because it's close and because not getting the Yellow-throated Warbler was annoying me. The annoyance cleared up as soon as I got out of the car. I immediately heard the warbler's song (yay ear birding) and after giving myself an incipient case of warbler neck staring up into the tall pines, I found the little guy. A beautiful bird and worth the looking. Much too high for pictures.

 I almost decided to turn around and go over to the cranberry bogs in South Toms River, but instead I walked around, hoping to find the waterthrush from yesterday. Didn't find it (though another birder did later that morning) but there was enough around to keep me interested like the two squeaking Wood Ducks at the reservoir and the ever present eagle atop of the power line towers.

At the spillway of the reservoir which pours into Cedar Creek I was thinking that I had seen two species of cool birds there in the past--one was the Louisiana Waterthrush, a bird that is supposed to prefer and fast moving water and the other was Spotted Sandpiper. And as so often happens, the thought precedes the event by only seconds (or perhaps it is vice versa) because just then a Spotted Sandpiper flew from the edge of the dam, stood, bobbing its tail at the far end of the spillway and then flew off. Before it had even landed I knew what it was--one of the few birds I can identify in flight, since its wings do not rise above the horizontal. It looks like a hard way to fly and it is hard to imagine how they migrate such long distances when their wing stroke is so short. I was mildly surprised to find that Spotted Sandpiper is still considered "rare" this time of year. Probably tomorrow it will be in the "likely" category.

White-throated Sparrows were abundant. I don't have a real good feel for when they should be moving out of here, but it seems like they're very comfortable here. Why are they singing if they don't nest here?

I had 26 species and didn't venture out onto the back bogs by Parkway Access Road (which has no access to the parkway).

Northern Cardinal above sawmill

Canada Goose 6
Wood Duck 2
Mallard 1 Stream
Bald Eagle 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 3
Eastern Phoebe 1 Heard
Blue Jay 1 Heard
Fish Crow 4
Carolina Chickadee 7
Tufted Titmouse 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
American Robin 3
Black-and-white Warbler 3
Common Yellowthroat 1 Heard behind sawmill
Pine Warbler 2 Heard
Yellow-throated Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 4 with the many WTSP
White-throated Sparrow 21
Eastern Towhee 7
Northern Cardinal 4 Males singing loudly
Red-winged Blackbird 2 Village and bogs behind packing house
American Goldfinch 1