Brig 8/19--Bobolink

Ideally, I would have seen a Bobolink by now in breeding plumage, looking like it's wearing a backwards tuxedo, but despite much searching through the spring and early summer, I didn't come up with one. Brig, in late summer, is a good place to hear Bobolinks as they migrate overhead. They go "plink." "Plink" is not very satisfying.

I went down to Brig with Mike today for his NJ Audubon trip, giving myself a break from Whitesbog for a day. We had a fabulous day on the dikes, with 19 shorebirds, including the continuing Wilson's Phalarope (rare), 3 Marbled Godwits, a couple of Long-billed Dowitchers, and some shorebirds that are dwindling in numbers this time of year, Whimbrel and Willet. Bob Auster met us there; he still needed the phalarope, which has been pretty constant between goose markers 4 & 5, a distance of maybe an 1/8 of a mile. Our 3 car caravan parked around #4 and Bob and I walked up to #5 where we saw a small congregation of birders--we felt sure the phalarope would be there. It wasn't. Supposedly it had flown back toward where we started. Bob headed back, but I stuck around, counting Stilt Sandpipers which were in ridiculous, eBird flagging numbers. I quit after about 30; the birder next me quit around 62. Then a great birder we know, who was also there called out that he had a Bobolink on the phragmites. No way to describe where it was in that undifferentiated mass of vegetation but he took pity on me and since he is a lot taller than I am, he kindly lowered his scope and I got a good look at the bird, which though it had molted into basic plumage and looked like a big buffy sparrow, was still better to see than to hear "plink." Unfortunately, Mike, who also "needed" the bird, was an 1/8 of a mile back. The bird flew and disappeared.

Then the phalarope reappeared in front of us and I called Bob to get him back up the drive. Bobolinks are practically a backyard bird for Bob so he was amused and amazed that it had taken me this long to find one this year. Yeah, yeah, you wanna see this phalarope or not?

Earlier, before the trip started, Mike and I had 3 Black Terns (a quantity that was also flagged on eBird) at the Gull Pond. The rest of our group missed them, but on the 2nd trip around, back on the south dike, we came across a nice flock of gulls and terns in which there was one Black Tern. The best landmark for the Black Tern was another bird--"the largest tern in the world," as all trip leaders are required to say, a Caspian Tern. The size disparity is striking:

Caspian Tern in back, Black Tern middle, flanked by Stilt Sandpipers, with Black Skimmers in foreground. 

I had 85 species for the day (the trip list was 90) and that was with missing some supposedly easy birds like robin, towhee, oystercatcher, and Red-tailed Hawk.
Snow Goose 2 Continuing injured one w broken right wing the other w broken left wing
Canada Goose 15
Mute Swan 5
Wood Duck 6
Blue-winged Teal 12
Mallard 4
American Black Duck 8
Northern Pintail 2 Smaller, scalloped back, brown head, black bill
Hooded Merganser 1 Small duck with sawtooth bill. All gray. Hen Continuing?
Pied-billed Grebe 1 Gull Pond
Double-crested Cormorant 65
Great Blue Heron 5
Great Egret 35
Snowy Egret 15
Green Heron 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron 7
Glossy Ibis 25
Turkey Vulture 2
Osprey 10
Bald Eagle 1 In tree line at end of drive before Jen's Trail
Clapper Rail 1 Heard
Black-bellied Plover 3
Semipalmated Plover 50
Killdeer 1
Whimbrel 1
Marbled Godwit 3
Stilt Sandpiper 40 Undercount probably by half
Dunlin 1
Least Sandpiper 1
White-rumped Sandpiper 1
Pectoral Sandpiper 2
Semipalmated Sandpiper 300
Western Sandpiper 2
Short-billed Dowitcher 65
Long-billed Dowitcher 2 Two very humpy birds, long straight bills,barring up to vent.
Wilson's Phalarope 1 Continuing @ goose marker 5
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Greater Yellowlegs 25
Willet 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 15
Laughing Gull 175
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 5
Least Tern 6
Caspian Tern 7 one on south dike, balance off north dike
Black Tern 3 Exact count
Common Tern 5 At NE corner
Forster's Tern 40
Black Skimmer 35
Mourning Dove 3
Chimney Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Peregrine Falcon 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1 Heard
Eastern Phoebe 1
Eastern Kingbird 3
White-eyed Vireo 1 Heard
Red-eyed Vireo 1 Heard
Blue Jay 1 Heard
American Crow 2
Fish Crow 1
Purple Martin 1
Tree Swallow 500
Carolina Chickadee 3
Tufted Titmouse 1 Heard
Carolina Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2
Gray Catbird 1 Heard
European Starling 20
Common Yellowthroat 1 Heard
American Redstart 1
Pine Warbler 1
Song Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 1
Blue Grosbeak 4 Juveniles: one in parking lot, one upland, 2 just before start of Drive
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 6
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Boat-tailed Grackle 2
American Goldfinch 2