Sandy Hook 9/15--Connecticut Warbler

I was up at Sandy Hook this morning for one of Scott's "Half Day Friday" trips, but I arrived about an hour earlier so that I could look around the dense thicket that once held Fort Hancock's tennis courts. It's a good warbler spot, but looking for warblers in a large group in a small area can be frustrating. I ran into a couple of friends and we plunged into the vegetation. Specifically, I wanted to find a Connecticut Warbler, a big warbler that skulks on the ground and is notoriously difficult to find (and is often confused with more common warblers like yellowthroats) and for which there is a brief window of about a month in New Jersey to see one. The tennis courts have been hosting one for about a week. One of my pals found the bird, deep in the brush, but I couldn't get on it as it moved mouse-like beneath the leaves. Then the bird flew. I saw its silhouette. I can't count a silhouette.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

With a sigh I gave up and drove down to Guardian Park to start the walk. There weren't nearly as many warblers this time as we walked on the bike path and the Road to Nowhere as compared to Saturday (winds? migration tailing off already?) but we did come across a couple of Yellow-billed Cuckoos, which, with the one I saw at the tennis courts probably broke my personal record for most cuckoos seen in one day.

A walk along the boardwalk at Horseshoe Cove delivered my FOS Ruby-crowned Kinglet. We met another birder on the path who reported that he'd seen the CONWA at the courts so Scott decided we should look up there despite the odds being slim. Fifteen or sixteen people started thrashing through the mugwort (and I found out, poison ivy), hunting for the bird. Miraculously someone saw it through the ruins of the hurricane fence that once surround a court. The group dispersed around the area and more and more calls of "There it is" came from various directions. Even more miraculously, I saw the bird. It was very active, walking through the leaf litter, hopping up on low branches, disappearing, reappearing. But I think everyone in the group eventually saw the bird and for at least two people it was a lifer plus someone managed to get a decent photo of it under the low light conditions. I wish I had the photo to show you. For me, it was a three tick bird: Year, County, State. I've seen them in NY a few times, but until today, they've eluded me in Jersey. (Now, if only one would show up in Ocean County).

By this time it was around noon and it was a full half day, but we made one more stop, at Spermaceti Cove at the southern end of the Hook. An American Golden-Plover had been seen there according to one of our informants. We all reconvened at the viewing platform and it didn't long to find the plover. As Scott says, they're probably not really that rare this time of year (Hell, it's the 2nd one I've seen this week), but eBird keeps it as a rarity since it is very easy to call a Black-bellied Plover a Golden. There are enough misidentifications on eBird as it is.

For the day I finished with exactly 40 species; Eastern Kingbird sitting on the wires across the road from the parking lot was the last bird of the day. It's getting late for this species, so any kingbird immediately becomes "interesting" this time of year.

Canada Goose 25
Double-crested Cormorant 9
Great Blue Heron 2 Spermaceti Cove
Great Egret 1 Spermaceti Cove
Snowy Egret 1 Spermaceti Cove
Osprey 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
American Oystercatcher 7 Spermaceti Cove
Black-bellied Plover 11
American Golden-Plover 1 Hint of cap, smaller bill than Black-bellied Plover.
Laughing Gull 15
Herring Gull 10
Great Black-backed Gull 1 Guardian Park
Royal Tern 1 Spermaceti Cove
Mourning Dove 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 3 One at Tennis Courts, two along bike path
Hairy Woodpecker 1 Heard
Northern Flicker 1 Heard
Peregrine Falcon 1
Eastern Phoebe 4 Heard
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 1
White-eyed Vireo 5
Red-eyed Vireo 1
American Crow 2 Heard
House Wren 1
Carolina Wren 2 Heard
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Horseshoe Cove. FOS
American Robin 4
Gray Catbird 20
European Starling 15
Cedar Waxwing 20
Northern Waterthrush 1 Tennis Court
Connecticut Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 4
American Redstart 2 Tennis Court. One male, one yellowstart.
Blackpoll Warbler 1 Horseshoe Cove
Eastern Towhee 1
Red-winged Blackbird 2
American Goldfinch 2