Manahawkin WMA 11/15--Ring-necked Pheasant, New But Not Countable

It gets hard in the cold months to find a place to walk in the woods or fields--the parks are full of dog walkers and the WMAs resound with gunfire. I wear orange from October to March. Colliers Mills on a weekday is the "Wild West" as a hunter at Manahawkin WMA told me today. I know that and won't walk there most of the fall and winter. Manahawkin seemed like a good alternative--it has impoundments as well as fields and woods. I didn't think it was heavily hunted, but I was mistaken.

When I saw 2 Ring-necked Pheasants (a male and a hen) on the side of Stafford Avenue, just before the trail into the WMA, I knew they weren't countable for my eBird list but they are beautiful and, if you're in a car, very approachable. As I drove along slowly they paid me no heed and I could take pictures practically leaning out the car window. As soon as I got out of the car, off they both flew.

I ran into a couple of hunters, one on the dike between impoundments and one with a dog at the entrance on Hilliard Avenue. They were both friendly and didn't care that I was birding. Neither was having much luck. One told me that pheasants are stocked there Tuesdays and Thursdays and he avoids the place then because there is too much shooting! I was surprised that the state continuously stocked the woods with fresh birds. I thought they dumped a flock of birds at one time and let the hunters have at it over the course the season.

I wasn't have much luck myself. The impoundments didn't have many ducks or other waterfowl and while there were flurries of birds in a couple of spots, there were long stretches where I didn't even hear a chip note. I did flush a hen and heard a male calling very close to me but invisible in the thick brush.

A few years ago, in the back impoundment, there was a Black-necked Stilt, so I, superstitiously, think of that water as a rarity site. Today, the rarest birds in there were Greater Yellowlegs.

I stopped at one point on Stafford where there are some dead trees, remembering that Mike & Pete & I have seen Red-tailed Hawk in the vicinity. And sure enough, as I was scanning, there was a hawk, right where they like to be.

After walking back out the way I came (there is probably a loop I can make, but I worry about getting lost there), I did a little survey of The Bridge to Nowhere (which is contiguous with Manahawkin). Aside from some Great Blue Herons, a cormorant incongruously sitting atop a utility pole, and about 200 Boat-tailed Grackles, there wasn't anything worth noting.
The little list from Manahawkin:
17 species
Mute Swan 5
Mallard 8
Green-winged Teal 25
Great Blue Heron 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Greater Yellowlegs 8
Ring-billed Gull 2
Herring Gull 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Heard
Blue Jay 2 Heard
Carolina Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 1 Heard
Eastern Bluebird 4
American Robin 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
White-throated Sparrow 2 Heard