Whitesbog 3/5--Tree Swallow

Tundra Swans,  Union Pond

Last week, there was a big migration of Tundra Swans in northern New Jersey. Lakes up there were getting unprecedented numbers of these birds. Here in south Jersey, they're not a big deal, especially at Tundra Swan Central otherwise known as Whitesbog. I went out there last week to see if more birds than usual were there (a flock of about 70 has been steady all winter) and instead, I found nary a swan. Could they have all joined in the migration? It would have been a very early departure for them; they usually stick through March.

I couldn't believe they had all left, so today I drove out there again. The roads at Whitesbog are not for the faint of heart--torn up by excavators and dump trucks, eroded by rain and snow. Fortunately, I do most of my exploring there on foot. I did drive along Union Pond (after making a detour to avoid a puddle in the road that was ready to be named as a new pond) and found 54 Tundra Swans on the water. That number seemed about right and, as John Astin used to say on "Night Court," "I'm feeling much better now."

My original intention was to park the car on the breached dike between the middle and upper bogs and walk around the Ocean County section, but changed my plan when I saw through my binoculars, little birds flying fast in the back of Union Pond. I didn't know what they were, but they looked interesting. I'd like to say that they were a harbinger of spring as they turned out to be a small flock of Tree Swallows, but Tree Swallows are scattered around the state all winter--they, like Yellow-rumped Warblers can live on certain berries instead of insects in the cold months--I just hadn't seen any until today. Now a Barn Swallow, or a Purple Martin...that will be a welcome sign of warmer months. I would have liked to have the swallows about a 1/4 mile down the road over the line in Ocean County, but I'm pretty certain I'll get them as county birds this year. I'm having my doubts about some other birds though...I haven't been able to buy an American Woodcock so far, after going to the place I've always seen them 4 times already this year.

As I was watching the swallows and fruitlessly trying to get a photo of one zipping by, I ran into a friend of mine there who knows every path and road in Whitesbog. I asked him about the breached bog in the back on the Ocean County side near the Upper Reservoir. It wasn't a deliberate act as I had thought--the construction equipment I had seen was repairing the original breach, which was a catastrophic failure of an ancient, forgotten wooden sluice gate buried beneath the road that finally rotted away, which collapsed the road and pour something like 78 million gallons of water out of the Upper Reservoir, and then, domino-like, burst other gates, draining Otter Pond and turning some of the abandoned bogs back by Fort Dix into mere streams. Otter Pond is huge; it's hard to imagine it drained. I was tempted to walk back there, but my friend took one look at my shoes and said the water had spread so much back there that I would need much higher boots. Too bad, because he says it has turned into pretty good shorebird habitat. He had a Greater Yellowlegs back there and they are never at Whitesbog before summer.

I did walk around the Ocean County side, checking out the Upper Reservoir where I was delighted to find 82 Tundra Swans feeding on it. Interestingly, when I got back to my car in the early afternoon, the 50 swans that had been on Union Pond were gone. I don't think they were part of the flock on the Upper Reservoir because even I would notice 50 big birds flying east overhead.

Tundra Swans on the Upper Reservoir