Reeves Bogs 4/19--One Thoroughly Silly Sighting, One Local Rarity

Mute Swan, a county first

Having run up my Ocean County list to a respectable number for this point in the year, I decided to see what I could do with my Burlington County list this morning. I started out at Whitesbog, which, like Double Trouble yesterday, was inundated with Yellow-rumped Warblers. They're very attractive in their breeding plumage--it's hard to believe it's the same species as the drab yellow-flanked birds we see in the winter--but after the first 20 or so, they get to be just "yet another." But the circuit around Union Pond was successful for adding birds to the county list--five--including the first Common Yellowthroat I've seen this year and Palm Warblers to beat the band.

Instead of walking over into Ocean County, as I usually do, I drove west over to Reeves Bogs. Since I don't know those bogs very well, I wanted to make an exploratory walk. I wish I had a map of which dikes are breached--instead I did the trial and error and retrace my steps method. I wasn't too afraid of getting lost since in all that flat expanse I was able to keep my car in sight almost all the time.

Last week my local informant had told me of couple of Mute Swans he'd seen there but I missed them that time. Today, as soon as I pulled into the dirt lot, I saw two big swans about mid-way back in the bog. Big deal, except if you play the silly "County Birding" game with yourself. Mute Swans are not that common in Burlco--there are a few lakes in the western part of the county where I've seen them listed, but these two were my county firsts! Since I bird mainly to amuse myself, those two "Pond Pigs" amused, and pleased me no end.

More interesting was the small white egret (I thought) at the eastern end of the bog. I noted it as a Snowy Egret, but when I finally got around to that side, I saw that its bill was gray, there was blue mottling on the edge of the wings and back, and, when it flew, it had no yellow slippers. It also hunted like a heron, staying still and jabbing, instead of dancing around the way a Snowy will. All this added up to a first spring Little Blue Heron, a rare bird for the county. Naturally, I had no camera, having left the battery in the charger at home--I took some photos with my iPhone and since the photo of the swan above is bad enough, I won't torture your eyes with the abysmal photos I took of that bird. We usually spend a lot of time going through the Snowy Egrets at Whitesbog in August, looking for this outlier.

That sighting, plus the three American Kestrels I saw hunting, made me resolve to spend more time at this underbirded location. The swans and heron (obviously) were new year birds for the county, as were a couple of Green-winged Teal and three Savannah Sparrows that I flushed from the high grass in three spots.

In all, I added 9 species to my Burlco list which will put me in the top 20 of the county which will probably last for 20 minutes.
The Reeves list:
18 species (+1 other taxa)
Canada Goose 40 goslings
Mute Swan 2
Wood Duck 12
Mallard 10
Green-winged Teal 2 two hens
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Little Blue Heron 1
Northern Harrier 1
gull sp. 25 Flyover
American Kestrel 3
Fish Crow 1
Carolina Chickadee 2 Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1 Heard
Pine Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Savannah Sparrow 3
Red-winged Blackbird 15