Whitesbog 4/11--Rusty Blackbird

Rusty Blackbird flying away.

I took a walk at Whitesbog today, mostly because I like walking there, it being almost devoid of human distractions if you go back far enough. I was kind of hoping for some new birds, but I wasn't very optimistic about it, especially after meeting my Local Informant (who walks there for the same reasons I do) who hadn't had any new arrivals lately. 

I walked my route along the Upper Reservoir, which was empty of waterfowl and was making my way back to the car, thinking that the abandoned blueberry field, now flooded, often has flycatchers and sometimes I see thrashers on the road. I had ceased brooding about my fruitless attempts to find a certain icterid, both here and out in New Egypt. Just as I turned off the cross dike and started down the trail, I practically stepped on a Rusty Blackbird, my winter nemesis bird, passerine division.  It was just sitting on a bed of pine needles, not moving, glossy black (breeding plumage), yellow eye. I took out my camera and didn't bother zooming, just took a chance shot. When I looked up, the bird was gone. It wasn't until I got home and looked at my photos that I realized I had managed a picture of the bird fleeing down the path and probably into the blueberry bog. 

That was the 150th bird of my year. 

It wasn't an unproductive walk, totaling 20 species. 

Canada Goose 4
Mallard 6
Ring-necked Duck 4
Great Blue Heron 2
Mourning Dove 1
Northern Flicker 2
Eastern Phoebe 1
American Crow 1
Fish Crow 1
Tree Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
American Robin 1
Pine Warbler 6
Dark-eyed Junco 1
Red-winged Blackbird 15
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Rusty Blackbird 1
American Goldfinch 3

However, the more interesting birds were in Burlington County, both the Whitesbog section where I had a kestrel and 3 Pied-billed Grebes, and later at Reeves Bogs, which I have only lightly explored before. I walk around the big bog there yielded Great Egret, Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeer, a displaying Tom turkey, and a hunting Northern Harrier. 

American Kestrel, Whitesbog

Greater Yellowlegs, Reeve's Bogs

Wild Turkey, Reeve's Bogs