Island Beach SP | Collinstown Rd 5/2--Semipalmated Sandpiper, Chuck-Will's-Widow, Great Crested Flycatcher, Veery, Red-breasted Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, Baltimore Oriole

Baltimore Oriole, Island Beach SP

I kept reading the last couple of days that the winds were propitious for a wave of migration today. I never pay much attention to wind (other than when it's blowing in my face) because I can never figure it out, but others who have acquired the art of reading radar screens and gauging wind direction were pounding the table on my email lists last night to get out and bird. So I went to Reed's Road on Island Beach first thing. Migrant trap.

I was thinking warblers.

Veery, Island Beach SP

As I was getting my gear together in the parking lot, I had the good fortune to have my friend Al park beside me, so we teamed up to bird the road. We did see warblers, including a surprising number of Prairie Warblers (I don't think of Reed's Road as Prairie Warbler hot spot), but there was nothing new there. The first new bird, for me at least, was a Veery in a rut in the path. This was doubly exciting for me because it was a new bird and it was a new bird I very rarely get to see. I usually hear Veerys, particularly at Double Trouble (where it always gets flagged since they're not thought to breed here), and as much as I love the Veery's Theremin-like song, I'm a birdwatcher at heart, so seeing one is a treat.

Reed's Road, according to Google Maps, is only about 3/8 of a mile long, so we turned north and walk along the bay a bit until we got to the "bowl," a grove of oak and pine trees that attracts birds. Just outside the bowl, Al spotted a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. I got a good look at it, but it was too far with too many intervening branches to even attempt a photo. Walking the overgrown path into the bowl we spotted an orange bird, then another, then more, until we realized we were looking at a flock of Baltimore Orioles, at least a dozen. I've never seen that many orioles at one time. They too were tucked into budding trees, but I did manage one doc shot. Later, in the same area where we saw the Baltimores, Al pointed out a yellow bird with a black throat--a first summer Orchard Oriole. Walking back on Reed's we heard a loud "Weep weep!" "I know that sound," I said, but I couldn't bring the bird up into memory. It sounds like the alarm on an emergency door. After a few moments, Al said, "Great Crested Flycatcher?" and of course, that was it. I'll see one soon enough; the call is distinctive enough for a satisfying tick.

We drove down to Spizzle Creek, where the path to blind is still almost impassable. We had more shorebirds than I usually see there--Spotted Sandpiper, a Dunlin in breeding plumage, Black-bellied Plovers, a few unidentifiable peeps, and, new for the year, a small number of Semipalmated Sandpipers. What was notable about Spizzle was what we didn't see, or hardly saw, and that was egrets and herons. Only a few Snowy Egrets, one Great Blue Heron, and, after looking hard, one Great Egret.

Al had to go after that; I walked the beach for a stretch and saw virtually nothing, then did the little trail across from one of the parking lots, and while it was more active than I expected, it had nothing new. Still, I came away with 6 year birds and 60+ species.

Brant  30

Canada Goose  12

Mute Swan  9

Mallard  4

Red-breasted Merganser  2

Double-crested Cormorant  31

Great Blue Heron  1

Great Egret  1

Snowy Egret  3

Green Heron  1

Glossy Ibis  16

Turkey Vulture  3

Osprey  11

Cooper's Hawk  1

Black-bellied Plover  4

Dunlin  1

Semipalmated Sandpiper  6

Spotted Sandpiper  1

Willet  6

Laughing Gull  1

Herring Gull  41

Great Black-backed Gull  5

Forster's Tern  12

Mourning Dove  2

Belted Kingfisher  1

Eastern Phoebe  1

Great Crested Flycatcher  1

Eastern Kingbird  1

White-eyed Vireo  2

Blue-headed Vireo  3

Blue Jay  2

American Crow  2

Fish Crow  4

Barn Swallow  2

Carolina Chickadee  5

Marsh Wren  2

Carolina Wren  4

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2

Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1

Veery  1

Hermit Thrush  2

American Robin  6

Gray Catbird  47

Brown Thrasher  2

Ovenbird  1

Black-and-white Warbler  5

Common Yellowthroat  10

American Redstart  2

Northern Parula  2

Yellow Warbler  10

Yellow-rumped Warbler  6

Prairie Warbler  4

Seaside Sparrow  1

Chipping Sparrow  1

White-throated Sparrow  4

Song Sparrow  2

Eastern Towhee  27

Northern Cardinal  1

Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1

Orchard Oriole  1

Baltimore Oriole  12

Red-winged Blackbird  16

Boat-tailed Grackle  3

House Finch  4

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Shari & I have a little tradition: Every year around this time, we take a drive down to Collinstown Road in Barnegat and listen for Chuck-Will's-Widow. We found this location a few years ago out of necessity when our late friend Joan couldn't hear the chucks on nearby Bay Avenue because of the traffic noise. So we drove around the area until we found this isolated spot, which is actually another of the tucked-away sections of Forsythe NWR. This is also the spot where I brought Bob Auster, who up until then wouldn't count a bird unless he saw it (forcing me one night to flush our whip-poor-will out of a cherry tree with a flash light) over to what he called "the dark side," i.e., counting birds by ear. And, of course, he's a great ear birder.

Anyway, after a nice dinner in Forked River, we drove down to our spot and before it was even really dark we hear at least two chucks in the woods. One was distant, the other had a lot of reverb. After about 10 minutes, one came in closer and sang its name for us loud and clear.