Manasquan River WMA 5/7--Black-billed Cuckoo, Nashville Warbler, Blue-winged Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler
Photo: Steven Weiss

Once again, my hearing became a little issue today. After 30 odd years in the printing business, I'm not surprised, and it has never bothered me, that there are birds I can't hear like Blackpoll Warbler, or, unless they're right on top of me, Cedar Waxwing. I don't particularly enjoy "birding by ear" anyway. I use it as a tool to tell me what birds are around. Some birds that I see a lot but for only short periods in the spring, Black-throated Blue as an example, I couldn't tell you what their songs are--I never bothered to learn them. But I do know the song of the Blue-winged Warbler, and I did go to Manasquan River WMA early this morning specifically to find them, so when I ran into my friend B in the back field and she told she'd heard a lot of them back in the parking lot, I was disturbed. I know there is a "gap" in my hearing. When I had my hearing tested years back, the audiologist said, "You can't hear in noisy restaurants, can you?" which is true. Apparently, a lot of background noise cancels out a part of my hearing range. But I never applied the concept to a lot of bird song in a parking lot, which there was this morning. That explains why I'm not one to stand in one place where there is a lot of bird chatter and i.d. birds by ear. I can do it one at a time, walking along a trail, but not when everyone is talking at once.

I found a few interesting warblers wandering around the fields and exploring some paths that I had a vague notion of where they might lead--Nashville Warbler was FOY, Magnolia Warbler was a county bird, American Redstart is always a happy find--but it wasn't until I met up with Steve that the birding got more productive, even if I did miss both his Northern Waterthrush and Chestnut-sided Warbler. First, on the trail back to the parking lot we both heard in the distance the soft "cu cu cu cu" of a Black-billed Cuckoo. That was one of the birds B was shopping for, but by the time she got my text and got to the location the bird had stopped calling. Steve and I turned into the field where we thought the cuckoo might be but had no luck turning it up. By this time it was around 10 o'clock and things had quieted down, literally and figuratively. On the way back, in the relative peace of the late morning, I heard the buzzy song of the Blue-winged Warbler. At least I was fairly certain it was the blue-wing song. I was about to play it on my phone when Steve confirmed it by actually finding the bird, high up in a tree. I got a distant shot of it; his was a little better. Back on the main path to the parking lot I started hearing them "all over" as B had said they were. We found another, even higher in a tree. But I only need one.

I think the audio problem has a large psychological component--because of the "gap" I find undifferentiated noise annoying and tend to avoid it so when I hear a cacophony of various birds singing, my impulse is to get to another place where the birding is more "sequential" so to speak.

Some other birds along the way (click image to enlarge):

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Towhee
Look at that red eye!

Field Sparrow

For the amount of time I spent there, even allowing for conversation, I feel like I should have found more birds. Here's the list:
46 species
Canada Goose 2 Heard
Black Vulture 3
Turkey Vulture 1
Mourning Dove 2
Black-billed Cuckoo 1 Heard
Red-bellied Woodpecker 5 Heard
Downy Woodpecker 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 5 Heard
Eastern Kingbird 1
White-eyed Vireo 5
Red-eyed Vireo 4
Blue Jay 8
American Crow 1 Heard
Fish Crow 1
Tree Swallow 4 nest boxes
Barn Swallow 2
Carolina Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Heard
House Wren 2 Heard
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 1 Back field
Wood Thrush 1 Heard
American Robin 20
Gray Catbird 6
Ovenbird 10
Blue-winged Warbler 3
Black-and-white Warbler 4
Nashville Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 8
American Redstart 1 Small trail behind back field
Northern Parula 2 Heard
Magnolia Warbler 1 First field
Yellow Warbler 1 Heard
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 4
Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Field Sparrow 10 Conservative count
White-throated Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 2
Eastern Towhee 8 Very conservative count
Northern Cardinal 4
Blue Grosbeak 2 Back field
Brown-headed Cowbird 1 Back field
American Goldfinch 2