High Point SP 6/17--Canada Warbler

It's a long drive to High Point SP to hear and (sorta) see one bird, but my trip up there with Mike (who, happily, doesn't mind a long drive) had other compensations. We did two loops around Cedar Swamp in the Kuser Natural Area at High Point, hoping we might hear, or perhaps flush, a grouse, or failing that (spoiler alert: we failed) get a couple of warblers on the year list. In that we were somewhat successful.

At the start of the trail we ran into a birder we know and she showed us where Canada Warbler was often heard. We'd just passed that spot and saw an unidentified bird that flew too fast and too far back. She heard the bird and pointed out it's sputtering little song--if it sounds like anything it sounds like someone giving you the raspberries. I heard it clearly enough but when it showed itself, briefly, I never got on it. On our 2nd loop, I did manage to see a flash of the bird as it jumped up off a branch and then down into the underbrush. Not the most satisfying listing, but that's warblers!

Warblers we were able to get good looks at were redstarts, Ovenbirds, Black-and-white Warblers, Northern Waterthrush and a single Black-throated Blue Warbler that posed high on a branch in the greenish-cast light of the woods.

But the real highlight of our trip was bird watching. The great thing about northern NJ is that you can see a lot of nesting birds. We saw a female redstart on the ground, which we thought unusual until Mike took a photo that showed her picking up a long stem for her nest and then we saw a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (which are long gone from our part of the state) visiting her nest and heard her cheeping chicks inside the hollowed out tree.

But the best was a Veery on a nest, something neither of us had ever witnessed.

I told Mike that perhaps it was anthropomorphizing, but there is something about a thrush or warbler sitting on its nest that makes them seem vulnerable and fragile. Perhaps it is because it is both incubating and protecting its eggs at the same time and it seems like a lot to ask of a little bird.

I came away with 27 species. I also broke the record for insect repellent, employing 4 kinds: Permethrin, Off spray, Off wipes, and Ultrathon lotion, all of which worked fine except for the flies bouncing off my eyeballs. Something to be said for wearing glasses.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 3
Great Crested Flycatcher 1 Heard
Yellow-throated Vireo 1 Heard
Red-eyed Vireo 15
Blue Jay 2
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Heard
Veery 5
Wood Thrush 1 Heard
Gray Catbird 1 Heard
Ovenbird 15
Northern Waterthrush 2
Black-and-white Warbler 5
Hooded Warbler 1 Heard
American Redstart 6
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 Singing
Prairie Warbler 2 Heard
Canada Warbler 1 Heard, saw shape fly
Chipping Sparrow 3
Eastern Towhee 2 Heard
Scarlet Tanager 2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 toward end of loop
Brown-headed Cowbird 3 two in parking area, one on trail