Brig | Backyard 4/27--Red Knot, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Gull-billed Tern, Least Bittern, Yellow-throated Vireo

Gull-billed Terns

It is always a pleasant surprise to "get" a bird you're really not expecting to "get." I stopped at the entrance ponds at Brig, knowing that Least Bitterns had been heard there the last week or so, but I didn't think I'd be lucky enough to hear them, especially since it was well after dawn when I arrived. But, immediately upon getting out of the car, I heard the soft "coo coo coo" of the bittern calling from the reeds. There may have been two because later I heard another bittern from the other pond when I was walking the road, but I'm interested in quality, not quantity. 

Of course, hearing a bird isn't nearly as satisfying as seeing one, and I wouldn't make a special trip to hear one which is why I haven't got to the left hand side of the middle of nowhere down in Cumberland County to hear a couple of Yellow Rails go "tic tic tic" even though they'd be lifers, or why I haven't been able to get interested in going to Higbee in Cape May to hear a Swainson's Warbler sing, again, even though it would be a lifer. Reward doesn't equal effort in either case. 

But today, hearing the bittern(s), was already a success. By the time I got out onto the drive, after taking my long walk up to the Overlook from the Gull Pond, with a detour to Goose Marker 4, I already had well over 50 species on my list, though only the bittern(s) were new. 

Semipalmated Sandpiper

But soon the year birds started showing up. In with the yellowlegs was one peep (the water seemed very high for shorebirds today) and while I would have liked it to be a Western Sandpiper, I let it go as Semipalmated Sandpiper, the more likely bird. But still the first one of the year. In among a flock of Laughing Gulls were two Gull-billed Terns, so it pays to stop and look at all the flocks because there may be something blending in with what you think you're seeing .

Nothing else new seemed like it was going to show up by the time I got Jen's Trail, so I was just looking to build up the list at that point. But, while talking to a couple of other birders on the trail, one asked me if I had seen the Red Knots. No, I missed them. Well, they were just before the end of the marsh about quarter mile back from Jen's. I couldn't drive back and I wasn't going to do a second loop, but I could walk back. I did, saw a group of shorebirds and knew I needed my scope. So I walked back to the car at the other end of Jen's about a half a mile, got the scope, walked back, saw 3 or 4 Red Knots mixed in with Black-bellied Plovers, was happy, then walked back to the car. So in all, I walked about a mile and a quarter for those knots. So, it shows I will make an effort to see a bird. 

I got home late afternoon and sat out on the patio with Shari drinking a glass of wine, watching the hen turkey casually browse the seeds beneath the feeder, noting the late Pine Siskin picking out sunflower chips, and finally seeing our first backyard hummingbird, when I noticed a call coming from the woods that I'd never heard before in the almost decade that we've been here. I asked Shari if that call sounded like "Threee eight" to her. It did. 10 or 15 times we heard "Threee eight" before it drifted farther out into the woods. And that was our first backyard Yellow-throated Vireo, not to mention the fifth year bird of the day. Very satisfying end to the day. 

My list for a long day at Brig:

72 species

Brant  150

Canada Goose  100

Mute Swan  8

Blue-winged Teal  4

Northern Shoveler  2

Gadwall  2

Mallard  5

American Black Duck  15

Green-winged Teal  20

Bufflehead  2     Gull Pond

Mourning Dove  3

Clapper Rail  2     Heard

American Oystercatcher  2

Black-bellied Plover  25

Whimbrel  75

Red Knot  3     North dike to north w BBPL PROBABLY more very distant

Dunlin  100

Semipalmated Sandpiper  1    

Short-billed Dowitcher  5

Wilson's Snipe  2     Gull Pond

Greater Yellowlegs  20

Willet  6

Lesser Yellowlegs  5

Laughing Gull  35

Ring-billed Gull  5

Herring Gull  50

Great Black-backed Gull  2

Gull-billed Tern  4

Caspian Tern  4

Forster's Tern  75

Double-crested Cormorant  250

American White Pelican  1     Gigantic white bird with huge orange bill at the dogleg.

Least Bittern  1     A soft coo coo coo at entrance pond

Great Blue Heron  2

Great Egret  35

Snowy Egret  40

Glossy Ibis  50

Black Vulture  1

Turkey Vulture  15

Osprey  12

Bald Eagle  1

Red-tailed Hawk  1

Red-bellied Woodpecker  1     Heard

White-eyed Vireo  4     Heard

Blue Jay  3

American Crow  8

Fish Crow  25

Carolina Chickadee  6

Tufted Titmouse  2     Heard

Purple Martin  20

Tree Swallow  15

Barn Swallow  3

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  1

Marsh Wren  1     Heard

Carolina Wren  2     Heard

American Robin  9

House Finch  3

American Goldfinch  4

Chipping Sparrow  3

Field Sparrow  4     Heard

Seaside Sparrow  1     Heard

Savannah Sparrow  2

Song Sparrow  1     Heard

Swamp Sparrow  1

Eastern Towhee  4

Red-winged Blackbird  100

Common Grackle  2

Common Yellowthroat  25

Yellow Warbler  1     Heard

Pine Warbler  2

Prairie Warbler  1

Northern Cardinal  5