September Wrap-up--Migration Edition

Buff-breasted Sandpiper with Semipalmated Plover, Big Tank, Whitesbog OC side

September was certainly a more wide-ranging month for me than August. While I continued visiting Whitesbog fairly regularly, I expanded my searches to the shore (Sandy Hook, IBSP, Brig, Great Bay Blvd) and the Delaware River (Palmyra in the south and Pennsylvania, where we attended a hippie/hick wedding overlooking the river, to the north). 

September is migration month. The shorebird migration that started in August continued at a decent pace through the first two weeks of September--Baird's Sandpiper being the standout at Whitesbog, along with Long-billed Dowitcher, Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Big Tank on the OC side, county lifer) and American Golden-Plover. The warblers started showing up at IBSP and Sandy Hook, and I got a "second chance" on at least one bird that I missed in spring, Cape May Warbler. Connecticut Warbler, that fall rarity, I had three times--once each at Sandy Hook, IBSP, and yesterday at Palmyra.  Other second chance birds were Swainson's Thrush, and Gray-cheeked Thrush. The first Swainson's was on Reed's Road at IBSP. Yesterday at Palymyra the park was awash in Swainson's (Jim & I counted 18, which has to be personal high for me) and we tracked down a Gray-cheeked Thrush that practically had a sign on it reading "I am not a Swainson's." 

Up in Beach Lake, Pennsylvania, Shari & I were thrilled to get a Black-capped Chickadee for the year. Since we rarely get above the Raritan, we hardly ever see this very common bird. While we didn't do too much birding there, I did find a few warblers, a Pileated Woodpecker, and our first Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers of the season. A week later, the sapsuckers had made it down to south Jersey. 

Toward the end of the month the sparrows were the show. I missed Clay-colored Sparrow at Whitesbog while in Pennsylvania (Jim's text set off some serious teeth-gnashing), but Lincoln's Sparrow at IBSP, Nelson's Sparrow at GBB were some compensation, and White-throated Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco (early) signaled the arrival of fall; the American Tree Sparrow I had at Whitesbog this morning on the OC side clinched it. 

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, female, backyard feeders

In the closer to home the better the bird category I have this little vignette: earlier this week, while reading on the patio, I looked up at the feeders (I put them back up a little more than a week after the bear incident) and had one of those "What the heck is that?" moments. Fortunately, the bird was happily chowing down on the dish of seeds and nuts and stayed long enough for me to identify it as a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak (our first of the year in the backyard, another second chance bird) and to let me get photographs of it. Aside from the Lark Sparrow at Reeves Bogs, it was my happiest sighting of the month. 

For the month: 166 species 13 year birds.

Counties birded:

New Jersey: Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean, Sussex

New York: Sullivan

Pennsylvania: Pike, Wayne

Species           First Sighting
Canada Goose  Whitesbog
Mute Swan  Brig
Wood Duck  Whitesbog
Blue-winged Teal  Whitesbog
Northern Shoveler  Brig
Mallard  Whitesbog
American Black Duck  Whitesbog
Green-winged Teal  Whitesbog
Red-breasted Merganser  Island Beach SP
Northern Bobwhite  Colliers Mills WMA
Wild Turkey  Schoolhouse Rd
Pied-billed Grebe  Brig
Rock Pigeon  Wrangle Brook
Mourning Dove  Whitesbog
Yellow-billed Cuckoo  Island Beach SP
Common Nighthawk  Whitesbog
Eastern Whip-poor-will  Whitesbog
Chimney Swift  Whitesbog
Ruby-throated Hummingbird  Whitesbog
American Avocet  Brig
American Oystercatcher  Sandy Hook
Black-bellied Plover  Great Bay Blvd
American Golden-Plover  Union Transportation Trail
Semipalmated Plover  Whitesbog
Killdeer  Whitesbog
Stilt Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Sanderling  Island Beach SP
Baird's Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Least Sandpiper  Whitesbog
White-rumped Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Buff-breasted Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Pectoral Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Semipalmated Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Short-billed Dowitcher  Whitesbog
Long-billed Dowitcher  Whitesbog
Wilson's Snipe  Whitesbog
Spotted Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Solitary Sandpiper  Whitesbog
Greater Yellowlegs  Whitesbog
Lesser Yellowlegs  Whitesbog
Laughing Gull  Whitesbog
Ring-billed Gull  Palmyra Cove Nature Park
Herring Gull  Whitesbog
Great Black-backed Gull  Sandy Hook
Caspian Tern  Sandy Hook
Common Tern  Island Beach SP
Forster's Tern  Great Bay Blvd
Royal Tern  Island Beach SP
Common Loon  Island Beach SP
Double-crested Cormorant  Island Beach SP
Brown Pelican  Island Beach SP
American Bittern  Sandy Hook
Great Blue Heron  Whitesbog
Great Egret  Whitesbog
Snowy Egret  Island Beach SP
Little Blue Heron  Island Beach SP
Tricolored Heron  Island Beach SP
Green Heron  Whitesbog
Black-crowned Night-Heron  Whitesbog
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  Great Bay Blvd
Glossy Ibis  Brig
Black Vulture  35 Sunset Rd
Turkey Vulture  Whitesbog
Osprey  Whitesbog
Northern Harrier  Sandy Hook
Sharp-shinned Hawk  Brig
Cooper's Hawk  Whitesbog
Bald Eagle  Whitesbog
Red-shouldered Hawk  Whitesbog
Red-tailed Hawk  Union Transportation Trail
Eastern Screech-Owl  Whitesbog
Belted Kingfisher  Island Beach SP
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  Beach Lake
Red-bellied Woodpecker  35 Sunset Rd
Downy Woodpecker  35 Sunset Rd
Hairy Woodpecker  35 Sunset Rd
Pileated Woodpecker  Beach Lake
Northern Flicker  Whitesbog
American Kestrel  Sandy Hook
Merlin  Whitesbog
Peregrine Falcon  Island Beach SP
Eastern Wood-Pewee  Whitesbog
Eastern Phoebe  Whitesbog
Great Crested Flycatcher  Whitesbog
Eastern Kingbird  Whitesbog
White-eyed Vireo  Whitesbog
Philadelphia Vireo  Sandy Hook
Warbling Vireo  Sandy Hook
Red-eyed Vireo  Sandy Hook
Blue Jay  35 Sunset Rd
American Crow  Whitesbog
Fish Crow  Whiting Commons
Common Raven  Island Beach SP
Carolina Chickadee  Whitesbog
Black-capped Chickadee  Beach Lake
Tufted Titmouse  35 Sunset Rd
Purple Martin  Whitesbog
Tree Swallow  Whitesbog
Bank Swallow  Whitesbog
Barn Swallow  Whitesbog
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  Sandy Hook
Golden-crowned Kinglet  Palmyra Cove Nature Park
Red-breasted Nuthatch  Whitesbog
White-breasted Nuthatch  Whitesbog
Brown Creeper  Sandy Hook
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  Whitesbog
House Wren  Whitesbog
Marsh Wren  Sandy Hook
Carolina Wren  Whitesbog
European Starling  Whitesbog
Gray Catbird  Whitesbog
Brown Thrasher  Whitesbog
Northern Mockingbird  Whitesbog
Eastern Bluebird  Reeves Bogs
Veery  Island Beach SP
Gray-cheeked Thrush  Palmyra Cove Nature Park
Swainson's Thrush  Island Beach SP
Hermit Thrush  Beach Lake
Wood Thrush  Whitesbog
American Robin  Whitesbog
Cedar Waxwing  Sandy Hook
House Sparrow  Union Transportation Trail
House Finch  35 Sunset Rd
Purple Finch  Island Beach SP
American Goldfinch  35 Sunset Rd
Chipping Sparrow  35 Sunset Rd
Field Sparrow  Sandy Hook
Lark Sparrow  Reeves Bogs
American Tree Sparrow  Whitesbog
Dark-eyed Junco  Island Beach SP
White-throated Sparrow  Island Beach SP
Nelson's Sparrow  Great Bay Blvd
Saltmarsh Sparrow  Great Bay Blvd
Savannah Sparrow  Colliers Mills WMA
Song Sparrow  Whitesbog
Lincoln's Sparrow  Island Beach SP
Swamp Sparrow  Whitesbog
Eastern Towhee  Whitesbog
Bobolink  Whitesbog
Baltimore Oriole  Island Beach SP
Red-winged Blackbird  Whitesbog
Brown-headed Cowbird  35 Sunset Rd
Common Grackle  Palmyra Cove Nature Park
Boat-tailed Grackle  Island Beach SP
Ovenbird  Island Beach SP
Northern Waterthrush  Whitesbog
Black-and-white Warbler  Sandy Hook
Nashville Warbler  Whitesbog
Connecticut Warbler  Sandy Hook
Common Yellowthroat  Whitesbog
American Redstart  Whitesbog
Cape May Warbler  Sandy Hook
Northern Parula  Sandy Hook
Magnolia Warbler  Beach Lake
Bay-breasted Warbler  Palmyra Cove Nature Park
Yellow Warbler  Sandy Hook
Blackpoll Warbler  Sandy Hook
Black-throated Blue Warbler  Whitesbog
Palm Warbler  Sandy Hook
Pine Warbler  Whitesbog
Yellow-rumped Warbler  Whitesbog
Prairie Warbler  Whitesbog
Black-throated Green Warbler  Sandy Hook
Scarlet Tanager  Island Beach SP
Northern Cardinal  35 Sunset Rd
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  Sandy Hook
Indigo Bunting  Sandy Hook

Great Bay Blvd 9/26--Nelson's Sparrow

Every year in late September I go down to the inlet at the end of Great Bay Blvd to engage in one of my more aggravating birding activities--looking for a Nelson's Sparrow.  This entails walking gingerly through the marsh, preferably at high tide so that the search area is a bit more confined, hoping to "kick up" (not literally, though sometimes when frustration is high, I'd really like to) one of these secretive sparrows that tend to walk through spartina like mice. They may fly for a short distance but then they dive down into the grass. And to double the aggravation, they look very much like Saltmarsh Sparrows (they used to be considered the same species), which behave the same way. If I should be so lucky as to have one stay in sight, what I focus on is the chest--I'm looking for a sparrow with blurry lines on its chest rather than the crisper stripes of a Saltmarsh. 

Nelson's Sparrow (you see the problem)

The tide was high today and I didn't have my muck boots, so there was a section I couldn't get to, but even with that there was big area to search, and I was seeing multiple sparrows jumping up and disappearing before I could get my bins on them. The sun glare wasn't helping either. There were a few I though might be good candidates, but I couldn't really tell. I saw two go under the walkway to the Rutgers building, but the water was high there so I couldn't chase them. Finally, coming back, a sparrow flew up and landed about 10 feet away from me. It had dived into high grass, of course, but the stand was just thin enough for me to see the bird for an extended time and see the blurry breast. I took a picture or two, which proves only that sparrow and grass in harsh sunlight are the same color. A few minutes later, as I got closer to the beach, I saw another bird scurrying around in front of me--this one was actually on the sand. But, of course, it turned out to be the less interesting (for today) Saltmarsh cousin. 

The cedar groves at the ends of both wooden bridges were chockablock with Black-crowned Night-Herons--I listed 36 but there could have been many more. They would fly out of the trees in groups of 5 or 6 then go stand in the marsh, while others took their places. Most of them were adults. Of the two Yellow-crowned Night-Herons I saw, both were immature--black beaks, tail feathers not covering the feet when they stood. It is my impression that Yellow-crowns have better posture than Black-crowns. You have to be of a certain age, like me, to think of Richard Nixon when you see a Black-crown roosting in a tree. 

As I was walking back to my car, a Peregrine Falcon alighted on of the crossbeams of the power line tower at the base of the bridge. Ocean County had workmen on the bridge, replacing planks, and one of them asked me the usual question, had I seen anything "good." I pointed out the falcon to him and got it in the scope. He seemed mildly impressed, but when I told him that it was the fastest animal on earth he was really impressed. And so was I. I realized that Peregrines are so common nowadays, that we take for granted what an amazing bird it is. A bird that can fly 200 mph. Just sitting there. 

For the whole road, 32 species

Mourning Dove  4
Black-bellied Plover  200
Semipalmated Plover  7
Least Sandpiper  4
Semipalmated Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  3
Laughing Gull  100
Herring Gull  25
Great Black-backed Gull  2
Forster's Tern  42
Royal Tern  3
Double-crested Cormorant  11
Great Blue Heron  12
Great Egret  53
Snowy Egret  32
Tricolored Heron  1
Green Heron  1     Bulwark
Black-crowned Night-Heron  36
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  2
Northern Harrier  1
Northern Flicker  2
Peregrine Falcon  3     One banded, but can't read band.
Tree Swallow  60
European Starling  50
Gray Catbird  4
Brown Thrasher 1     North of second wooden bridge
House Finch  1
Nelson's Sparrow  1
Saltmarsh Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  3
Red-winged Blackbird  2
Boat-tailed Grackle  21

Colliers Mills 9/25--Northern Bobwhite

 
I went over to Colliers Mills today, walking along Success Road, hoping for an "interesting" sparrow. Those fields along the road, at this time of year, often turn up big flocks of sparrows and every once in a while one isn't a Chipping, Savannah, or Song Sparrow, all of which were either on the wires or picking seeds from the grass. While walking up the gravel path that is perpendicular to the road and leads, I saw a shape on the side, hard up against the tall grass. At first, I thought it was just a stump, then with my binoculars I thought perhaps meadowlark, but quickly realized it was a  hen Northern Bobwhite. 

Bobwhites used to be released at Colliers Mills, but as far as I know, the only WMAs in which their release is permitted are Greenwood and Peaslee. I have seen in the past a hen bobwhite with a train of chicks behind her, so I consider this one to be part of a small feral flock that hangs on in the fields and woods. In other words, I'll count it, unlike a pheasant at Manahawkin.

The bird just stood there for a long time, trying to blend in with the foliage. I guess that's one of the survival strategies: If I pretend you can't see me, then you can't see me. Finally, as I approached, she slowly walked into the brush, stealthy, again, as if I couldn't see her even though I was practically on top of her. What I found interesting was the trick of perspective getting closer entailed. With most objects, the closer you are, the bigger it looms, but with this bird, she seemed to shrink as I got nearer. I think this is because binoculars give you a false idea of size and it takes a while for the "naked" eye to adjust to reality.  

Island Beach SP 2/24--Swainson's Thrush, Purple Finch, Lincoln's Sparrow

I heard someone say today, "Timing is everything," and truer words have never been spoken. At Island Beach today a propitious alignment of good migration weather and great birders yielded 3 year birds, 7 county birds, and a long list of 78 species, heavy on the warblers, which is what you're hoping for as you walk the bayside trails.  We started Scott's & Linda's trip at the migrant trap of Reed's Road and, as it does every so often, it lived up to its reputation. I know that by myself I probably would have missed a third of the birds we saw there because my head doesn't swivel like a ventriloquist's dummy and the Cape May Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, sapsuckers, flickers, et al, were in every direction.  I finally was able to see this year, thanks to Linda, a Swainson's Thrush. This is one of those 'second chance' birds that I hope to find in the fall if I miss them, as I usually do, in the spring. Then, Scott called our attention to the call of a Purple Finch, which sounded like it was coming from behind me--I'm certain I would have not recognized the distinctive tick of this finch had it not been pointed out to me. Sort of like Bobolinks, which are almost always called out to me by someone else--it is a sound I'm hearing but not registering. 

An interesting spot is the so-called maintenance yard, across the street from the park HQ--it is really a dump for broken down machinery and such, but with its overgrown weeds it can be a good sparrow spot and today it had the first of three Lincoln's Sparrows that we saw as we made our way down the park. 

Spizzle Creek was fairly active with herons, especially Little Blue Herons, both white immatures and lustrous blue adults, and one young Tricolored Heron posed for the group. This was the only picture I was able to take today--one disadvantage of birding in groups is that someone's shoulder or head is always in the way, especially for the birds I really wanted pictures of, like the Swainson's and Lincoln's, which were on the ground. 

Tricolored Heron, Spizzle Creek

Speaking of the ground, for me the most entertaining birds of the day were the three "walking warblers" we saw--an Ovenbird in the morning on Reed's Road, and then, in response to a text from Steve, the two Northern Waterthrushes and a Connecticut Warbler that we saw there when we returned in the late afternoon. While the Connecticut wasn't a year bird for me, it was a county year bird, and today for the first time in a couple of months, I was concentrating on building up my Ocean list. Not many shorebirds on the list, but one of them, the wheedle song of an American Golden-Plover at Spizzle, was a new one for the county this year. And it didn't cost me a traffic ticket to hear it. 

American Black Duck  3     Spizzle Flyover
Mourning Dove  2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
American Golden-Plover 1     
Killdeer  2     Lot 1
Sanderling  10
Laughing Gull  10
Herring Gull  15
Great Black-backed Gull  10
Caspian Tern  1
Common Tern  2
Royal Tern  1
Double-crested Cormorant  70
Brown Pelican  6
Great Blue Heron  6
Great Egret  9
Snowy Egret  2
Little Blue Heron  6
Tricolored Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  5
Osprey  7
Cooper's Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  3
Belted Kingfisher  2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  5
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  20
Merlin  4
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Eastern Phoebe  3
Philadelphia Vireo  1     Dump
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Blue Jay  2
Carolina Chickadee  3
Tree Swallow  100
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  8     
House Wren  1
Carolina Wren  3
European Starling  15
Gray Catbird  10
Brown Thrasher  2
Northern Mockingbird  2
Veery  1     Heard Kayak access
Swainson's Thrush  1     Reed’s
American Robin  1
Cedar Waxwing  50
House Sparrow  5
House Finch 2
Purple Finch  1     Reed’s
American Goldfinch  4
Dark-eyed Junco  1     Early on Spizzle
White-throated Sparrow  2
Song Sparrow  4
Lincoln's Sparrow  3     Dump Kayak Access & Spizzle
Swamp Sparrow  2
Eastern Towhee  2
Baltimore Oriole  1
Red-winged Blackbird  7
Boat-tailed Grackle  4
Ovenbird  1     Reed’s
Northern Waterthrush  2
Black-and-white Warbler  2
Connecticut Warbler  1     Drab with eye ring. Reed’s
Common Yellowthroat  1
American Redstart  4
Cape May Warbler  4
Northern Parula  5
Yellow Warbler  1
Blackpoll Warbler  1
Black-throated Blue Warbler  2
Palm Warbler  1
Pine Warbler  2
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1
Scarlet Tanager  1
Northern Cardinal  1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  3
Indigo Bunting  2     Female Reed’s

American Golden-Plover--An Ironic Tale

American Golden-Plover, Middle Bog

Every rarity you can expect--and a couple like Marbled Godwit and Whimbrel that you can't--had appeared at Whitesbog this year with the exception of American Golden-Plover. While I have this bird on my year list from our trip down to Delaware in August, I still wanted to "get it" for my NJ year list and since it looked like it would skip Whitesbog this year, I drove up to the Sharon Station Road section of the Union Transportation Trail in Upper Freehold where one had been reported for the last few days on the sod farm across the way from the parking lot.  

And of course, didn't find it for the longest time, until I saw, and here is the first irony, a birder I know from Burlco who put me on the bird. I got very good binocular looks at the bird (I didn't feel like going back to the car to get the scope) but it was much too far for pictures. Still, on the Jersey list. I had walked about a mile of the trail in between looking for the plover, but now that I had the bird, I wasn't inclined to walk the southern section, so I decided to go to Whitesbog for the rest of the morning. Driving south, there is a construction zone on Sharon Station just before it turns into Rt 539. It's a real mess and the speed limit is 35 mph.  I noticed that I was going 40 mph and slowed down but apparently, I didn't slow down fast enough (there's an oxymoron), and I got pulled over by an Upper Freehold cop who claimed I zoomed by him (I didn't zoom) and kindly gave me a ticket for "Failure to Obey Signs, Signals, or Directions." I say "kindly" because while the infraction costs $55, there are no points on my license. But that certainly put a damper on the day. 

When I finally got to Whitesbog I was not in the best of moods. I walked out on to the dam of Middle Bog, put up my bins and saw semiplo, semiplo, semiplo...not a semiplo. It was...a juvenile AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER! Which I immediately lost as it flew from one side of Cranberry Run to the other. After about 5 minutes I relocated the bird on the mud flats. It had all the right field marks, so I put it on the alert and hung around for about an hour while a few other birders (it is a workday for most) arrived and I was able to put them on the bird. 

So, the moral of this story is, had I just gone to Whitesbog, as I have almost every day for the last month and half, I would have put the bird on my Jersey list and saved myself the aggravation of getting a $55 fine plus a $1.65 "service fee" for paying online. 

Bear Aftermath

 The question was whether I'd have any feeders to take in. Fortunately, most of them were empty and survived. Unfortunately, this one, an expensive "Squirrel Buster" freshly filled up with about $10 worth of cracked sunflower seeds, didn't. I wonder what my insurance deductible on bird feeders is? 

I just noticed a little while ago that the pine tree from which this feeder was hanging had two branches broken, each hanging on by splinters. 

Of course, Shari thinks we should name the bear. I hope never to see it again, but I proposed the non-binary name of "Eleven." 

Guess I Have to Take in the Bird Feeders Tomorrow

If we have any left in the morning.

Our backyard tonight:

Supposedly, there are bears in every county in New Jersey, but I never expected one to wander out of the Whiting WMA and plunk down in our backyard, swatting at the bird feeders. It looks very comfortable out there, 10 feet away from the house. Shari opened the window and played the kazoo to see if that would scare it off; didn't seem to bother the bear as much as it bothered me. And I thought the squirrel that ran into the garage this afternoon was a problem. 

 

Whitesbog 9/5--Baird's Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpiper

At Whitesbog, as they used to say on Top 40 radio: The hits just keep on coming. 

I was there pre-dawn again, trying once more for a sweep of the nocturnal 4 (screech, horned, whip, nighthawk) but only got two (screech, in a new spot, whips in the usual areas), and met up with Jim. It's been our experience that scoping the bogs early is not all that productive; for some reason, perhaps because they're diurnal migrants, the shorebirds tend to pop up mid-morning, We know there were going to be other birders coming (the state of Middle Bog is almost perfect in it ratio of mud flats to water), so our strategy was to take our walk around the Village and in Ditch Meadow, and let them do the heavy scoping. If they found anything, they'd call. They called.

We'd had a goodly number of birds, though probably the most interesting was a Northern Waterthrush at the entrance to the boardwalk trail, exactly where I found one a year ago. We were halfway around the big pond in Ditch Meadow when Matt phoned Jim: Baird's Sandpiper. Of the so-called grasspipers, this is probably the most sought after one in NJ, since they have a short migration window, and the state is not really on their migration flyway. Only a scant number of juveniles show up. What was surprising, to me, was that the bird was not in the Lower Bog (where there was one last year) which has nice grassy areas, but in Middle Bog where the only vegetation is dying water lilies and grassy clumps on some of the sand humps. Ditch Meadow is only about a 10-minute walk from the bogs, but in that time a car had driven up one of the dams and flushed the bird away. Matt & Tom were trying to relocate when we met up with them. Middle Bog is only twenty acres, I've been told, though I find this hard to believe it is that large, even without a concept of what an acre is, but it is big enough to hide a little bird among other feeding sandpipers. 

Jim and I got our scopes from our vehicles and started scanning the east end of the bog. To add to the confusion, there were 3 White-rumped Sandpipers today, which can look very much like a Baird's, especially to someone, like me, who sees maybe one a year. We thought we had a candidate (turned out to be White-rumped) when the bird was relocated down on the west end of the bog. Once it was refound, it stayed put, despite traffic and the arrival of more birders. Again, it seemed surprising to me that it was not only not in grass, it wasn't even on mud, but spent the entire time I observed it picking at the water, often dipping its head below the surface. Maybe I shouldn't take this "grasspiper" thing too literally. 

Whitesbog is only missing one of the expected rarities (American Golden-Plover) this season and I'll be going there tomorrow hoping that the predicted bad weather brings one in while at the same time that the weather is not so bad that I can't stand birding in it. 

Reeves Bogs 9/4--Lark Sparrow

Lark Sparrow, Reeves Bogs
Photo © Jim Schill

I bird the same places a lot, with the hope that once in a while I'll get a surprise. This morning, Reeves Bogs was barely keeping my interest and I was thinking that at least I was getting in a long walk. I had circled the bogs and walked some of the wooded roads and was probably 3/4 finished with the place when I got to the road that leads back to parking area. I saw a sparrow in a bush, saw a white dot in a brown patch on its face and immediately I knew that it was a Lark Sparrow. I saw it clearly, fairly close for about 10 seconds, then got another look for a few more seconds before it dove deeper into the bush. 

Now the problems began. Despite searching around the area for about 15 minutes, the bird would not reappear. I had no photographs. Pishing didn't work, although I did call in catbirds, yellowthroats, and a Red-breasted Nuthatch. Was I absolutely positive it was a Lark Sparrow and not a weird Song Sparrow, which I heard chipping down the road? I dropped at pin on my phone and thought about the bird as I walked through the woods. Then I saw a Song Sparrow and I was 95% positive I had indeed seen a Lark Sparrow. I texted Jim with the dropped pin. I didn't want to start a frenzy as the bird was in an obscure part of the bogs (the entire area is fairly obscure, truth to be told).  Jim said he'd stop by later as he was at Whitesbog. As that was my next stop, maybe I'd seen him. 

I drove over to Whitesbog and out onto the bogs where I saw Scott walking with his scope. We were talking when Jim came up. Scott decided to go with Jim (Reeves is only about 15 minutes away from Whitesbog). So, I was thinking, "Sure, send two of the best birders in the state to confirm your sighting or else look like a fool." Actually, I really thought they wouldn't find the bird and then I'd have to decide just how confident I was in my identification. But they did find the bird and it was a Lark Sparrow and Jim was able to get good pictures. And I was very pleased. Year bird, county bird. I put it on the local RBA with a caveat about driving to the spot. You can do it, but don't follow Google's directions or you'll end up at a breach in the dike.