Jumping Brook Preserve 11/8--Barred Owl

Omen, a prepared mind, or just coincidence? 

Yesterday, while I was walking on a rail trail in Forked River, I came upon a birder I hadn't seen in a while, riding her bike. For a few years in a row, I went to her house to see a Barred Owl that had taken up residence in a box her husband had built. Using a scope, we could see the owl pretty well without disturbing it. And that was how I'd get my county Barred Owl. 

Then, during the pandemic, I didn't go and after the pandemic, it didn't seem so urgent to see any one particular bird. She mentioned that she'd try to text me on the GroupMe app, but I, averse to social media, am not on it. 

This morning, as I was walking on the entrance trail to the Jumping Brook Preserve, I heard what I at first took to be dog barking back on Cranberry Canners Road, but then it sunk in to me that what I was hearing was a Barred Owl calling. I listened and again heard the Hoot-wa and again. I didn't get the classic Who Cooks for You, but I knew for sure that it wasn't a Great Horned Owl. Nice. Another patch bird for the site. 

Actually, I listed two other new birds for Jumping Brook today. At the back of the side bogs I came across a lone Rusty Blackbird, and in the reservoir at the back of the preserve I found a single drake Bufflehead. 

I always wear my muck boots at Jumping Brook because I never know what kind of condition the trails will be in. Lately, even though there hasn't been that much rain, the entrance trail is slightly flooded from an overflowing bog. This is the handiwork of beavers, who are chewing through the trees at a rapid rate. While I'm used to seeing trees chewed to a point at their base and toppled over, I had never come across a tree chewed up in the middle, like the photos below. Of course, it makes sense, since the inner bark of a tree is, along with leaves and twigs, the diet of a beaver, I'd just never seen it before. 

For the walk around the bogs, I only had 20 species (it has been very quiet of late), but the owl was a year bird and a treat. 

Wood Duck  3
Ring-necked Duck  2
Bufflehead  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Barred Owl  1     
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  1
Downy Woodpecker  2
Northern Flicker  1
Blue Jay  3
Carolina Chickadee  2
Golden-crowned Kinglet  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
Northern Mockingbird  1     Cannery
Hermit Thrush  1
American Robin  1
Dark-eyed Junco  8
Savannah Sparrow  1
Rusty Blackbird  1