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| Summer Tanager |
As I often do, another Sunday morning in Burlco. Since Reeves Bog has now become impassable in three spots due to flooding and breaches, I went a little farther and walked along South Park Road in Tabernacle. This late in the season, I didn't expect much. It's usually a reliable spot for Red-headed Woodpecker, but today I couldn't find any--it didn't bother me since I've seen them any number of times this year. South Park runs along a field that once was a farm and bisects a typical Pine Barrens woods, both owned by a private hunting club, so you have to stick to the gravel road itself. I was hearing more birds than I was seeing when I came to the right turn in the road where I had decided to turn around. I heard a call that didn't sound like the usual warblers or vireos that would be in that habitat, so I turned on Merlin and Summer Tanager immediately popped up. I was a little skeptical until I looked up and right in front of me in an oak was the tanager. All red, no black wings, eliminating Scarlet Tanager (which I had seen back by the old farm), and a hefty beak. I got my bins on it for a little big and then it flew off to be replaced by a female--drab yellow, same beak. I was trying to get a picture of the female, which I couldn't, when the male came back and I switched my attentions to him. Finally, I was able to get decent pictures for eBird documentation, along with a recording of the calls. If both male and female were there, could they be nesting? There are records of Summer Tanager nesting in the Pine Barrens, so it is possible.
Unfortunately for my year list, Summer Tanager wasn't a new addition--I'd heard one last month at the Manasquan River WMA, but seeing one is so much better. But for my next year bird, I did have to settle for "heard only." After stopping at the Thompson-Wright Preserve, which lately has been incorporated as part of the Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve, and walking back to the sand quarry to visit the nesting Bank Swallows, I was of a mind to try find some of the many Dickcissels that have shown up in the county. I knew that they had been heard in fields of Pemberton MUA but having already walked 5 miles, the idea of trudging around fields wasn't all that attractive. I checked the rare bird alerts and saw that a couple had been heard along a road in Columbus, which was only about 20 minutes from where I was at Burrs Mills Brook. They have been singing in the field for a week. I figured if they were there for a week, and had been heard 90 minutes before, there was a decent chance I could get them too. I was half right. After driving along a lot of hyphenated roads and making a left onto Odd Fellows Road, I finally ended up at the pin on Juliustown-Georgetown Road. And there was even a place to pull off the road. Immediately I heard a buzzy call, but it didn't sound like a Dickcissel as I remembered them. Granted, it has been a while since I saw one so I pulled out my semi-trusty Merlin and it instantly returned Dickcissel. The bird was very loud and sound close by across the road. Of course, after standing there for twenty minutes, I still couldn't put eyes on the bird and since the field is private property, I couldn't walk through it to the little stand of trees where the bird sounded like it was singing. I only heard one bird, not the two that had been listed, but that was probably because I was stationery and not traveling up the road listening every quarter mile. I know one Burlco birder had 6 Dickcissels last week along one of the hyphenated roads, but I'm not going for the record, and you only need 1 (Laws of Birding #6).
For the 3 sites, 41 species:
Wild Turkey South Park Road
Mourning Dove South Park Road
Turkey Vulture South Park Road
Red-bellied Woodpecker South Park Road
Hairy Woodpecker South Park Road
Northern Flicker South Park Road
Eastern Wood-Pewee South Park Road
Eastern Phoebe South Park Road
Great Crested Flycatcher South Park Road
Eastern Kingbird South Park Road
White-eyed Vireo South Park Road
Eastern Warbling Vireo Juliustown-Georgetown Road
Red-eyed Vireo South Park Road
Blue Jay South Park Road
Carolina Chickadee Thompson-Wright Preserve
Tufted Titmouse South Park Road
Bank Swallow Thompson-Wright Preserve
Tree Swallow Juliustown-Georgetown Road
White-breasted Nuthatch South Park Road
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher South Park Road
Carolina Wren Thompson-Wright Preserve
Gray Catbird South Park Road
Northern Mockingbird South Park Road
Wood Thrush Thompson-Wright Preserve
American Robin South Park Road
House Finch South Park Road
Chipping Sparrow South Park Road
Field Sparrow South Park Road
Song Sparrow Juliustown-Georgetown Road
Eastern Towhee South Park Road
Baltimore Oriole South Park Road
Red-winged Blackbird Thompson-Wright Preserve
Ovenbird South Park Road
Common Yellowthroat South Park Road
Pine Warbler South Park Road
Prairie Warbler South Park Road
Summer Tanager South Park Road
Scarlet Tanager South Park Road
Northern Cardinal South Park Road
Blue Grosbeak South Park Road
Dickcissel Juliustown-Georgetown Road
