Reed Sod Farm 9/6--American Golden-Plover

A quiet Sunday morning seemed the perfect time to check out one of the sod farms in Monmouth County. I gravitate to the Reed property on Old York Road because it is adjacent to the Union Transportation Trail and it has the best viewing of any of the other sod farms in the area in terms of not getting your ass swiped off by a passing truck. And since I have spent more time there than any of the other farms, I have had more luck there than any of the other farms. 

But I was dismayed when I pulled into the UTT parking lot across the road from the farm and saw that the field was 5 feet high in weeds--no sod, no dirt. This didn't look promising, so instead of taking my scope, I just walked down Herbert Road, past the house, toward Old York Road. There, I could see, was sod and some harvested areas. But it wasn't until I got to the pull out about a quarter of a mile down the road that I saw any bird activity. 

Most of the activity, I was certain, was from Killdeers--because most of the birds there are always Killdeers and I could hear their little Penny Henny yips--but one bird, more of a moving lump from the distance it was from me, was intriguing--I could see more black on it than anything else. I turned around, went back to the car, drove to the pull out, plunked down the scope and scanned. After a while, besides the dozen or so Killdeers and a few Least Sandpipers, I found what I was looking for--the black on the moving lump was the behind of an American Golden-Plover--the black extends all the way up to the vent (nice euphemism) on this species. The pictures I was able to take from two football fields away are barely doc shots, but they'll do. I thought the bird would be flagged "rare," and I was thinking how I would describe the field marks, but at this time of year the species is no longer considered rare in Monmouth County. 

I walked closer to Old York Road, hoping for something else rare, but the only activity was in that one spot. Returning, I scoped again and was surprised to find the bird immediately. Then I found another. Then, scanning a bit more the east, another. Having seen 43 Golden-Plovers last year on a sod farm in Burlington, I didn't think much of this count until a count of "3" broke the eBird filter. I put down my snotty "exact count" (it's even snottier when the count is "2") to explain how I had arrived at such an outlandish number and let it go at that. 

After that I walked on the Union Transportation Trail for a couple of miles--nothing new, and the only really noteworthy bird was a very late Veery calling in the woods north of Assunpink Creek.