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| Black-throated Blue Warbler, Sandy Hook
Any month with a life bird (LARK BUNTING) has to be considered a success and doubly so when that lifer is found in NJ. Along with that bird I managed to add 8 additional year birds to the list, some of them, like Parasitic Jaeger and Winter Wren tough ones (for me).
With the closing of Brig and fall migration underway, I spent a fair amount of time at Sandy Hook and though I never hit a huge warbler fall out I did manage to add some from that family to the year list as well as getting my first NJ Philadelphia Vireo there.
 Since I finally ran out of birds to list for Bird A Day earlier in the month, the birding has been a bit more, shall we say, relaxing. I haven't done any birding for the last two days because of long lingering rainstorm that seems to want to stay into October. My last foray was on Wednesday at Island Beach where, while the birding tended to be sparse, I did manage to get another look at our local mega-rarity, the Reddish Egret, which will occasionally show itself dancing around the sand bar that can be viewed from the winter anchorage. A very poor digiscope is to the left. I also came across a small flock of White-throated Sparrows along the Spizzle Creek trail which officially closes out summer and can even be considered the end of the beginning of migration.  This month I also added a new yard bird to our list (bringing us up to 93). The other day I heard a lot of noise on the roof and just as I was about to get up to investigate I saw a vulture fly down onto the ground. That isn't that unusual, but this bird happened to be a Black Vulture. There were a few of them mixed in with the much more common Turkey Vultures. I went outside to take pictures of the flock, which was moving around from rooftop to rooftop, but kept a certain distance as their defense mechanism consists of projectile vomit. Even though they are harmless (aside from the vomit), they are inescapably creepy, especially when roosting 'round your roof.
Turkey Vulture at sunset on Sunset Rd.
For the month I had 158 species, all in NJ.
Counties birded: Atlantic, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean, Union
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Showing posts with label Linden Hawk Rise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Linden Hawk Rise. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2016
September Summary
Friday, September 16, 2016
Sandy Hook 9/16--Parasitic Jaeger, LARK BUNTING
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| LARK BUNTING |
While I had never heard of this particular spot--the wood dump behind the old jail--someone had posted coordinates and looking at the map I saw exactly where it was. I headed over there after parking near the ferry terminal. When I came to a broken sidewalk, I saw, standing at the other end, Pete, Bob, and a couple of other birders I knew. They were silently pointing down to the concrete--there was the bird, a LARK BUNTING, feeding on the ground. I got distant looks at it with my binoculars, then decided to walk around the other side of the grove of the tree to get where they were standing, only to find out that the path Google had mapped out didn't actually exist. By the time I walked back to my original spot, the bird had flown off. I walked down the path and visited with my friends, but the bird didn't come back. "Bummer," I thought.
Lark Bunting is a big sparrow of the mid-west plains. This is only the 8th record for New Jersey. While the males in breeding plumage are a spectacular black with white wing patches, winter plumaged males and females are much drabber--sort of like female House Finches on steroids. I'm sure that if I had seen this bird on my own I would not have thought it a rarity. Yesterday I couldn't remember if Shari & I had seen this species in Texas. We hadn't, so it was a life bird. A life bird that so far I had only crummy looks at.
When I met up with Scott's group at the parking lot of Guardian Park it became apparent that many had come just for the bunting, so we all hied back up there. I thought that there was no way the bird would reappear with an army of birders standing around and making noise (humans are incapable of standing still and shutting up if a gun is not pointed at them) but I was wrong. After a few minutes the bird came out of the brush and started jumping and hopping around. It perched up on a fallen tree trunk and even with my slow-focusing camera, I was able to get some decent shots. I have to say, there is nothing like clear, satisfying looks at a life bird early in the morning to set you up for the rest of the day.
It also makes "regular" birding mundane. We birded around the area but it was essentially dead. Fall migration and we saw one warbler, an American Redstart. We saw a couple of Red-breasted Nuthatches which are having an irruption year. 2 RB Nuts, big deal. I had 7 of them walking around the Whiting WMA on Wednesday. We reassembled at Spermaceti Cover a few miles south to look for shorebirds and terns, and while we had Royal Terns, Black-bellied Plovers and oystercatchers, there was nothing there to set your heart a-throb.
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| Parasitic Jaeger |
Having met some others at the parking lot who had been out there without much luck but who, after hearing how sparse the songbird pickings were decided to make the trek out again, we all gathered at the tip with our scopes and began scanning a large flock of terns and gulls to the east.
All of us except one, who, facing west and the water, thought he might have a jaeger. 8 scopes swung around 180 degrees and there, flying for a moment before settling down in the water, was a large, brown, "gullish" bird with a light colored area around its beak. We waited for a few minutes before it took off out of the water and we were all able to see it's distinguishing white fringes under the wings and pointed tail. It then flew straight at us before settling in closer to shore. By now, birding apps had been tapped to life on our phones and we were all convinced that of the 3 possible jaegers, this one was the "default" species, Parasitic Jaeger.
Parasitic Jaegers make their living harassing terns for their food and this one promptly flew over the big tern flock and got them going. I guess its strategy was to get them off the sand and hunting over the water so it would have something to steal. Its flight was acrobatic as it chased a tern, swooping and flipping around as it tried to get the tern to give up some food. Eventually it succeeded, but not before it was chased by two juvenile Laughing Gulls (turnabout is fair play) who probably didn't know its reputation as a bully. The trio flew without 20 feet of us and gave me the greatest views I've had of this species. Usually, if I see them at all, they are little flapping flecks far out over the water that you can tell are jaegers by behavior and the fleeing of terns.
This bird put on quite a show to the point where I could almost consider this my real lifer as the others were "OK" birds, as in "OK, that's a (fill in species) because you have better eyes than me."
So a relatively dull day of birding was bracketed by two terrific sightings.
My day list:
44 species
Canada Goose 5
Mute Swan 2 North Pond
Wood Duck 4 North Pond
Double-crested Cormorant 20
Great Blue Heron 1 Spermaceti Cove
Great Egret 2 Spermaceti Cove
Snowy Egret 3 Spermaceti Cove
Osprey 4
American Oystercatcher 10 Spermaceti Cove
Black-bellied Plover 14
Semipalmated Plover 4 Tidal Cut
Piping Plover 13 Tidal Cut
Killdeer 7 Ferry grounds
Sanderling 4 Tidal Cut
Parasitic Jaeger 1
Bonaparte's Gull 1 Tidal Cut
Laughing Gull 100
Herring Gull 50
Great Black-backed Gull 15
Common Tern 100
Forster's Tern 1 Tidal Cut
Royal Tern 14 Spermaceti Cove
Rock Pigeon 5
Mourning Dove 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
White-eyed Vireo 3 Heard
American Crow 1 Heard
Tree Swallow 500
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 1 Heard
American Robin 2
Gray Catbird 2
Northern Mockingbird 1 Fisherman's trail
European Starling 10
Cedar Waxwing 1 Near Garden
American Redstart 1
Field Sparrow 1
LARK BUNTING 1
Eastern Towhee 2 Heard
Red-winged Blackbird 3 Wood dump
Baltimore Oriole 1 Wood Dump
House Finch 2 Wood dump
American Goldfinch 1 Heard M lot
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Linden Hawk Rise Sanctuary 9/15--Bay-breasted Warbler
I joined an Audubon walk led by Scott Barnes at this refuge carved out of the marshes around a dump in an industrial area of Linden. I have a sentimental attachment to the Linden, since my father was born there and I spent a lot of time with family there, way before my birding days.
I got there a little early and did an experiment. First I walked around to the platform in the middle of the marsh, seeing what birds I could find. Highlights: Common Yellowthroat, Black-and-white Warbler, 3 Palm Warblers. Then, going out with better birders, I was curious to see what I hadn't seen. Where I found the yellowthroat a couple of Magnolia Warblers appeared. At the platform, a couple of kestrels flew by. Woodpeckers emerged for the group where I alone had not seen or heard any. And, completely unexpected, a Bay-breasted Warbler was found by Scott high in a tree, occasionally appearing against the trunk in a shaft of sunlight giving it enough contrast in order for me to say, "Okay, Bay-breasted." 3 Blue Grosbeaks, that were brown (young or female) flew over us earlier. Another "OK" bird. A decent morning of birding (sure pushed me up on the Union County top 100 list) and only a 15 minute drive to have lunch with my mother.
30 species
Canada Goose 5
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Osprey 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Semipalmated Plover 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Rock Pigeon 6
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Kestrel 2
Blue Jay 3 Heard
Black-capped Chickadee 1 Heard
Tufted Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Heard
Carolina Wren 1 Heard
Swainson's Thrush 1
American Robin 4
Gray Catbird 2
European Starling 3
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 2
Magnolia Warbler 4
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 3
Song Sparrow 1
Blue Grosbeak 3 Brown
American Goldfinch 1 Heard
Canada Goose 5
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Osprey 2
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Semipalmated Plover 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Rock Pigeon 6
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Kestrel 2
Blue Jay 3 Heard
Black-capped Chickadee 1 Heard
Tufted Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Heard
Carolina Wren 1 Heard
Swainson's Thrush 1
American Robin 4
Gray Catbird 2
European Starling 3
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Common Yellowthroat 2
Magnolia Warbler 4
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 3
Song Sparrow 1
Blue Grosbeak 3 Brown
American Goldfinch 1 Heard
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