New Egypt 1/19--Pileated Woodpecker

I'll have to find a new nemesis bird for Ocean County, because this morning, after innumerable trips to the environs of New Egypt over the last couple of years, I finally tracked down a Pileated Woodpecker. I'd already gone to the Plumsted Recreational Park (New Egypt is part of Plumsted) a few times this year where the woodpeckers had been seen in the past, but this year I noticed that one birder was posting them as being in "North New Egypt." 

A little investigation with Google Street View showed that his location was actually on the Ocean County extension of the Union Transportation Trail which follows a power line cut laid down on the old right of way of the milk train that used to run from New Egypt to Cream Ridge. I took a chance and parked in a lot behind an Ace Hardware store, next to some charity bins. I didn't see any signs that said, "No Parking." This section, like the section a little farther north, is not finished with gravel like the Monmouth County section, but rather is just a mowed strip between bushes and tangles on one side and woods on the other. After passing through a short alley of abandoned truck trailers, I started up the trail, where a gigantic flock of Common Grackles were kretzing in the treetops. A little farther on a flock of White-throated Sparrows scared up from the bushes, and then I saw a big woodpecker fly across the trail, landing somewhere in the woods. I was pretty certain that was my bird, but the first two woodpeckers on tree trunks that I glassed were just a Red-bellied Woodpecker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. But then, raising my binoculars to the height of the flight, there atop the bare tree was the huge black and white woodpecker with a red crest. Success at last! I moved up, hoping to get a better angle on the bird and maybe even a photo op, but, as so often happens, changing position lost me the bird. Still, I saw it, big as life. 

Pileated Woodpecker is rarely rare in NJ counties, but here in Ocean only the northern part of the county has suitable habitat. I guess they don't like pines. I've seen them all around Ocean: Burlco, Mercer, Monmouth, Middlesex, up norther in Warren & Somerset, down south in Cape May, but finding one here was starting to seem like my life's work. Lucky is that birder who made a video of one in his backyard in New Egypt. 

The rest of the morning was spent walking around Colliers Mills, which was full of sparrows and not much else. No good pictures today except for these two birds I can't count. I'm wondering what kind of pet an ostrich makes and why you'd want two.

Across from Colliers Mills on Hawkin Road. 

Pemberton MUA 12/14--Sandhill Crane

Not much to say about today's year bird: Veni, vidi, ego got infectum. By the time I was halfway to the fields around the Pemberton Municipal Utilities Authority, the forecast rain had begun. I pulled into the gravel driveway off Fort Dix Road, took out my bins, scanned, and there, as they were last year, were 3 Sandhill Cranes in the fields beyond the corn stubble. I stood in the rain (thus infectum) with my scope just long enough to get a couple of truly crappy doc digiscope photos and then left. I tried to get a better look at them from the Pemberton Early Childhood Education Center off a road on the opposite side of the field but I couldn't figure out the proper angle and driving around a school with optics is pretty much frowned upon. So I went back, looked again, admired them through the raindrops for a few more minutes and came home as the rain became steadier. 

Sandhill Cranes use to be regulars in New Egypt, but the last time I went by the field, a week ago, it was so overgrown that even had they been in there, you'd never see them despite their great height. I guess this spot (not too very far away actually as the crane flies) may become the go to spot for finding cranes in NJ if one isn't inclined to search the stubble fields around Zarepath in Somerset County, where despite numerous trips, I have never had any luck. 

New Egypt 12/24--Sandhill Crane

My first (and probably last) year bird of the month. I have had a difficult yet ultimately rewarding relationship with Sandhill Cranes in New Jersey. It was after I got fed up with going to Somerset County to look for the flock that everyone else seems to find with no problem that Shari and I went to New Egypt to look for the cranes in the cattle pasture and stumbled upon the Northern Lapwings a few years ago. I have yet to find them in Somerset County, where again they were reported off and on the last few months; in fact, this year, I didn't even try. Nor have I ever seen them in Salem County, though I don't get to Salem County much. I have hunted for them along a road in Monmouth County: no dice. I have been back to the New Egypt pastures a number of times this year, superstitiously looking for the cranes of old and of course, have not seen them.

So, when I saw that Scott, fresh from our sighting of the Greater White-fronted Geese yesterday, had found 2 cranes in a field in New Egypt, a couple of miles north, as the crane flies, from the pasture, I determined to make a pass of that field this morning. There wasn't much traffic on the road, so I drove slowly, looking into the empty fields. When I saw a few puddles in the field, I mentally noted that they might be worth a look next fall for grasspipers--getting grasspipers in Ocean County is always preferable to Monmouth or Mercer.

I looked into my rear view mirror and damn! a truck was coming up on me pretty quickly. Just as I stepped on the gas, I saw something standing up in the field. I pulled over to the shoulder, put the bins up, and there they were--one feeding, one keeping watch. They were certainly cranes, but after I looked at them for a while I was bothered that they had no red caps. Instead their faces and foreheads were black. Could they be a hybrid with Common Crane; it is not unknown to occur in New Jersey. My Sibley's wasn't much help, but later, at home, I saw that immature birds have the black facial pattern, so I was relieved that the sighting was legit.

I didn't put out an alert, because, as I was looking at Sibley's, the birds disappeared. Whether flew off or walked into the woods I don't know. They seemed to get a little nervous when I scoped them. Cranes are in the area, but there a lot of fields to look at.